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Did you know that the oil it takes to make, ship and refrigerate that bottle of water, would fill that bottle a quarter of the way?

When one considers that the water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency for tap water are higher than the water standards set by the FDA for bottled water, and one realizes that it costs 10,000 times more to produce a bottle of water ($2.50 a liter or $10 a gallon – much more expensive than gasoline) than to simply turn on the tap, we must ask ourselves why we are wasting our resources and our money on bottled water.

I think originally bottled water became popular because it was perceived to be healthier than tap water, but is that really true? About 40% of the bottled waters on the market ARE tap water (including Dasani and Aquafina) with some minerals taken out, or added in – whatever the manufacturer believes will sell. Some waters, like Evian or Fuji are spring waters, higher in minerals and therefore healthier than some of the softer municipal water supplies, but is the environmental cost worth the price considering how easy it is to add back minerals into filtered tap water?

The PET plastic that the water is sold in is made from crude oil. In 2004, the amount of oil needed to satisfy the demands of Americans for bottled water was in the neighbourhood of 17 million barrels, enough to fuel over a million cars for a year. Then add to that the oil that is needed to ship the water bottles to market. Apparently nearly a quarter of the bottles of water are shipped cross international boundaries to reach store shelves – that is a lot of oil used in transportation. Making plastic bottles also wastes crazy amounts of water. It takes 6.74 times the amount of water contained within the bottle to make it, which is a staggering amount of water. Water is becoming more and more scarce worldwide, so why are we wasting it making bottles? And finally, plastic bottles need to be disposed of, and only 1 in 6 bottles is recycled, while all others are littered on land or in waterways, or find their way to landfill sites. It takes over 1000 years to biodegrade plastic, so the result is mountains and mountains of completely unnecessary garbage; furthermore, I’m not sure I want that plastic leaching into water tables etc.

Tap water is very economical, arriving at our taps through energy-efficient infrastructure, and due to the high water standards required by government bodies, is usually quite safe. One can easily buy a tap filter to filter out chlorine or other contaminants one may be concerned about. Filters that filter out fluoride may be more challenging to obtain, but they are certainly available. Most other contaminants are already removed by municipalities. If one’s filtering system removes all minerals (reverse osmosis) making the water too soft, one can add trace minerals back to tap water by adding a pinch of pasculite clay or unrefined, air dried Celtic or Himalayan sea salt. (NOT the white, dry, processed salt which has no minerals but sodium!)

So rather than buying bottled water, get a good re-usable stainless steel water bottle, filter your tap water, and take your water with you. There are even re-usable water bottles that come with a filter in them, so if you need to refill while out, anyone’s tap water will do. If you live in the States and want to check where your municipal water comes from, find out what’s in it so you know what if anything you need to filter out, click here. For Canada or elsewhere, try googling your home town and "water quality" and see what comes up. I got this link for Vancouver, for example.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related Tips:
How much water should we drink?
Fluoridated water: boon or bane?
Which plastic water bottles don’t leach chemicals?
Choosing a water filtration system

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Health Canada is considering allowing food companies to fortify junk food with vitamins and minerals. Is this idea going to improve or worsen the health of Canadians?

When I first heard about this concept a couple of months ago, I thought it was a joke. How can anyone at Health Canada seriously think that fortifying junk food with vitamins is going to improve anyone’s health? Or under the premise of health promotion, is the Canadian government actually bowing to the demands of the food industry? Certainly companies that are suddenly given permission to put health claims on their potato chips, cookies or chocolate bars will be laughing all the way to the bank.

I think this is a ridiculous idea, and I have yet to find a physician, dietician or nutritionist that has written on this topic that thinks it is a good one. Just like there is nothing healthy about an organic oreo cookie, there will be nothing healthy about an oreo cookie fortified with vitamin C, yet potentially consumers will choose the cookie over the orange because they will believe it to be just as healthy. I think such a policy will lead to people increasing their intake of junk food, which will worsen the obesity epidemic, rates of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Health Canada’s argument is that in the focus group study they did, the participants stated they would pick the fortified junk food, as long as the price point and taste were the same, but they would not buy more junk food. I’m not sure that in reality that is what would happen. Hopefully Health Canada will change their minds on this one and scrap it.

If Health Canada were really serious about improving the health of Canadians as opposed to keeping the food processing companies happy, they would ban the use of trans fats in the form of hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, as well as high fructose corn syrup (labelled fructose-glucose in Canada). Forcing the food companies to stop using those ingredients would make far more of a difference to chronic disease rates and the ongoing health crisis than spraying some cheap vitamins on junk food. We have known for at least 30 years now (Ancel Keys first brought up the issue in 1958) about how deadly hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are, and yet they are still everywhere in the food supply. Why?? There is absolutely no dispute about the dangers of trans fats. Shouldn’t Health Canada and the FDA be all over this? And how much more research does the government need to be convinced of the dangers of high fructose corn syrup? My impression is that Health Canada (and also the FDA) moves much more quickly on initiatives that will help the mega food producers and will improve trade, and much more slowly on initiatives that will actually improve the health of its citizens, but may in the process hurt the food producers and trade. Unfortunately when it comes to the politics of food, governments frequently find themselves beholden to industry at the expense of their citizenry.

Thankfully as individuals we have the ability to choose what we eat, and powered with some knowledge we don’t need the government to protect us from ourselves. Choosing healthy food is easy – only eat fresh food that also existed 10,000 years ago – food you can pick, pull out of the ground, food you need to chase after to obtain, or food that comes from the ocean. If it comes from a factory, (like CoffeeMate, Equal, Coco Puffs or Coca Cola) don’t eat it. Other than grains and legumes that nature has packed to last, if it can sit in your garage or pantry for months on end (tetrapac juices, soda pop, crackers, cookies etc.) it is probably more harmful than good for you. And if you see hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (soy, canola, sunflower, cottonseed etc.) or high fructose corn syrup or fructose-glucose on the label, avoid it like the plague, because foods that contain that stuff really will harm your health, particularly if you have heart disease or are prone to TIAs or clots in the blood vessels.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related Tips:
Improving nutrition by avoiding the grocery store
Simplifying eating right
Industrial agriculture – what’s the real cost of cheap food?
Oils and fats – the good, the bad and the ugly
High cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease
Saturated fat, the misunderstood nutrient
High Fructose Corn Syrup (Fructose-Glucose)

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