Water

Plump up your thirsty tissues with a large glass of H₂O and wrinkles vanish faster than you can say ‘cheers’.

That’s right. No fancy gels, creams or topical agents can benefit your skin better than good ol’ water.

But what water?

Let’s see. There’s plain old tap water, bottled water, mineral water, natural spring water, well water, alkaline water, vitamin water, distilled water, reverse osmosis water, deionized water... goodness gracious!

Say NAY! to These 5:

1) Tap water: It's chockfull of chlorine and fluoride. Chlorine kills germs yes – but its byproducts accumulate in your body and are linked to cancer. Fluoride is also added to municipal tap water to help prevent tooth decay. Unfortunately, it can also damage your internal organs and calcify arteries and joints.

2) Bottled Water: Toxins from the plastic can leach into the water and of course the bottles themselves are a major pollutant.

3) Distilled Water: This one's devoid of contaminants but also of minerals.

4) Reverse Osmosis Filters: Here, water is forced through membranes, which have very small pores. Large-sized particles cannot pass through and are washed away. Unfortunately, all minerals are washed away as well.

5) Deionized Water: Impurities are removed in this type of water but so are minerals while bacteria and other germs still remain behind.

Say YAY! to These 5:

1) Water Filtration System: This type filters plain old tap water through several filtration layers. It removes contaminants like chlorine and fluoride, metals and impurities and finally, adds beneficial minerals back in.

2) Spring Water: Excellent – if you can bottle it from a fresh spring yourself. The bottled version is unreliable*.

3) Mineral Water: This generally originates from an underground source and includes minerals and trace elements.

4) Micron Filtration: This type of filtration system prevents anything larger than a micron from passing through. Minerals are preserved.

5) Ozonation: Ozonation is used in place of chlorine to kill bacteria. The mineral content of the water is maintained.

And the temperature to gulp all that well chosen type of water at? Room temperature, as our internal organs are at room temperature and anything too cold or too hot adds undue stress to these internal organs.

Bottoms up!

*According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), bottled water is not well regulated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which allows bottled water to be called “spring water,” even if it doesn’t actually come from a natural spring.

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Bev Bell is chief cook and bottle washer and she wouldn't have it any other way! She loves exclamation marks and her dog and her children and her husband - not necessarily in that order. Oh - she's also a Reiki Master Teacher in her spare time. Visit Bev's site @ www.sagewriting.com.