Hello my peeps! It has been some time since I have posted, and I feel that I owe it to my fans (Mom and Shawn), to do at least somewhat regular postings. While the topic of water may sound “bland”, my goal in this post is to give you a new respect for this life-giving liquid, so please hear me out. But first, let me begin with a story…

 A few years ago, we in Newfoundland were hit with an over-night huge hike in gas prices. People were out raged, and rightly so. As I was standing in line at the gas station one day, waiting to pay for my purchase, a woman in front of me was having quite the rant about this.

“Highway robbery it is! I have never seen the likes of it in my life. A dollar and forty cents for a litre of gas! What a complete rip off!”

I impatiently tapped my debit card on the counter, trying to give her the hint to hurry up.

“They should be shot, the lot of them! I mean, gas is a necessity of life, how can they be allowed to charge so much money for something we absolutely cannot do without? Oh, hold on a second”, she continued, “I need to get a bottle of water.”

She then proceeded to the cooler and took out a one litre bottle of Aquafina water.

“That will be two dollars and nine cents.” Said the cashier.

She smiled and handed him a $5 bill.

I was dumbfounded.

Why was I dumbfounded, you may ask? Well, just think about it. She just had a big rant because she had to pay $1.40 for a litre of gas. However, she had no issue with paying $2.09 for a litre of water….. SOMETHING WE CAN GET FOR FREE!!!! It made me wonder, if we could turn on our taps and get perfectly good gasoline for free, would we still be inclined to go to a store and pay for it by the bottle? It’s really no different when you think about it. How did we ever get brainwashed into paying for something that we can get for free, and thinking that we are doing our bodies a favor by drinking it?

Forget that you are throwing away your money by paying for bottled water, consider the other reasons for going to your tap. Let’s begin with the plastic itself. There is a growing body of research which links the chemical bisphenol-a (BPA), commonly found in water bottles, to a range of human health problems, including a higher risk of certain cancers, reduced fertility, birth defects and diabetes. (source: Neimark, Zandonella) You don’t know how long the water has been sitting in these bottles before it gets to you, but the longer it is in there, the more likely that these health-damaging chemicals are leaching into the water.  Not to mention, consider the impact of all of that plastic on our environment!

Now let’s take a look at the water itself. Companies would have you believe that their water comes from pristine source like this:

 

but more than likely, it comes from here:

 

Read the label on your water bottle.   In Canada at least, many of the most popular brands of water come from the municipal water supplies of Ontario or Quebec. Yes folks, that’s Ontario or Quebec TAP WATER. Sure, it goes through a filtration process, but guess what, we can filter our own water at a fraction of the cost by installing a water filter on our taps or by using a simple water filter jug, such as the Brita. If you are living a cancer prevention lifestyle you don’t want things like chlorine going into your body, but a simple charcoal filter, such as the Brita, will remove most additives and make your water taste better.

 

I, like many people in Newfoundland, am very fortunate to live close to a natural spring. One of the best things about natural spring water is that it comes from water that flows to the surface from a clean underground water source. So you don’t have to worry about filtering out the contaminants typically found in tap water. (But make sure it has been tested by health officials!) As an added bonus, spring water contains many minerals which are beneficial to our health. Have you ever had a swig of cold spring water right from the source? If you have, you will agree that it has such a clean, refreshing taste that is unmatched by any other water. It is much easier to get your recommended 8 glasses a day when the water tastes this good! Oh, and did I mention, it is FREE!

Remember this, water is the only beverage that your body needs in order to live. One of the best things you can do for your health is to drink plenty of clean water. If you really want to add a cancer fighting kick to your water, add the juice of a half a fresh lemon to at least one of your eight glasses.     CHEERS!