Article written by Gina Marie Burchell

Wild, right? 75% of us aren't meeting our daily need for our most vital nutrient, h20. It’s something less talked about then other wellness needs, but staying hydrated is crazy important to your overall health! It’s interesting to note that even though the human body is made of 60% water overall, each vital organ needs its own supply of water for peak performance.

There's more than one way to hydrate. We get about 20% of our daily water intake from various foods, fruits, vegetables, and soft drinks. Foods like watermelon, strawberries, peaches, oranges, cucumbers and lettuce are some of the most h2o dense foods out there. Still, the body calls for more hydration than you would probably think. Did you know that the brain and heart are made of 73% water?! The lungs are about 83%, and our skin comes in at about 64%. So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is about 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men and about 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women.

Drinking clean, nutrient dense water along with eating nourishing, water dense foods is a game changer for your overall health. Hydration serves a number of essential functions that keep your body going. Drinking enough water is crucial for the absorption and transportation of the vitamins and minerals you eat. It’s also responsible for creating saliva, aiding in digestion, flushing out the liver and kidneys, and so much more.

So why aren’t we taking our dehydration crisis more seriously?

The truth is, we aren’t taught how to be mindful of how our bodies feel as an indication as to when something is out of alignment. The disconnection poses a great health risk. Luckily, the human body possesses an amazing skill; the ability to self regulate. When we are hungry, chemicals are released from our brain to tell us it is time to eat; the same goes for thirst, fatigue, when we fall ill and a whole slate of primary biological functions. When you become dehydrated, your brain sends signals to the body that you are thirsty. Early symptoms of dehydration include things like fatigue, dry eyes, increased heart rate, anxiety, dizziness, brain fog, nausea, headaches, and dark urine. When we feel these things, we often confuse it for hunger instead of thirst. We reach for quick snacks, sweet beverages, or the most misleading of them all - caffeine. This leads to even further dehydration and a worsening of our symptoms. It’s been shown that chronic dehydration leads to feelings of depression and numerous diseases.

We simply wouldn’t be able to survive without the magical blessing of water.

But not all water is created equal. Unfortunately there are tons of things that pollute our everyday drinking water. Tap water might be the scariest of them all. Lucky for you we have a secret you may not be aware of. There is a website you can go to check out what pollutants are in your tap water! Head over to EWG and put in your zip code. Choose your local water supplier and it’ll show you a list of everything in your tap water and the level over the “safe limit” it is.

It will probably knock your socks off.

Heavy levels of things like chloroform, lead, uranium, nitrates, radium, and various antibiotics, fluoride, and chlorine derivatives are all swimming in the water coming from there. How is that possible you ask? Well, The regulatory system meant to ensure the safety of America’s drinking water is broken. The inexcusable failure of the federal government’s responsibility to protect public health means there are no legal limits for more than 160 unregulated contaminants in U.S. tap water. The vast majority of the nation’s drinking water supplies get a passing grade from federal and state regulatory agencies. But many of the 278 contaminants detected by local utilities’ tests are found at levels that may be legal under the Safe Drinking Water Act or state regulations but are well above levels authoritative scientific studies have found to pose health risks.

Here’s the dirty secret about government drinking water standards - legal doesn’t necessarily mean safe. That goes for bottled water as well. A four-year study by the Natural Resources Defense Council shows that 1/3 of the bottled water tested contains levels of contamination which exceed allowable limits. Bottled water can also be slightly acidic, which can affect your body's pH balance. In addition, single use plastics are a main source of pollution here on Mother Earth. Something to absolutely consider when making conscious choices for a sustainable future.

So where do we turn for a clean, pure glass of refreshing water?

Well your Brita system isn’t doing anything for you. Time to throw that in the trash. Other low cost filtration systems barely scratch the surface at removing harmful contaminants from your water. That’s why we can’t recommend the Kangen Water Filtration System enough. Kangen means "return to origin" in Japanese. Kangen water is alkaline water produced by Enagic's alkaline ionizer and water filtration machines. For more than 40 years, Kangen water has been used in Japan to help restore the body to its original, alkaline state. These machines can transform your ordinary tap water into healthy, fresh tasting alkaline drinking water. As someone who personally uses this machine everyday, I can guarantee that you won’t find anything more diverse than the Kangen. Not only do these devices filter your tap water, but they also produce ionized alkaline and acidic waters through electrolysis. These waters can be used for various purposes, including drinking, cooking, beauty, and cleaning.

Kangen water creates molecular hydrogen that acts as an efficient antioxidant that diffuses rapidly across cell membranes and can reduce free radicals, suppressing oxidative stress. Oxidation reactions in the body can produce free radicals, while antioxidants terminate these reactions. Elevated rates of oxidants and insufficient antioxidants in the body cause oxidative stress. A constant supply of external sources of antioxidants should be part of one‘s daily diet, to reduce oxidative stress and related damage. This is why everyone should not only care about the quantity of the water we drink, but also about the quality. Both are essential for our wellbeing. You can check out the different machines here.

There are alot of things to consider when picking out the best, most sustainable system to use for clean, refreshing drinking water. Take some time to connect with what matters most to you and your lifestyle. We hope you take a moment and check out the score of your tap water. It’s a great step in becoming more mindful of what you're putting in your beautiful body.

CITATIONS ~

https://www.kangenwaternationusa.com/
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256