Do you remember the stories about adventurers who risked their lives and fortunes searching for the mythical fountain of youth? The men in these stories believed there was a fountain where the water was so pure and magical that it could grant them eternal youth—if they could just find it. I can imagine what the term, “health potion,” conjures up in your mind, but believe it or not, pure water comes closer to being a genuine health potion that any other substance on the planet.
There is no magic involved, unless you use the term to describe the advanced technology and effort required to produce absolutely pure water in our polluted world. You have to drink an abundance of pure water if you want to be healthy because dehydration, or the lack of pure water in the body, has been a contributing factor in many diseases.
Water purification has become a major issue with our growing problem of water contamination. Did you know that the world’s water supply today contains the same amount of water it contained a million years ago? The volume doesn’t change; it simply recycles. Unfortunately, the earth’s built-in water purifying system has become clogged and overloaded. We have even created new contaminants and chemical substances that the earth has never before encountered. In spite of the problems we face with our water supplies, it is vital that we find reliable sources of pure water to protect our health.
When you talk to people about unsafe drinking water, many of them think of the Black Death, a plague that swept through much of Europe in the 1500s. It was carried primarily by polluted drinking water in an era when mankind was essentially unaware of the existence of germs. (It was also an era when the immune systems of entire groups were destroyed because their main source of food was lard—pig fat—pie. An interesting side note is that Jews in Europe who did not eat pork fat pie weren’t dying from the Black Death. In fact, a great persecution arose against the Jews because the victims of the plague thought the “healthy Jews” had placed a curse on them. Again, God’s Word is always right!) Others may think of remote locations such as Sudan, Rwanda, the Amazonian basin or the interior of Mexico, where modern water-purification systems are non-existent.
Everyone agrees that we need safe water supplies to live healthy lives, but very few people know the facts about the water supplies in modern, state-of-the-art America. Fred Van Lue, a pure-water advocate and technical specialist in the area of water purification and contamination, has learned that United States water treatment plants that handle water for over 90 percent of America do not have any modern technology to treat the water. The term modern technology refers to new developments, techniques or equipment discovered or designed within the last 100 years. That means nine out of every 10 municipal water treatment plants in America are operating the same way with the same basic equipment, chemicals and knowledge that they had 100 years ago!
The Importance of Water
A total of 65 percent of your body is composed of water; your muscles are 75 percent water. That is why it is so important for us to drink enough water when we are exercising—weight loss and sufficient water consumption are interrelated and independent. We always tell the patients starting our Eat, Drink and by Healthy Program or the Forever Fit at 20, 30, 40 and Beyond Program that the consumption of water is absolutely critical to success.
How Much Water Should I Drink?
I recommend that every day you drink at least half your body weight in ounces of pure water. If you weigh 200 pounds, then you need to drink at least 100 ounces of pure water a day. If you weight 140 pounds, you need to drink a minimum of 70 ounces of pure water each day. (When we go snow skiing, my wife and I bring water with us up on the slopes, and we drink water constantly all day).
If you drink that amount of water, you’ll reduce feeling tired or sore the next day, because you muscles are not depleted of glycogen. The same thing is true if you are going to have a really intense workout in the gym. Take some bottled water to the gym with you. Don’t drink the tap water out of the chlorine-dispensing machines—also known as the water fountains there. You don’t need to put all that chlorine into your body; chorine is a poison.
The Best Source of Pure Water
Once you’ve made up your mind to give your body the best water available, you face a bewildering set of choices. Which way should you go; spring water, tap water from the municipal treatment plant, reverse osmosis water or distilled water? All of them claim to be “pure,” including your municipal water authority. Should you buy water at the local grocery store, buy a device to purify water at home or pay a water service to bring it to your home.
People will often tell me, “Well, we have reduced our risk of chlorine exposure by buying bottled spring water.” The problem is that the bottled water industry is essentially self-regulated, and the government standards they are asked to meet are pretty lax. On top of that, labeling laws or regulations are very easy to manipulate.
The preceding is an excerpt from Ted Broer’s book, Maximum Energy.
Ted Broer, a university-trained biochemist, exercise physiologist and licensed nutritionist, nearly died of heart disease at the age of 27. He has spent nearly two decades studying the relationships between nutrition, exercise, disease and premature death. Maximum Energy details the top 10 strategies for maximized energy, along with the top 10 foods never to eat.
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