Drink All of Your Water the Easy Way

This is a tip for everyone, but is specially targeted to senior citizens who are not used to drinking a lot of water, nursing moms who need larger daily allowances, and you busy worker bees. Get a 1-liter water bottle and fill it in the morning. By the end of the day, make sure you’ve finished 2 bottles (for 2 liters or 64 ounces total). Nursing moms usually need more. My husband and I gave all our parents a 1-liter water bottle for their birthdays. This has really helped in their daily fluid intake. Please see below note about toxicity issues with plastic bottles.

As you may have heard, it is well documented that polycarbonate resin leaches bisphenol-A (BPA) a hormone disruptor in mammals. Polycarbonate resin is what most plastic bottles are made from.

Does this mean that plastic bottles are unsafe for use? We don’t know. Any contaminant has the potential to adversely affect a biological being. Is there conclusive evidence to support the claim that drinking daily water from a plastic bottle could cause health problems in adult humans? Not yet. And what about the effects on children? You can visit this article for more information about possible effects on children: Plastic bottle chemical may be harmful: agency.

Some research shows that the leaching effect increases over time which is a good reason to forgo bottled water and use your own refillable bottle. You can go to web sites like Nalgene’s FAQs to find out more information and to see what organizations like the European Food Safety Authority and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have to say. Just note that Nalgene makes money from selling plastic bottles.

What do we do (remember we worked in the environmental sciences) – we use re-usable plastic bottles daily and discard any water that sits in our bottles longer than 8 hours. Please research the issue and talk to your physician about any concerns.