The importance of water

   

Water is one of the most important nutrients for the body. It is involved in basically every bodily function, and makes up 70-75% of our body weight. It helps regulate body temperature, metabolize body fat, aids in digestion, lubricates and cushions organs, transports nutrients, and flushes toxins from our body just to name a few of its benefits. Our blood is also made of 90% water. If  we lack getting sufficient amounts of water our body reacts by using the already present water, like the water in our blood.  This action makes your blood thicker and after a prolonged period of time could cause clotting in smaller vessels like the capillaries. Not having enough water is linked to heartburn, headaches, and arthritis so make sure you stay hydrated.

Water keeps us nice, flexible and juicy.

There is no replacement for pure water. Soda, tea, and coffee can not replace the hydration that water provides. There are many phytochemical constituents in tea and coffee that are good but most of them contain caffeine which has a diuretic effect. Diuretics are substances that force water out of your body and sometimes if flushes certain other essential nutrients. People who are athletes, or people that do intense exercise, need lots of water.

Not only do we get water through drinking we also get water through eating. Our bodies require a lot of water so instead of   lugging a big water filled jug around all day, try using a smaller container and getting water through nutrient rich water dominant foods. Foods in their uncooked state contain high amounts of this liquid gold(water). A few of these foods are Cucumber(97% water), Zucchini(95%), Tomatoes(95%), Eggplant(92%), Peaches, and Watermelon. These juicy foods, like the majority of vegetables, contain a large quantity of water. You can witness this by the little cellulose that comes out after juicing them compared to the large amounts of juice.  When any of this water is lost in the preparation of vegetables, the nutritious substances contained are also lost. Over heating food can result in dehydration of that food. Eating too many overly heated and dehydrated food without proper hydration more than likely will lead to dehydration because it pulls already present water to digest the extremely dehydrated food- the whole food structure is damaged and little nutrition is left.  The total food value of vegetables as well as cereals, meats, and in fact all foods, varies with the quantity of water and cellulose they contain. Therefore the vegetables that contain the least coarse material are those that have the highest food value.

The number one symptom of dehydration is fatigue and 60-70% of people are dehydrated all day long. Too much coffee, tea, and soda, make our bodies acidic. In order to keep our bodies balanced, it has to flush the acid substances out, therefore pulling from our water stores and making us even more dehydrated. 70% of our diet should consist of water rich foods. Green fluids, like green drinks, help our body stay in a balanced alkaline state. The body must maintain a balanced pH level of 7.34 so drinking green juices is one of the most important ways for staying hydrated and maintaining proper pH balance.

The best water to drink is spring water. Spring water is water that is in an underground aquifer and runs out of the nipple of the spring. The aquifer is an underground storehouse that holds water that was collected over long periods of time between rock sediment. The minerals in the rock sediment is dispersed throughout the water as the pressure makes it seem to levitate up through the ground to make the hole that it calmly leaks through, which is called the nipple. Spring water is the cleanest source of water available to us. It doesn’t contain contaminants from city water systems, or pollution in general. A great brand that I like to drink is Pierre’s carbonated  spring water. Carbonation in the water helps with digestion and to settle the stomach. It’s  also a better alternative to dreaded mainstream sodas. On Pierre’s website you can read about its history and about the treatment of land around the spring so that it remains a high quality, clean, natural water.

Photo by @vampiretta