Source: KiddNation / Kidd Nation
One of my first posts discussed the importance of water. Now let’s dive deeper into this topic. (I have puns)
Almost all municipalities use chlorine to disinfect the water. This is necessary in order for water to arrive at your home bacteria free. However, the same chlorine that protects you against disease in your drinking water can also adversely affect your health in many other ways. Your intestines are lined with “friendly“ bacteria (I will keep reminding you how smart the body is). These bacteria assist in the breakdown and absorption of nutrients from food. Chlorine kills the “friendly“ bacteria, which can reduce your absorption of nutrients, and allow unfriendly organisms to set up housekeeping in your body. We NEED the friendly bacteria! (this goes for our immune system as well, but I suppose that will be for another post!)
According to studies published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and also Harvard Medical, consuming chlorinated water is associated with a 20 to 40% increase in the incidence of colon and rectal cancers. It is specific to those two cancers, which is telling, due to the effect of the destruction of the aforementioned friendly bacteria.
So, what can you do? Easy fixes! A carbon filter will remove gaseous chemicals, like chlorine and other contaminants, but it will not remove necessary minerals from the water. This is important, because your body relies on water as a vital source of sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, and other nutrients. Reverse osmosis and distillation units REMOVE these nutrients and are therefore NOT recommended. Bottled water is often demineralized, not to mention very expensive. In addition, bottled water is acidic. YEP. More on that in a minute. Providing filtered water for between one and three cents per gallon, a carbon filter is your best and most economical choice.
Alkaline water is best and I’ll explain why. Our bodies strive for neutrality (7.0 on the pH scale). All day every day we are eating and drinking acidic things. Coffee, tea, soda, bottled water, alcohol, animal protein, milk etc. If we don’t counteract that with alkaline foods, then our bodies are in a constant acidic state. Cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment and you guessed it, not so well in an alkaline environment. So… we need balance. Remember how I keep saying how smart our bodies are and how they are fine-tuned machines? This is not an exaggeration. In fact, it is a perfect analogy. Think about a computer as well. If you threw acid on the motherboard or any vital part, what would happen? Ok then. Can you be TOO alkaline? Yes, it IS possible, but unless you are a reallllly strict vegan and not a packaged or processed food, unhealthy vegan, it isn’t probable. To become TOO alkaline would require you to live on only plants and water.
Take away points: We need more alkaline foods and alkaline water to help our body stay as close to neutral as possible. I have been drinking alkaline water since 2009. I can taste a difference and go out of my way to only drink 9.0 -10.5. Ease in if you haven’t had alkaline water before…start off at 8 for a few days!
