How 8 Glasses a day keeps the fat away

By Dr Ed Murphy  UK Vending Ltd

STRANGE AS IT MAY SEEM, WATER IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT CATALYST IN LOSING WEIGHT – AND KEEPING IT OFF. ALTHOUGH MOST OF US TAKE IT FOR GRANTED, WATER MAY BE THE ONLY TRUE ‘MAGIC POTION’ FOR PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS.

Water suppresses the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat. Studies have shown that an increase in water intake can actually reduce fat deposits.

Here’s why: The kidneys can’t function properly without enough water. When they don’t work to capacity, some of their load is dumped onto the liver. One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body. But if the liver has to do some of the kidney’s work, it can’t operate at full throttle. As a result, it metabolizes less fat; some fat remains stored in the body and weight loss stops.

Drinking enough water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water, it sees this as a threat to survival and begins to hold onto every drop. Water is then stored outside the body cells and this shows up as swollen feet, legs and hands.

The best way to overcome problems is to give the body what it needs – plenty of water. Only then will stored water be released.

If you have a constant problem with water retention, excess salt may be to blame. The more salt you eat, the more water your system retains to dilute it. Getting rid of unneeded salt is easy – just drink more water. As it is forced through the kidneys, it takes away the excess salt.

The overweight person needs more water than the thin one. Larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the overweight person needs more water.

Water helps to maintain proper muscle tone, by giving muscles their natural ability to contract and by preventing dehydration. It also helps to prevent the ‘sagging skin’ that usually follows weight loss. Shrinking cells are buoyed by water, which plumps the skin and leaves it clear, healthy and resilient. Water helps to rid the body of waste. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste fat to shed. Water helps to flush it out.

Water can help relieve constipation. When the body gets too little water, it siphons what it needs from internal sources. The colon is one primary source. Result? Constipation. But when a person drinks enough water, normal bowel function usually returns.

Drinking water is essential to weight loss. How much water is enough? On average, a person should drink eight, half-pint glasses every day. That’s four pints each day, however – the overweight person needs one additional glass for every twenty five pounds of excess weight. The daily intake should also be increased if you exercise briskly or if the weather is hot and dry. Water should preferably be cold as it is absorbed into the system more quickly than warm water. Some evidence suggests that drinking cold water can help to burn calories. To utilize water most efficiently during weight-loss, follow this schedule;

MORNING: one and one third pints consumed over a thirty minute period

NOON: one and one third pints consumed over a thirty minute period

EVENING: one and one third pints consumed between five and six o’clock.

Can vegetables boiled in filtered water be more nutritious than those cooked in tap water?

Catherine Goddard reports –

Do you remember school dinners – the smell of the cabbage, stewed for hours and soggy carrots boiled to death? We didn’t know it then – but there was precious little goodness left in them, the vitamins had fled in terror, leached out into the cooking water.

These days we all know vegetables should be cooked for the shortest time possible. When immersed to boiling water their nutrients disappear at an alarming rate – 45% of Vitamin C is lost, 40% of vitamin B6 and folic acid, and 35% of vitamin B1.

But new tests show that vegetables boiled in filtered water retain more vitamins than those cooked in plain tap water.

Filtering water prevents impurities ‘attacking’ vegetables during cooking, preserving more of the vitamins.(insert image carrots) Filtered water is known to reduce scum and produce better tasting drinks, especially tea. Now research by German scientists, backed up by tests at the Good Housekeeping Institute, has proved that filtered water in cooking can improve taste, texture, colour and – most importantly – vitamin content in foods.

In tests conducted by the Good Housekeeping Institute, carrots cooked in filtered water retained 25% more vitamin C and 36% more beta carotene than carrots cooked in unfiltered tap water. Spinach retained 28% more vitamin C and 50% more vitamin B2 (riboflavin) when cooked in filtered water.

Too good to be true?

About 50% of all our cooking depends either directly or indirectly on water. So impurities in our water are bound to have an effect on the food we cook in it. But is the news that we can do something as simple as filtering our water to prevent nutrient loss just too good to be true?

