Water Quality
We are made of over 70% water, so it’s no wonder that water plays a vital role in our health. In this lesson, we will go over how much water to drink, proper water quality, how to get quality water, and then a few ways to make drinking water fun.
How much water should we drink each day?
Health gurus everywhere will tell you the basics: we need to drink at least 8 cups of water per day (2.0 litres total). This is important because our body needs to be hydrated in order to detox correctly. Water flushes out toxins and hydrates your body. By consuming the correct amount of water, our skin will look younger, our brain power will improve, we will have more energy, our emotions will be more balanced, and we will be able to detox our bodies with ease.
You may be thinking that you will need to go to the bathroom too often if you drink 2L of water, and that’s really inconvenient. I hear you, I have a small bladder and I usually have to stop 3 times on any road trip. However, I’d suggest that losing your health is also inconvenient! Besides, it is healthy to take breaks and move around during the day anyway.
Does water quality matter?
100% Yes! Water is an intimate part of our daily nourishment. So, it’s important to understand the quality of water we put into our bodies.
You may be thinking, my city or town filters the water that comes to my house already, and it’s not like I am drinking contaminated water from a developing country.
Although it’s true that municipal water generally doesn’t have the live contaminants that a developing country’s water may have (like harmful bacteria and parasites), there are still three major contaminants which pollute our tap water.
1) Chlorine. Yes, chlorine kills living contaminants like bacteria and parasites but it also causes serious damage to the human body (which can often result in cancer). As a city gets poorer, they often increase the chlorine content in the water since it is a cheap solution for live contaminants. When chlorine mixes with even minute amounts of organic compounds (very often found in water), harmful by-products, called Trihalomethanes (THMs), are produced. These by-products produce free radicals in the body, which trigger cell damage and are highly carcinogenic, even in small amounts. Chlorine can also destroy beneficial gut bacteria.
2) Fluoride. Woo, it’s supposed to help your teeth… actually it causes a health condition called fluorosis in teeth and attacks your brain and hormones. Additionally, fluoride is known to calcify our pineal gland which is linked to our sleep and our sense of purpose and meaning in life (ancient cultures have referred to it as a spiritual organ which connects us with God). Still want it in your water? It’s in almost all tap water and even bottled water!
3) Drugs and Medication. What? There’s drugs in the water? Unfortunately, yes. Drugs, medications, and even plastic chemicals, like BPA, end up in our water. One of the most common is when people flush their drugs down the toilet. Most of them are too challenging to remove, and so they remain cycling in the water system and our bodies end up processing them. There’s not a large amount of them in the water, but it’s still there, and a small amount across a long period of time has a big impact.
So those are the main concerns in municipal water. If you’re in a rural environment, then you need to test your water and see what’s in it as it can vary greatly from place to place. One common mistake people make is to over-prioritize live contaminants and under-prioritize non-living contaminants.
Finding High Quality Water
Okay, there’s crazy chemicals in my water… now what!? Well, thankfully there are a lot of excellent solutions for you to equip yourself with. Before we get into it, Brita filters and similar cheap filter jugs don’t do enough.
1) Distilling water. This process removes everything from the water and leaves you with pure H2O. Although some rogue communities drink pure H2O, it is generally considered to leach the minerals from your bones due to its lack of mineral content. If you do distill your water, I recommend adding trace minerals to it; either with a trace mineral dropper or by adding a pinch of Celtic sea salt to your water bottle.
2) Reverse osmosis (RO) filtration. This process also removes everything other than pure H2O. So, again, you need to add minerals to the water. The difference between the RO filter and the distiller is that the RO system is a 4 or 5 stage filtration system that you hook up to your tap. You can use the trace mineral dropper or Celtic sea salt, or, alternatively, a remineralization filter can be easily added onto your RO system.
3) Other quality filtration systems. There are some water filter brands which have made waves in natural health communities. You can do research to find good brands, but two I’ve heard lots about are Berkey and Kangen.
4) Simple solutions. If you just want to remove chlorine from your water, you can fill a glass jar with water and leave it in your fridge for 24hrs, at which point most of the chlorine will be evaporated. You can also boil the water to remove chlorine and living contaminants from it. These are energy-intensive solutions, but they work in a pinch.
5) Travelling. Lifestraw and Berkey both have quality water bottles which can filter any water source while you are on the go. I consider this an essential safety item in case my primary water source stops working, or I can’t find water while travelling.
Creating Super-Water
If your brain is overloaded I will give you permission to skip this section and come back later when you want an even higher quality of water!
Until now we’ve mostly just been focused on making water not-bad, but there’s also things we can do to our water to make it really good! Here are some water-boosters to consider:
Water Alkalinity: Water should be slightly alkaline when you drink it. This helps keep your body generally alkaline (which protects you from most disease) while also ensuring your water has the proper mineral content in it (since the minerals help make it alkaline). Test your water with a pH strip or water-testing kit to see where your water is at. Consider adding minerals to your water if it is acidic or neutral.
Oxidizing Water: In nature, good water sources are moving and exposed to air and sunlight. In our water systems, they are generally in a sterile environment. If you want to give your water extra healing potential, give it some time to swirl in your glass before your drink it. For an extra punch, have it sit in the sunlight for a few hours in a glass container before drinking.
Intention: Dr. Emoto has done experiments showing that water formation can be altered when different intentions and frequencies are directed at it. This opens up an incredible possibility for praying over your water or adding other positive intention to your water before drinking it. This may trigger defence responses in anyone with a materialist reductionist worldview (someone who views this universe as only material), and if that’s you then I would recommend looking into quantum mechanics or convergence. Even if you are not yet ready to expand your paradigm, the power of positive intention is profoundly healing even just on a subconscious level.
Making Water Fun
If we are drinking minimum 2L of water per day then we need to enjoy it! If you’re not someone who enjoys water, or if you just feel like mixing it up once in a while, here are some natural flavour boosters for your water which also give you extra health benefits:
- Lemon oil
- Lime oil
- Grapefruit oil
- Slim and Sassy oil
- And, my personal favourite, Cinnamon oil. Yum!
All oils that you put into your water should be CPTG (certified pure therapeutic grade).
Next Steps
Choose the Customization Path which feels right for you.
- Ask yourself: does my water contain any chlorine, fluoride, or medications in it? If yes, choose a filtration system and order it today.
- Ask yourself: does my water contain any chlorine, fluoride, or medications in it? If yes, choose a filtration system and order it today.
- In addition to securing good quality water, do something to create super-water and to make your water fun.
When you went through this lesson did you end up reading the ‘Creating Super-Water’ section?
A. Yes
B. No
If A: I recommend the Impact Path.
If B: I recommend the Steady Path.
Inspiration Corner
Affirmation: I am so happy and grateful for water. I love drinking pure, clean water and I enjoy the feeling of it hydrating and healing my body.
Resource: Here is a list of documentaries on water which will help you dive deep into the topic.
Super Support
Any of doTERRA’s citrus oils are excellent options to add into your water. I’ve listed my favourites in the ‘Making Water Fun’ section above, but you can go crazy with your own water flavouring experiments! In addition to tasting good, these citrus oils will help detox your liver.
For my water, I create a water blend and then put a few drops of it into my water bottle (glass, ceramic, or stainless steel). Here’s the recipe that I make up in an empty 15mL essential oil bottle:
- 60 drops of lemon
- 60 drops of grapefruit
- 30 drops of turmeric
- 30 drops of pink pepper
- 40 drops of cinnamon