ARE YOU STILL DRINKING BOTTLED WATER?
Somewhere along the way, “they” decided that we should drink 8-10 glasses of water per day. Americans, as usual, latched onto this with a ferocity. Maybe because it is an easy application of something to improve our collective health? Exercise? Too much effort. More fruits and vegetables? Too much work. But drag around an 8 ounce bottle of water? Hey! I can do that!
The problem is that there is very little medical research support on this concept. I’ve heard it said again and again that drinking water will stimulate detoxification (not true–we use the H2O molecule to detoxify, but water itself will NOT drive an enzymatic reaction and create detoxification). That it will curb hunger (not true–studies have actually shown that drinking water does not curb hunger).
I’m not saying we should climb Camelback Mountain here in Phoenix at noon in August without bringing water, but this deluded concept of keeping a bottle of water at arm’s reach has created far more harm than good.
First, the environmental negative effects are clear. Plastic water bottles contain bisphenol A (BPA) that is now clearly linked to diabetes and birth defects. The negative health effects of the high volume of drinking bottled water laden with BPA are too broad to be imagined.
I remain a strong advocate of unsweetened, flavored tea (Republic of Tea, China Mist, Tazo, Teavana) instead of water instead of drinking bottled water. The shift from diabetes causing bottled water to tea can have some substantial health benefits.
This particular study shows just how entrenched dogmatic beliefs about health and wellness become in our society. Participants believed that bottled water was safer and cleaner than tap water. Not even close.
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/archpediatrics.2011.83?etoc