August 2008 Newsletter:
Nutrition Matters
Tip of the month: http://www.byronkatie.com/newsletter_april_08.html
A neuroscience
researcher found herself having a stroke and describes it in this 20 minute
video – very moving and also informative for those who might have a stroke or
live with someone who might.
Water
A recent issue of Nutrition Action publishes an interview with Dr. Heinz Valtin, retired
professor at Dartmouth
Medical School,
debunking the eight-glasses-of-water-a-day myth. He claims that all liquids are equally
liquid, i.e., that coffee and alcohol are not less so because of any
dehydrating quality. So, if he is right, where does that leave us? How much water is enough water? And how much is too much?
There seems to be general agreement that
enough is when urine is not dark yellow (unless colored by vitamin B
supplementation). If you get thirsty,
that is an early warning signal and should be heeded. Too much is also a possibility, as several
sad cases of athletes have made known.
Sweating depletes sodium; large quantities of water after much sweating
can leave you without enough sodium to feel well – or maybe even to survive.
So you know more or less how to drink
enough and not too much – but of what kind of water? Tap? Bottled? Filtered? Distilled? Tap
water standards are set by the EPA, which claims that 90% of public water
meets those standards. The EPA will give
names of local certified labs, should you
want to have your tap water tested: www.epa.gov/safewater/labs.
Or you could invest in the Watersafe All-In-One Drinking Water Test Kit:
$20 at www.h2okits.com/site/1286521/product/WS-425B.
Don’t forget that your municipality is obliged by law to give you its
analysis of your tap water; but the quickest route is to visit www.org/tapwater/yourwater/system where this information is available
through the watch-dog Environmental Working Group. If you are wondering about filters, be sure
the one you get deals with the contaminants your water has, e.g., carbon
filters don’t remove chlorine.
What’s wrong
with bottled water? Three things: (a) it’s more laxly regulated
by the FDA (not the EPA); (b) a quarter of bottled water is tap water;* and (c)
between the fossil fuels needed for the bottles and the transportation and the
bottles in the landfill, it’s an environmental outrage! Many of us who want to
carry water around buy either a Klean Kanteen or Sigg bottle, lightweight and
infinitely re-usable.
* National Resources
Defense Council: www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/depth.asp
Other solutions? There are electricity-powered distillers
which catch the pure steam from the boiled water; and there are reverse-osmosis
filters, which tend to waste a good deal of water. Cost for different models run between
$150-$900.
Information
for this newsletter comes from the websites cited above and also from:
Consumer Reports, May, 2007, pp. 38-40
Co-op America’s Real Money, July-august, 2007, pp. 1,6-7.
Nutrition Action, June, 2008, pp. 12-13.
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