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October 10, 2005
The Truth About Your Drinking Water
No doubt about it, clean drinking water is vital to good health. Water accounts for 60 percent of your total body weight and 75 percent of your muscle tissue. It transports nutrients to your cells and carries away waste. Water is your body’s most essential nutrient.
But bottled water is also big business. A generation ago, no one dreamed that Americans would someday pay more for water than they do for gasoline, but we do. The multi-billion, bottled-water industry plays on the public’s fears of contamination. Don’t buy into the hype. It is possible to get safe water from your tap.
First, remember that water is not naturally “pure.”
In the environment, water absorbs or dissolves minerals as it flows in streams, sits in lakes, or filters through layers of rock and soil in the ground. Many of these substances, like the minerals calcium and magnesium, provide nutrients and enhance taste.
Our water purification plants filter many impurities out of our tap water before it reaches the faucet. The US Environmental Protection Agency monitors municipal water supplied for more than 80 possible contaminants. However, the EPA tests water suppliers, not individual homes. Contamination of water is still possible after it leaves the treatment plant. The greatest risks of contamination faces people who live within five miles of farmlands (due to the risk of pesticide contamination) and those who live in homes built before 1986 (these houses may have lead pipes or solder that can leech lead into your water). If you live in an older home or in an agricultural area, test your tap water.
Don’t assume that bottled water is always safer than tap water. Despite federal, state, and industry regulations, contaminants sometimes sneak into bottled water. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) conducted a four-year study, testing more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water. One third of the waters tested contained contaminants of synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. Some samples exceeded allowable limits under either state or bottled-water-industry standards. Want to know how well your favorite brand did? View the NRDC’s test results.
You can also forget the advice to drink distilled water. Long-term use of distilled water can lead to mineral deficiencies that can cause heart beat irregularities and hair loss. Don’t cook with distilled water either; cooking with this mineral-depleted water draws many of the nutrients out of food.
To read more about this topic order Al Sears MD’s The Doctor’s Heart Cure today
Posted by james at October 10, 2005 6:30 AM