Research conducted in Germany showed that foods cooked in filtered water retained more flavour and colour than those cooked in unfiltered tap water. And less salt was needed for cooking pasta, potatoes and vegetables when cooked in filtered water too.

A variety of foods was cooked in identical conditions in samples of unfiltered tap water and the same tap water, filtered. The food cooked in the filtered water cooked more evenly, with less destruction to outer cells, and had a better texture.

Why Granular activated carbon and KDF

Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) provides protection for home drinking water from threats which are of relatively recent origin. Before World War II, bacteria and heavy metals were the greatest threats to safe public drinking water supplies in the United States. However, improvements in conventional aeration and chlorination systems have largely eliminated these hazards. Today problems arise from chemical compounds which weren’t even manufactured and widely used until after the war. These include the chlorinated hydrocarbons in various pesticides, herbicides and industrial solvents. Misuse of these materials or improper disposal has allowed drinking water supplies to become contaminated. Unfortunately water users frequently do not learn of such contamination until it has already occurred according to a December 1980 report prepared for the Council on Environmental Quality and distributed by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) has been proven to be an effective, economical media for the removal of such contaminants from drinking water.

GAC has a unique ability to both absorb and adsorb chlorine from water. Activated carbon granules have a great deal of surface area because of their irregular shape. Compounds which are products of reaction between chlorine and organic substances present in drinking water are also removed by activated carbon. GAC is a preferred method for protection of drinking water from trihalomethanes (THM’s) and has been proven very effective in their removal.

Because of this combined capability of GAC to simultaneously remove chlorine and improve aesthetic attributes (taste, odour, appearance) of drinking water at a reasonable cost. Glacier Water Systems chose to use GAC in NSA Bacteriostatic Water Filters. However, we have chosen not to make specific claims in this regard because of:

a) The controversial nature of the subject. Experts disagree on which substances are harmful and just how harmful they are.

b) The cost involved in performing and maintaining adequate test data. There are literally thousands of these substances and new ones are added almost every day.

c) The variables involved such as media size, concentration levels, flow rate, water pressure and retention time. (Most of the information available in GAC’s ability to remove these substances involve larger media beds and significantly longer retention time than would be possible in a drinking water model or even a household unit such as ours.

d) Occurrences of these contaminants in municipal drinking water supplies in dangerous levels, while highly publicised, are rare, and the municipality bears primary responsibility for solving the problem at the source.

Therefore, we at Glacier Water Systems do not want to be alarmists in selling our product. We offer an economical method to supply your family with cleaner, clearer, better-tasting water. We feel that the Glacier system, utilising GAC, is the best all-purpose method of filtering municipally treated water available anywhere.

At the beginning of this century there was quite a problem trying to contain diseases that were caused and spread by Bacteria of different types being rife in our water system. At that time this problem was counteracted by the introduction of Chlorine (which is a poisonous gas) into our water supplies. This was done to kill and stop the growth of Bacteria in our reservoirs and the network of pipes carrying the water to our homes. At the time this was thought to be a great step forward to ensure the health and wellbeing of the population. This was based on the assumption that Chlorine was harmless to the Human system. To date we have learnt that Chlorine when mixed with other chemical pollutants found in our water supplies destroys the Taste, Odour, Appearance and our faith in our Tap-water. Some experts claim that Chlorine contributes and is partially responsible for some of the Cancers, Heart and Kidney Diseases which plague our society today.

These experts also claim that if it were suggested in 1990 to use Chlorine as a disinfectant it would not be permitted because of long term unknown consequences.

Over the past number of years the public have reacted through instinct and a high percentage of the population have replaced the Human body’s required fluid intake with more Tea, Coffee, Juices, Beers, Minerals and purified Bottled Water instead of Tap Water.

The range of products offered by Glacier Water Systems cater for the complete domestic market and a large proportion of the commercial market. The water treatment units remove Chlorine, bad taste, bad odour and discoloration caused by the reaction of chlorine with other chemical pollutants found in modern water service supplies. Glacier’s method of cleaning water is a conventional method using Granular Activated Carbon, but what makes this type of unit different is that the Carbon is impregnated with Silver to inhibit the growth of Bacteria within the unit after the Chlorine has been removed. This type of unit is known as a Bacteriostatic Water Treatment Unit.

