Healthy Water - Magic Elixir for Detox and Weight Loss

Healthy water is the basis for a healthy life. In fact, water is the essential ingredient of ALL life. Abundant water is what sets Earth apart from the other planets in our solar system and allows for all forms of life. 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water and 55-75% of each living body, including yours, is made up of water.

Without water life doesn’t exist. People can survive without food for much longer than they can without water. Healthy water is necessary for almost all of your bodily functions. Adequate water in your system supports organ function, brain function, circulation, digestion, and elimination.

The amount of water you may need is dependent on many different factors. If you live in the desert you’ll need to drink more water than if you live in the tropics. Meat, salty foods and processed foods require a lot of water to digest. So you will need to drink more water if you eat these foods as opposed to the relatively hydrating whole grains, fruits and vegetables. If you are overweight you will need more water for basic metabolic functions than if you are lean.

Are you Drinking Enough Healthy Water?

As you become dehydrated your metabolic functions slow down and stagnate. Your blood becomes thicker and heavier, requiring your heart to work harder to circulate it. You’ll feel low energy and struggle to think clearly because brain function is impaired. You may experience constipation and pain in your muscles and joints. Dehydration symptoms make it hard to keep up with the demands of a busy life and, if allowed to persist, may lead to serious health conditions.

A large majority of Americans are chronically dehydrated without even knowing it. If you experience any of the following common symptoms of dehydration, try following the tips below to re-hydrate your body and bring it back to a healthy balance:

• Constipation. When dehydrated, the colon removes more water than normal in order to provide fluid for other critical parts of the body.
• Fatigue. Water is the single source of energy in the human body. Fatigue is one of the earliest signs of dehydration.
• Joint problems. Cartilage is mainly water. Dehydration weakens cartilage and delays repair.
• Digestive disorders. Dehydration reduces the secretion of digestive juices and can also lead to acid reflux, ulcers and gastritis.
• Asthma and allergies. A large amount of water evaporates during normal breathing. When dehydrated, the body attempts to reduce water loss by restricting airways.
• High blood pressure. Blood is about 83% water. Dehydration causes blood to thicken, making it more difficult to pump throughout the body.
• High Cholesterol. Dehydration causes cellular water loss. The body produces more cholesterol in an attempt to stop cells from losing water.
• Weight gain. Dehydration causes the body to store toxins in fat cells. The body will not release fat unless it is adequately hydrated to safely remove the toxins.
• Skin disorders. The skin is the body’s largest organ of elimination. Dehydration prevents the movement of toxins through the skin and causes premature wrinkling.
• Liver, kidney, bladder problems. Dehydration increases the concentration of toxins that these organs must eliminate on a daily basis. The accumulation of toxic waste can cause infection, inflammation and pain.
• Lack of mental focus or concentration. The brain is about 95% water. Thus, dehydration can significantly impair brain and nerve cell function, including loss of memory and concentration.
• Premature aging. Dehydration accelerates the visible effects of aging skin as well as the withering and wrinkling effect on the internal organs.¹

Healthy Water Flushes out Fat and Toxins!

Excess body fat is a sign of chronic toxic overload. When your body can’t process, neutralize and eliminate all of the toxins, it stores them in fat cells in order to protect you from their dangers. Day after day, year after year this adds up to weight gain.

A gentle detox is the best way to stir up these stored toxins and initiate healthy weight loss. And water is the most important tool for this process. Your kidneys and liver needs lots of healthy water to be able to properly filter toxins out and metabolize fat. When they’re forced to get by with an inadequate water supply fat metabolism stops and the weigh stays on.

Your need for water is dependent on your body weight. If you are overweight, your metabolic needs will be more than if you are lean. An overweight person likely has many more toxins to process. As you release these toxins, you’ll need plenty of water to flush them through your kidneys and liver and to support healthy, regular digestion.

“Regularly flushing out the kidneys and bladder with water ensures that dead cells and other waste products can be expelled before they reach toxic levels.”

