Let's talk about... water

What runs out of your tap is lovely and clear so it's perfectly clean, right? Sadly, wrong. What to do, and why hydration is an essential part of good nutrition.

Photo by manu schwendener on Unsplash

A walk in the woods, the smell of freshly baked bread, a long cool glass of water when you're thirsty, such simple things can make us happy — the latter being no less than the elixir of life! And what runs out of your tap is probably lovely and clear so that means it's perfectly clean, right?

Wrong. I'm sorry to say that a combination of old pipes, water treatment plants being over-burdened and ill-equipped to deal with growing populations, let alone the rising chemical toxicity of our waste, the addition of the disinfectant chlorine to the mains supply (in an effort to combat the above), in some places fluoride too, means tap water can be loaded with all manner of impurities, hormones, chemicals and worse. 

Of course, our national water companies are legally obligated to ensure domestic drinking water meets agreed standards of safety. And I'm sure they do their very best. But those standards do not dictate zero pollutants, rather they suggest 'reasonable

limits' for pollutants, including a group known as PFAS (poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances). Often dubbed "forever chemicals" for their extraordinary persistence in the environment, PFAS have been linked to various cancers and other diseases.

In addition to this, water treatment facilities are permitted to discharge raw sewage (think poo, condoms and wet wipes) directly into the sea after heavy rainfall to avoid the system backing up. It's a loophole that's routinely, and blatantly, exploited. To put it bluntly, a whole load of shit stays in our water.

What to do

Long story short: use a water filter! And not just for your drinking water, but also for cooking, especially food like rice or pasta which absorb the water. However, I'd prefer that you didn't then leave your newly purified water standing in plastic, which most jugs are made from; not to forget that the vast majority of the water filters themselves are also made of plastic. After all, we should be trying to reduce plastic consumption in all forms, and I've already written about the dangers of the chemicals that make plastic bendy, leaching into your water. (One reason never to leave a plastic water bottle in the sun, the heat speeds up the contamination).

Thankfully, if you search around you can find glass pitchers and purportedly some filters can be recycled (although honestly, I can't see how this is either doable, or verifiable). I use a jug from the Swedish brand Aarke, because it's made from glass and stainless steel which means the whole thing can go into the dishwasher to keep it hygienic. But also, it purifies the water using filtration granules that come in easily recyclable sachets (developed in conjunction with BWT, a company renowned for its research into sustainable water solutions)! Confession: I even pack mine when we go on holiday. Clean water matters that much to me!

How to stay hydrated…

Being well hydrated is an essential component of good nutrition. And yet I think it’s widely misunderstood. Bottom line water enables your circulatory system to carry oxygen and essential nutrients to all of your cells — the building blocks of your entire body. Our kidneys need water to filter out toxins and waste products. We need it to keep us the right temperature, and to help our digestion. In short, there’s not one single bodily function that would not be adversely affected by you being dehydrated. Here’s what else I discovered…

• The amount of water in the body of an average adult is 60% of total bodyweight for males, and 50% for females.

• Two thirds of this water is inside your cells (ICF: Intracellular fluid), one third is variously distributed about the body in blood vessels, organs, tissues etc (ECF: Extracellular fluid).

• In order to maintain constant blood volume and pressure, water needs to be able to move easily between these different (ICF and ECF) compartments. And this is managed by a whole host of complexity involving proteins, chloride, potassium and sodium. Suffice to say, your ability to absorb water is a function of your ability to absorb sodium; and your ability to secrete water, is facilitated by chloride. A balance between the two — absorption and secretion — is a prerequisite for life. Water-deprived cells do not function well.

• Luckily, your kidneys regulate most of this action, excreting any excess as wee.

• Children’s fluid requirements are apparently three times higher than that of adults proportional to their weight eg 150ml per kg for children vs 50ml per kg for adults (which would be roughly 2.5-3 litres/day for many!)

• However, the optimum amount of fluid to drink every day seems to vary enormously. I’ve read that 1 litre/day is perfectly sufficient for an adult, but also the following calculation: your weight in kg x 0.033 = litres/day, which would be much more. Personally, I think checking the colour of your wee is a good indication of how hydrated you are: clear pale yellow is what we’re after. Darker, or more orange, you need to drink up! Think six normal-sized glassfuls at a minimum.

• But, good to know is that we absorb about 1 litre water/day directly from solid food, and roughly another 400ml from the oxidation of hydrogen in our food. So, this tallies with the guides above if we assume the latter calculation is total amount and the former, pure liquid.

• If it’s hot, you exercise or sweat a lot (or have a fever or diarrhoea) you need to drink more. If you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.

• Our ability to feel thirsty is governed by a hormone which falters as we age, so older people are more at risk of dehydration. Likewise if you’re ill, or otherwise incapacitated. Interestingly, this hormone can also be suppressed by the lithium based drugs used to treat bipolar disorder. So anyone with this diagnosis needs to consciously monitor their water intake as their body won’t necessarily do it for them.

• Likewise, alcohol dehydrates because it switches off the antidiuretic hormone in the brain, so kidney function is impaired. This means you wee your alcohol out but your kidneys do not absorb back the water they need, ergo rapid dehydration and thumping headache.

• Finally not all fluids are created equal. Pure, filtered water is your go to for healthy hydration. Otherwise, water bottled in glass, rather than plastic. Caffeinated coffee and tea are both diuretics, meaning they’ll just make you pee more, as opposed to fully hydrate you. Fruit juices, colas and other sweet or fizzy beverages may provide you with fluids, but also the negative downstream effects of caffeine and sugar (or sweeteners) and should therefore be limited. PS the rationale behind a slice of lemon in your water is because lemon, contrary perhaps to expectations, is alkalising, not acidic, so good for your general internal ph balance!