Alkaline Water

Next to oxygen, water is the most essential substance to life. It makes up the vast majority of our cells, organs and therefore whole body. Quite simply, the easiest way to help combat over-acidity in the body is to drink alkaline water.

Good bodily hydration is about drinking the correct amount of pure, clean water each day to meet our own individual bodily needs. The amount of water required varies from person to person and is dependent largely on weight, activity levels and climate.

For example, if you are a tall, heavy, muscular man who works out a lot and lives in a hot country, you’ll require a lot more water than a small lady who works in an office and is not particularly active.

That said, so many people these days are chronically dehydrated, regardless of any differing factors that affect hydration needs. A small, inactive woman still requires at least two litres/four pints of water each day. The muscular man probably needs more like four or five litres each day.

Drinking water is beautiful. It’s one of the kindest, most lovely things you can do for your body and mind.

Everything that happens in our bodies requires water – respiration, digestion, urination, sweating, anabolic and catabolic processes (building up and breaking down of tissue, fat and muscle). That is to say that all of these processes dehydrate us. Furthermore, much of what we consume in the standard western/American diet (known rather fittingly as ‘SAD’) also dehydrates us – coffee, tea, breads, grains, meat, dairy, processed foods all take away water from our cells.

The key to pure hydration is based around three things: quantity, quality and regularity of drinking water.

Quality of Water – the Benefits of Alkaline Water

Not all water is created equal. Tap water almost always contains lots of toxins and heavy metals that are not good for us and can be very dangerous to health, for example Chlorine and Fluorine compounds. These make the water acidic.

In the UK and US, many parts of the country’s water is fluorinated and, despite what dentists and the media will have us believe, fluoride is not good for our teeth and is in fact very toxic to our bodies.

Man-made fluoride actually leads to fluoridosis, a condition that is marked by stained and weakened hole-filled teeth. Notably, in Europe and US communities where there is no water fluoridation, cavities are less than in fluoridated US communities.

Even worse, fluoride can result in hyperactivity and/or lethargy, arthritis, lowered thyroid function, lowered IQ, dementia, disrupted immune system, genetic damage, cell death, cancers, deactivated essential enzymes and lower life span.

Therefore, drinking acidic tap water is out – unless you are happy to live with below par health & risk the longer-term consequences.

Bottled water may taste better than tap water in many cases but it still contains impurities and can often contain chemicals and oestrogens from the plastic bottles they are stored in.

We need to be drinking pure and alkaline water – water that is above pH7. Pure water that has not been tampered with in any way is naturally oxygenated and around this pH. Since it is near impossible to find water, other than very pure spring water, that is naturally alkaline and free from pollutants, it is best to ‘make’ our own alkaline water.

There are many benefits of alkaline water, the main one being that if you drink at least 2 litres per day, you are being optimally and fully hydrated, without all the toxins of acidic water from the tap. Alkalized water nourishes your cells much better and keeps your body in proper alkaline balance.

Read on to find out what alkaline water is and how to make alkaline water

<link to how to make alkaline water article>