Today’s precious metal for water treatment is patented KDF media

KDF 55 Media is unparallel in Chlorine removal and heavy metal reduction. Listed as a microbial device by the EPA for its outstanding bacteria control, KDF is bacteriostatic.

KDF 55 Media is used in chlorine removal applications in conjunction with granular activated carbon. KDF 55 strips the chlorine from the water before the water contacts the carbon. The carbon, not being burdened with the job of chlorine removal is then free to perform higher level carbon filtration. Such as removal of chemical contaminants including Volatile Organic Chemical (VOC’s) & Trihoalomethanes (THM’s).

KDF 85 is used for removal of iron & sulfur from well water. It regenerates with a thorough backwash of water. No chemicals required! KDF is a patented filtration media, and is an NSF, WQA, & ISO9001 certified material. Manufactured to exacting standards of quality, KDF is used the world over in municipal water treatment applications as well as residential whole house& under sink water filters. (link to water filter page 1)

Water and the Body

Water is a human necessity. Without food, a person can survive weeks. Without water, the odds of surviving more than a few days are not good.

In fact, approximately 70% of the human body is water. The only thing more important than water to the human body is oxygen.

Water serves several purposes within the body. It:

• Maintains body temperature
• Aids in digestion
• Metabolizes fat
• Lubricates organs
• Cushions organs
• Transports nutrients
• Flushes out toxins

The body excretes water constantly through sweat, urine and exhaled air, which is why it’s so important to replenish your body with an ample amount of water every day.

Most health professionals agree that the average human body requires from 8 to 10 glasses of water a day.

Every part of the human body depends on adequate hydration to function properly: from your skin to the brain. The following is an examination of the body and its need for water:

Skin -Without water, it becomes dry and cracked. It is also the main conduit for releasing water from the body.

Joints and Bones – Water acts as a lubricant between bones. Without water, bones may rub against each other and become brittle.

Blood – It thickens when the body’s lacking water, which makes it difficult for the heart to pump and distribute blood to the rest of the body. Plus, capillaries shut down creating obstacles for nutrients circulating to vital organs.

Kidneys – Without water, the kidneys are unable to remove toxins, wastes and salt from the blood. The risk of kidney stones also increases.

Liver – Metabolizes fat. But if the body’s not getting enough water, it has to perform some of the kidney’s functions, which means it’s not metabolizing as much fat as it should.

Digestive System – When the body’s dehydrated, the organs of the digestive system have to work harder than normal and become strained, which results in constipation and abdominal cramps.

Brain – Without water, the body will experience a loss of nutrients flowing to the brain. Temporary results are dizziness, confusion and irritability. Long periods of dehydration can cause permanent damage to the brain. Water also cushions the brain, which means, if the body is dehydrated, the brain is more vulnerable.

Water and the Family

Infants and Toddlers

Dehydration in infants can be extremely dangerous. They experience more than four times the amount of normal fluid loss than adults experience when dehydrated.

Causes of infant dehydration:

• Vomiting
• Diarrohea Causes of infant dehydration:
• Low-grade fever
• Dry mouth • Lack of tears
• Listlessness
• Fussiness

Symptoms of severe infant dehydration:

• Few or no wet nappies
• Fast heart rate
• Sunken eyes
• A sunken, soft spot developing on the head

Ways to help prevent infant dehydration:

•  Make sure infant is drinking enough fluids
• Breast feed

In serious cases, physicians have prescribed electrolyte mixes that provide sodium as well as necessary vitamins and minerals. Consult your doctor if you have questions regarding your infant and dehydration.

Infants and Toddlers

Children are also in a high-risk dehydration category, although they are not as vulnerable to dehydration as infants. An especially active child may lose one to two quarts of water a day.

