Healthy living, it’s time to ramp up your home and upgrade your choices - Part 6
Healthy living starts with making sure your body is well hydrated and fed.
Purified water, as we have seen, is paramount to all body functions and overall well-being. It is also a resource we use constantly in our everyday life.
Every single day we use water not only for drinking but also for:
- Cooking
- Showering
- Washing
- Cleaning
According to the American Heart Association, drinking water is important for healthy living, even if you’re not doing any physical activity. Just sitting on a hot day or humid day can cause your body to need more fluids.
We also use water to wash our fruits and veggies, to rinse rice or quinoa, clean out potatoes or other root vegetables. And of course, we use water to boil pasta, make rice, steam vegetables and every other cooking need.
After cooking, you will eat them along with anything they have absorbed from water.Also, just like humans have blood running through our bodies in our circulatory system, plants likewise have water running through their vascular system. They absorb water through their roots and it goes ups the stems, leaves, buds, flowers and fruits. Just like water in the soil carries essential elements for the plant to grow, it also carries with it contaminants and any other substances added or sprayed to the soil.
It begs the question: what type of water was used to grow the fruit or vegetable in your dinner plate?
The same fruit and vegetable that you will eat, digest and that will ultimately impact your health.
Healthy living for your produce means healthy living for your gut
The most common concern for people that have their own vegetable garden is the effect of added chlorine present in city water. As we have seen before, tap water has a hefty dose of disinfectant to make the water potable. However, chlorine is not great for the health of a garden, because it is a threat to microorganisms populations that might be beneficial to the plant.
An easy way to remove chlorine from tap water to use in your vegetable garden is to keep water for irrigation in an open container. Allow this water to sit for a day or two in the open so that chlorine has a chance to vent off as gas and dissipate in the air.
On top of the chlorine present in the water for irrigation, according to a study by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, there is also concern for disinfection by-products absorbed in our fruits and veggies when later washed with chlorinated water right before sale, to prolong their shelf life.
Not only our fruits and veggies get washed. We also shower with city water
Have you ever smelled chlorine at the gym or any other place with an indoor pool?
Well, we inhale plenty of chlorine every single day while we shower.
If you are one of those people that love really hot showers, the high temperature only makes things worse.
And all that chlorine is penetrating your skin as well
According to Health Line, “xerosis cutis” is the condition of dry skin that comes from soaking your skin in hot water for extended periods of time. Xerosis cutis is what makes your skin feel itchy after showering.
Hard water, water full of minerals like calcium and magnesium, is also part of the problem of your itchy skin. Minerals are great when you drink them but they’re not so great when you shower with them.
These minerals make it hard to form a solution with soap, you need a lot of soap to make a lather, and so you end up with a lot of soap on your skin that is also hard to remove leaving a residue.
Children's skin is more sensitive and delicate.Just like you see your bathroom fixtures with a buildup of hard water and clogged shower heads, so does your skin.
Eczema and itchy skin is skin that has not been rinsed well and is dried out.
You’re literally squeaky clean!
Instead of silky smooth clean…
If you are sensitive to soap, like me, this will further exacerbate any sensitivity.
The usual tips are:
- Take shorter showers and with lukewarm water (instead of hot)
- Pat dry instead of rubbing dry
- Moisturize skin immediately after drying
- Consider oils to soothe skin
I’m telling you, you just need a shower filter
A shower filter will not only filter out the chlorine and all other contaminants, but it will also soften the water to avoid all the itchiness in the first place.
Did you know? If you were to use black light to see yourself right after
you shower, you would see all sorts of soap stains or white residue on
your skin. You would look like a dalmatian but the other way around,
white stains all over your dark skin. These white suds are called
“curd”.
Soft water from your shower filter is better water for cleaning
Give your skin and hair a break from harsh chemicals!In fact, soft water is better for washing clothes and dishes as well.
Are you making the connection between the white stains in your glassware after dish-washing and what might be stuck on your skin (the same white residue)?
Another example of how soft water, or using a shower filter, helps your skin feel so much better – and this is more geared towards women: have you ever washed your face with a normal soap, doing a nice big lather?
Your skin might have felt tight, dry and really flat. However, once you use a facial soap-free cleanser, that might not lather all too much, your skin feels hydrated and soft to the touch, your fingers glide on it – which is a good thing because the natural oils of your skin were not stripped away.
It is similar once you start using a shower filter, your skin will be naturally silky and smooth because there would be no more residue, so you would need some time to get used to this new “slippery” feeling instead of the squeaky-clean feeling(!)
As we have seen in this series, water is vital for life and healthy living
It’s not only fundamental to keep us alive but it also has a profound impact in our neighborhood, towns, cities, countries and the world at large.
Healthy living is our responsibility and let us not forget, we live in the “blue” planet.
Thank you for accompanying me in this six-part journey.
There is so much more that I would like to share with you. I’d be honored to have a space in your inbox, please subscribe to my Newsletter, the Health Fix, to learn more and keep up to date.
The great news is that there are solutions to this growing water crisis and I have access to them. And they are just an email away, contact me here, especially if you live in New Jersey.
America Heart Association, Staying hydrated - staying healthy, www.heart.org
U.S. National Library of Medicine, Presence of Trihalomethanes in ready-to-eat vegetables disinfected with chlorine, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Healthline, Itching after a shower, www.healthline.com
