The human body is composed of 50-80% water. Blood and muscles contain significant amounts, and approximately 95% of the brain is water. All body systems and organs need water to function properly, and will shut down without it. Most of the chemical reactions that take place in our body need water as their medium. Water is vital to life. We can live without food for a few weeks, but can survive only several days without water. It's essential because unlike other nutrients, water isn't stored in the body. Typically, everyday, we lose around 10 cups of water, just living; urinating, perspiring and breathing.
[...] Other foods that contain a lot of water are: romaine lettuce, tomatoes, watercress, zucchini, asparagus, cantaloupe, grapefruit, honeydew melon, cottage cheese, tofu, and water-packed tuna. On the other hand, there are some serious health risks associated with drinking too much water. People have actually died from this, and studies show a shocking number of athletes, especially runners, are at risk. Basically what happens is drinking too much water dilutes the blood's normal salt content, producing a condition known as hyponaremia. [...]
[...] In many cases bottled water contains plain old tap water! But if you absolutely must drink bottled water, make sure it's a brand that belongs to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), an industry group that requires member companies to meet standards that are more rigid than those of the federal government. Several paragraphs above I reported that for the most part, our drinking water is safe. While this is true, it wouldn't be fair not to disclose the negative aspects about drinking water also. [...]
[...] Lately; however, there has been much debate on whether the long-time belief that we should drink eight glasses of water a day, is correct. Apparently, David Yeung, who is with the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, and director of Corporate Nutrition for HJ Heinz, says, is not wise to force - or limit - yourself to drinking eight glasses of water daily.” He believes the eight-glass-a-day rule is too general to be appropriate for all people, and depends on a person's ability to retain water. [...]
[...] It will provide information about the quality of water coming out of your tap. Still not satisfied? You can test your water for lead, arsenic, microorganisms and other pollutants. Lead contamination can come from plumbing in homes primarily built before 1986. Arsenic is found in both well and municipal water collected from wells. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an advocacy group that tested water in 19 US cities, and has published findings. Home test kits can be obtained through PurTest (www.purtest.com), and Watersafe (www.watersafetestkits.com) for $10 to $30. [...]
[...] A survey of drinking water wells conducted over a five-year period, by the EPA showed that despite half of the US drinking water wells contained detectable amounts of nitrates, under of combined systems (community and private rural wells) had levels higher than safe limits. It was also determined that approximately two million people continually drank water from systems that violated the EPA nitrate standards, and over three million people used wells with levels above the EPA's recognized safe level of 10 milligrams per liter. [...]
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