Got Water?

Other bloggers are blogging some really good stuff right now and I really don't see the point in me rewriting the same thing and posting it when I can just point you to their posts. This post about water is excellent. I've had several discussions with people about the reasons we need to drink water instead of milk, soda, juice and other artificial drinks. Her post covers several of the reasons our bodies need water!

If you don't like water, it's worth developing a taste for it. Not only is it what your body needs but it will also save you money! People often don't realize how hard it is on your kidneys to have to process other drinks. On the flip side, water benefits your kidneys by flushing them out. I also appreciate the comment at the end of her post about drinking with your meals. I learned that truth awhile back.

People often ask me if I drink tap water, bottled water, filtered water, or distilled water. I'll comment on each of these types of water and share what we drink.

tap water- what is in your tap water varies by where you live. For example, some areas have lots of fluoride in their water and others have none. Fluoride in your water is another whole topic so I won't get into that at the moment. You usually can find out the content of your water by contacting your local water company. You can usually find out the fluoride content of your water through a pediatrician or naturopathic. You can also purchase a water testing kit to find out the levels of minerals and chemicals in your tap water. You'll want to know things like how much chlorine, calcium, floride, magnesium, etc. are in your water. I've lived in areas where I would not drink the tap water but at the moment I live in an area that I drink the tap water some of the time.

bottled water- many test have been done on bottled water to show that it often is not much better than tap water. It's worth doing some research if you are paying for a bottled water company to deliver water and be very leary of buying individual bottled waters at the store besides the fact that the plastic bottles are quite a bit of waste and usually are not BPA-free. For a safe, economical, and less wasteful alternative consider purchasing a BPA-free insulated stainless steel bottle. We have this one, this one, and this half size design for the kids. These stay very cold for hours even in the summer heat.

filtered water- while filtered water is a good option and often better than tap in some areas it is still not pure water. Usually we think of filtered water as pure but it's actually not completely pure. Depending on the filter system it can actually end up taking out the minerals you want in it and leaving in the things you don't want in it. It's worth doing some research on your filter system as well. Usually the more expensive the better the system.

distilled water- What is distilled water? Distilled water is water that has been boiled and then the steam has been collected. You drink the collected steam. This is as pure as you can get it. Minerals can't float up in the steam so the minerals are left behind and the steam is collected into another container. I own a distiller and we distill about half of the water that we drink. My distiller is similar in look and price as this one but mine is made by Kenmore and from what I can tell they don't make it anymore. I want us to get some of the minerals from our tap water but have benefitted greatly from drinking the distilled water. When there are no impurities in your water, the water can work even better to detox your body. Distilled water is great for pulling out salt from your body. One way I've benefitted is with my carpel tunnel. It was getting so bad I thought I was going to have to have surgery like my mom did. I heard that drinking distilled water would most likely cure it and it did. It will start to flare up if I stop drinking distilled water from time to time.