OK so I get this email from somebody (names omitted) the other day with some health advice – among other things – about drinking water. Now, it's a commonly known fact that drinking water every day is advantageous for one's wellbeing. This email newsletter was from one of those weirdo “doctors and scientists are all conspiring against you, but I'll tell you how to really live healthily” types, and the specific section that got me going was:

  • Drink two litres of water a day
  • Avoid fluoridated water!
  • Don’t drink tap water unless filtered by reverse osmosis or better
  • Bottled water is OK, if a little old and expensive
  • Avoid water served in soft plastic bottles, as these impart oestrus activity
  • Eat high-water-content fruits and veggies

Can't really argue with the first bit. 2l of water a day seems a reasonable enough ask, although it does mean getting up all day to pee. I reckon I've popped out for more 2 minute breaks today than a chain smoker.

Avoid fluoridated water – so that rules out tap water altogether then.

Filtered tap water's OK though. I wonder if boiled water's OK according to this guy?

Bottled water is OK, although not from plastic bottles, as apparently this imparts oestrus activity. Whether the author means rutting or a species of flying insect isn't abundantly clear, although I was interested to learn that solar purification in cheap & readily available plastic bottles thanks to the SODIS process is becoming the chosen method du jour of cheaply sterilising water. That is if you don't want to shell out on a fancy bottle that does the same thing (or that you haven't already bought one of Dean Kamen's contraptions that also do the job).

Finally, high-water-content fruit & veg… however nowhere does it advocate drinking juice as a water substitute. Similarly, it fails to address the origins of the fruit & veg, and what the source of the water was with which these were irrigated.

Buggered if I know where that was going really, but the short synopsis is – it all sounds like bollocks to me.

2007-09-08 : It’s wet, and you drink it
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