Joshua Rosenthal, Integrative Nutrition²

Are you concerned that drinking so much water will cause water retention? Water retention is actually a common sign of dehydration among overweight people. When your body isn’t getting enough water, it will think there’s a shortage and react by holding on to every drop. This causes swollen ankles, hands and feet. By regularly drinking more water you can assure your body that there is no emergency. It will then let go of the retained water and the excess weight.

Healthy Water is Clean Water

City water supplies are often recycled many times through sewer systems and industrial conduits before they reach your tap. In order to disinfect this water and prevent bacterial growth the water is chemically treated with chlorine. When chlorine is regularly ingested it destroys vitamin E in your body, damages cells, and kills off your beneficial intestinal flora.3

Many towns and cities in the United States also add sodium fluoride and fluorosilicic acid to their municipal water. This additive is said to prevent tooth decay, but the original decay-prevention tests were done with calcium fluoride. Sodium fluoride and fluorosilicic acid are actually toxic by-products of the aluminum and fertilizer industries. They are often heavily contaminated with lead and arsenic. Before they were approved to be added to city water, they were costly to dispose. Once approved, their value shot up 1000% almost overnight.3

We have to work with what we have. So if your water comes from any treated source we highly recommend using a high quality water filter. Look into what your water may contain and make sure you get a filter that can remove those specific chemicals. Many good quality filters are made to filter out the chemicals generally found in municipal supplies. For a diverse supply of high quality water filtering options we recommend Crystal Quest.

If you want to avoid city water, bottled water isn’t always the best answer. Many of the common brands of bottled water actually come from recycled and treated municipal water supplies. So if you’re going to drink bottled water, be sure to research its source. Also, avoid the many new “water products” marketed as being “better than water.” Your body wants naturally pure healthy water for hydration, not added flavors and vitamins.

Healthy Water Drinking Practices

• Drink half your body weight in ounces of pure water. For example, if you weigh 160 pounds, aim for drinking 80 ounces of pure water each day. If this seems like a lot to you take it one step at a time. Increase the amount of water you’re drinking each week until you reach this goal. As your body adjusts to being well hydrated you will feel better and it will become easier and easier to drink that much water every day.
• Drink at least 16 oz. of water first thing in the morning. This is when you are most dehydrated and when your toxins are most concentrated. If you are using tongue scraping as a detox tool, drink your water after you scrape your tongue. Add the juice from half of a lemon for additional cleansing benefits.
• Carry water with you everywhere. Start the day out with a glass of water and refill it every time you finish it, keeping it with you as you move around your house. When you head out of the house be sure to take a bottle of water with you. Drink your water throughout the day, while you’re working, driving, waiting, walking, etc. Plastic water bottles are known to leach toxins into water. Choose a stainless steel water bottle to avoid this risk.
• When you have cravings, feel tired or get cranky, drink water first. These feelings often mean that you’re dehydrated. Hydrate yourself first. After you drink your water than you can assess if you really need a healthy snack, some sleep or a relaxing detox therapy.
• Don’t drink other beverages until you reach your water goal. Retrain yourself to make water your primary beverage. Bottled juices and milks are no substitution for pure water. Sodas, coffee, and other chemicalized or caffeinated beverages are actually very dehydrating. (green smoothies and freshly extracted vegetable juices don’t count as “other beverages,” they count as nourishing and hydrating whole foods.)
• Avoid drinking significant amounts of water with or just after meals. Drinking with meals is like pouring water on a fire. When you eat your body makes stomach acid (digestive fire) to digest your food. Drinking large amounts of water (or other beverages) during mealtime dampens the digestive fire and inhibits digestion.
• Don’t let your water disturb your sleep. If you wake in the night to urinate, drink your water in the morning and early afternoon and refrain from drinking in the evening. Healthy Sleep is just as important to health and detoxing as water.

¹ Montana Holistic Health Examiner

² Integrative Nutrition by Joshua Rosenthal

³Healing With Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition (3rd Edition), by Paul Pitchford