Second only to the breath of life is Water!
78% of your baby’s weight is water. All of his or her bodily functions depend on it. For this reason, the quality of water that you give your children is of the utmost importance.
After years of drinking bottled water and cooking with tap, I finally came to the conclusion that I was defying my purpose. I knew that the elevated temperatures while cooking would probably kill any possible bacteria in tap water but in my personal research found that no amount of cooking could eliminate hard metals such as lead. This was most troublesome to me because I had also learned that lead in water was the #1 environmental threat to our children and that it could affect their intellectual and behavioral development. I consulted my daughter’s pediatrician who confirmed what the Environmental Protection Agency conceded to, that there was no safe level of lead in water, especially for small children. What is so frightening is that numerous homes have lead contaminated water due to old plumbing systems.
So what of the bottled water I was drinking and giving my little girl? Was it safe?
On bottled water, when asking Associate Professor and director of the Center for Water and Health at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Kellog Schwab, PhD, he responded as follows:
Dr. Schwab: “Consumers should be more concerned with the initial quality of the drinking water inside a container than they should be about the composition of the container. Many people buy bottled water because they do not feel comfortable drinking tap water. The truth is that tap water in the United States is more highly regulated and monitored for quality compared to bottled water.” In addition, the FDA requires even less standards for water that is bottled and sold in the same state, meaning that a significant number of bottles have undergone almost no regulation or testing. If this is not enough to keep you from buying bottled water then consider Bisphenol A .
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used in polycarbonate plastic bottle containers. Research has shown that BPA can leach into water from these containers especially when the water heats up, as when left in a parked vehicle. This does not just happen when someone forgets it in their car. Imagine the number of times this occurs while the bottled water is being transported to the local grocery store. BPA acts as an environmental estrogen and once it is ingested it can disrupt proper hormone functioning, alter genes and interferes with normal physical and behavioral development.
Armed with all this information, I took specific action that has brought my family not only better tasting, uncontaminated water, but it has also brought me piece of mind. Not only am I now saving a great deal of money but I also feel very good about contributing to the well-being of our children’s future. I no longer add to the tons of plastic waste in our landfills. One plastic bottle may take as much as 1,000 years to disintegrate!
I purchased a water purification system that accommodates both my cooking and drinking water and I now carry a stainless steel container filled with purified water to the gym and work.
If you would like me to forward you the different options in water purification systems, send me your request by way of the “contact me” tab.
