There’s no reason not to trust your kitchen’s tap water
- Scott Daniels: We Ate Well and Cheaply
- July 11, 2024
- 694
This summer of high temperatures keeps a single thought at the forefront of my mind: “I’m thirsty.” No matter how much water I drink, I’m still reaching for more.
Humans are major sweat producers year round, and it performs the important function of cooling us down. As hunters without fur coats, we are able to run long distances at a steady pace because we are able to cool down through the evaporation of the water our bodies produce. A cheetah can run wickedly fast but not over long distances without overheating. An antelope will tire quickly while the men chasing it can keep going, waiting for their prey to poop out.
At maximum demand, we shed between a half and 1 gallon of fluid an hour. Most of that sweat is the salt-tinged water we shed all over. Then there’s the oily kind produced mainly under our arms. This is the stuff that goes stinky quickly as bacteria are metabolized. There are relatively few animals on Earth besides humans who use water evaporation as a cooling system, but it works well for us, some apes and horses.
All that water soaking through our clothing and bedding needs to be replaced constantly. In this weather we must hydrate before taking on any physical task, keep drinking while we’re doing it and pump in more afterward. If you’re losing a gallon of fluid in an hour, you must actively replace that or risk dehydration, dizziness, disorientation and muscle cramps.
There was a period of time during which fitness experts insisted only plain water was sufficient to keep your body hydrated, and it was obviously false on the face of it. Iced tea and lemonade are flavored water, as is coffee. Soda also is flavored water, but that should represent a small portion of your daily liquid intake due to the sugars and other additives you don’t want a lot of. Any liquid counts including that which comes from your food, but pay attention to what else you’re getting along with it.
I’ve always believed, with no real basis, that a combination of plenty of water, walking, sleep and time can cure many of the ills we develop during our lives. In a doctor’s private office, I once saw a framed sentence on the wall that made perfect sense. It pointed out that half the work of treating patients was distracting them while their bodies recover naturally.
We’re creative in getting our fluids. Here we are in the era of the Big Dumb Cup, those oversized, insulated drink jugs everyone carries around. They’re a good thing in that we’re likely filling them from the tap rather than buying bottled water.
There’s nothing wrong with drinking bottled water; it’s the production and transportation of it that makes it a curious and expensive choice. It requires the production of an immense amount of plastic bottles, wasting resources and filling landfills. Water is so heavy that trucks are partially filled to prevent collapse, wasting space and the fuel required to transport it to stores, never mind the environmental damage from exhaust.
An army of well-trained people work hard every day to ensure our household water supply is safe. There’s no reason not to trust your kitchen’s tap water. If you have questions, you can ask for your area’s water quality report. You also can use a water-filtering pitcher for an extra measure of safety.
How much should we be drinking? A healthy adult in a temperate climate doing ordinary activities should take in about 15.5 cups of fluids a day for men and about 11.5 cups a day for women. That’s filling one of those oversized cups three or four times a day, but it’s also your morning cups of coffee, the iced teas with lunch and the soda on the way home.
Our climate is warmer, the sun feels hotter and we must step up our hydration game to adapt.