Healthy water is so important to life. When you have access to healthy water you enjoy better health, lower inflammation, and more energy.
There is much research about the long-term effects of drinking healthy water (and lots of it) during your lifetime! In many countries there is a deep understanding that drinking water and eating healthy directly affect the average lifespan of their citizens. Countries in Asia correlate the health of their people to drinking water as well as healthy eating, and boast life expectancies 7-years longer than in the USA!
So let’s talk about the definition of healthy water;
o Healthy water must be free of contaminants, natural and man-made
o It should have a neutral to alkaline pH so as not to contribute to excess acidity in your body
o Its molecules should be smaller in order to aid in hydration and its absorption throughout the body
o It should have a significant amount hydrogen molecules, so that it is ionized and strong in electrolytes
o It must have antioxidant properties
When we compare the above list with most water supplies available to us, not many satisfy all of these requirements, and would not pass the test in classing as healthy water.
In our modern world many pollutants surround us, and balancing our body to ensure we don’t become contaminated by them is more important than ever.
Over the last two decades, we’ve become more aware of the importance of antioxidants in our diet. We buy antioxidant foods, our fruit & veggie smoothies are antioxidant, and we take antioxidant supplements. But what does the word antioxidant mean? It is a very important scientific word, and not just a word that is part of marketing a berry extract.
There is another word we should consider. That word is “radical”… no, not the “Radical left/Radical right” kind of Radical… but still a word with negative connotations! In our body we have Free Radicals. These radicals may be worse than the political ones! Free radicals are oxygen-containing molecules that have an uneven number of electrons. Now this may sound very scientific, but it basically means these free radicals want to stabilize themselves, and to compensate for the missing electron, they damage our healthy cells by stealing that needed electron. This causes oxidation or oxidative stress on our body.
Oxidation causes a ripple effect of negative stress on our body, causing basic concerns such as early signs of aging, lowered muscle energy, issues with cognitive focus, just to name a few. It also causes big concerns like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and neuro-degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
As someone who suffers from neuropathy and fatigue, I notice the effects of oxidative stress in real time! This dessert-lover now turns down sweet treats after dinner because within a couple of hours I will feel the effects tingling in my hands or feet! And if I indulge in processed foods with too much sodium, within a few hours I experience muscle spasms or cramps from the dehydration. On one hand you could say that I am in a battle with my body to stay healthy, on the other hand I argue that my body and I have never communicated better and been in more sync. If I expose it to these unwanted free radicals, it immediately finds a way to let me know!
It is actually a simple fix to address oxidative stress. We need to do two things to help our body. Firstly, LOWER our exposure to Free Radicals, and secondly INCREASE our exposure to Anti-oxidants. Antioxidants basically have an extra, spare electron, so they can deliver the missing electron to the Free Radicals, without compromising themselves.
