Shockingly close results of a recent Wii "Everybody Votes Channel" survey
When water bottles were first popularized, Grandmother said, “Why do adults want to go around sucking on a bottle like a baby? Ridiculous!” We laughed about that, because Grandmother was hopelessly behind the times. The water tastes better, and we were paying for it, so it must be cleaner and healthier than what comes out of our city tap. Besides, we were all trying to lose weight and staying hydrated was an important part of that plan. How were we to stay hydrated without a plastic water bottle? A filthy germ-ridden water fountain? I think not!
Of course, that was decades before the studies showing that bottled water was just water from our city tap, that it was full of bacteria even more dangerous than a drinking fountain, that the plastic in the bottle leeched BPA into the water which switched our endocrine systems to “permanent weight gain” mode and before we knew where all those used water bottles went.
Come on, people. If you really can’t go the duration of a trip away from home without something to drink, carry a reusable bottle. Find a water fountain if you’re really, truly in dire need. But let’s ditch the plastic bottles. They just aren’t doing anyone any good and they are doing a whole lot of people a whole lot of harm.
If you haven’t yet, please go watch Anne Leonard’s The Story of Bottled Water. It is a real eye-opener.
As they sang in Guys and Dolls:
Follow the fold and stray no more
Stray no more, stray no more.
Put down the bottle and we’ll say no more
Follow, follow, the fold.
Before you take another swallow!
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
4 comments
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June 4, 2010 at 12:44 pm
dd
Most bottled water is bad for you, but telling people to drink the tap (if in America) is down right irresponsible and reckless, tap water is pure poison. Chlorine, fluoride, and that’s just the beginning. Please if anyone reads this don’t drink tap water. Reverse Osmosis or Distilled, do some research.
June 5, 2010 at 3:00 pm
localnourishment
You bring up an interesting point, but you are trading known evils for unknown ones by drinking bottled water. My tap water company will send me, at my request, analyses of the water flowing into my home. Will Dasani provide chemical analysis upon request? No, they won’t, and Dasani is TAP WATER.
I can invest in an undersink or whole house filter that focuses on those specific pollutants I wish to control once I am armed with the knowledge of what is in my tap water. The best you can do with bottled water is to run it through a charcoal filter like a Brita pitcher. Charcoal filters will remove some pollutants, but not others. Do you filter your bottled water? Do you really trust Nestle, Pepsico and Coca Cola to do that for you? Really?
And what of the BPA in the plastic bottle? Were you able to monitor the handling of the plastic since the water was poured into it to make sure it was not exposed to solvents, heated, cooled or jostled, thus increasing the amount of leeched BPA into your water? BPA is only one concern with plastic bottles. It’s something in the news and something we are aware of. There could be many more, even worse pollutants in these bottles that we’re just not aware of yet.
What about our responsibility to others? Once the plastic bottle leaves your hands, is it being shipped to a landfill, properly recycled, or landing in the backyard of a family in India who rents out their yard to an American company for dumping our “convenience” out of our own sight?
I’m a firm believer in “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” I also believe research is essential. Research into both tap and bottled water has led me to my conclusion: we are far better off shunning the bottle.
June 7, 2010 at 9:25 am
Michelle @ Find Your Balance
You know, bottled water was a godsend for me in some ways because I’ve never been a soda drinker. I’d go to picnics or parties and there would literally be nothing to drink besides soda as a kid!
But I’ve never understood people who bought cases of bottled water to have at home. I mean…at home there’s always water! I’m glad that now we’re learning about BPA and all the reasons to stay away from plastic bottles. I use my Sigg bottle every day…just hoping that the new version of Sigg doesn’t have yet another chemical leaching into my water….
June 7, 2010 at 9:46 am
Peggy
It always seems to be something, doesn’t it? My daughter gets the strangest looks when she whips out her glass drinking bottle. One lady backed away like it was going to attack her!