Causes of dehydration in children:

• Vomiting
• Diarrohea
• Too much sun
• Fever
• Too much Exercise

Symptoms of dehydration in children:

• Dry, non-elastic skin
• Dark urine
• Dry mouth
• Sunken eyes

Ways to help prevent dehydration in children:

• When playing in the sun, take a water break every 15 to 20 minutes.
• Drink water during activity breaks, NOT soda or juice. (Soda often has caffeine and sugar, juice has sugar.)

During Pregnancy

What is best for a pregnant woman is best for her baby. Which includes drinking plenty of water. Like infants and children, expectant mothers are more prone to dehydration than the average adult. Primarily because pregnant women experience morning sickness, which can leave them dehydrated. Increased heat production and perspiration during pregnancy also account for a rise in fluid losses.

New mothers who breast-feed their babies also need to increase their daily water intake. A new mother loses more water in her system than usual when breast-feeding.

Expectant and new mothers should be sure they are getting enough minerals. During pregnancy, minerals are essential for the healthy development of a babys bones and teeth. After a child is born, minerals in a mothers breast milk aids in the childs healthy development. Many bottled waters do not contain the level of minerals recommended by specialists. Over the life of the filter, NSA filtration systems remove only a trace amount of the essential minerals commonly found in tap water.

On a Diet?

The simple act of drinking a lot of water can be extremely beneficial to dieters. The right amount of water in the body helps the body perform at its best, burning fat and calories. It’s also a good substitute for snacking throughout the day. The downside to not drinking enough water for dieters is that it can actually increase your body fat.

When the body gets dehydrated, the body seeks water from other sources, including fat cells. If your fat cells have less water, there’s less mobilization of fat for energy. Not to mention, without enough water, your kidneys won’t function as well, putting extra stress on the liver, which won’t be able to metabolize as much fat as it should.

Bottom line: you’ll have a tough time losing weight if you’re not drinking enough water.

Exercising

Clearly, athletes are at a higher risk of becoming dehydrated than most people. Which is something athletes need to be keenly aware of at all times. In fact, many health experts would argue that for an athlete to perform at his or her peak, nothing is more important than being properly hydrated.

Symptoms of dehydration in athletes:

• Nausea
• Chills
• Elevated heart rate
• Inability to sweat
• Light-headedness

Hydration tips for athletes:

Eat a balanced meal and drink plenty of water 24 hours before a major workout

• Drink two cups of water before exercising
• Drink water at regular intervals while exercising
• Weigh yourself before and after vigorous workouts to make sure you’ve replaced the fluids lost from working out
• If urine is dark after exercising, drink more water
• Don’t drink beverages high in sugar while exercising
• Water is the best fluid replacement for athletes

Later Years

The older we get, the greater the odds our brains will forget to inform us that we’re thirsty. Which is why, to prevent dehydration, it’s imperative that seniors drink a sufficient amount of water every day, whether they feel thirsty or not.

Lack of thirst sensitivity isn’t the only thing that differentiates seniors from younger adults when it comes to dehydration. Some seniors decrease their water intake due to fear of urinary incontinence, while others experience mild nephrogenic diabetes insipitus – a type of diabetes that’s common among the elderly. Nephrogenic diabetes insipitus can cause dehydration.

Symptoms of dehydration in seniors:

• Dry, inelastic skin
• Confusion
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Dry mouth

Thirst Benefits seniors can experience by drinking plenty of water:

• Helps prevent kidney stones
• Can ease constipation
• Improves condition of skin
• Improves mental sharpness
• Aids digestion
• Increases blood pressure and helps circulation

 Drink plenty of water

One easy way to improve your health is to drink plenty of water: at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day, even more when you exercise or the weather is hot or dry.

Water is essential to good health because it transports nutrients where they are needed, helps to regulate body temperature, lubricates and cushions joints, and eliminates waste.

Consumers are catching on to the health benefits of water. We spend millions every year on bottled water because it tastes better than tap water. But bottled water is very expensive.

Here is another problem with tap water besides taste: the chlorine found in tap water is a strong, highly reactive oxidizing agent that tends to combine with organic contaminants in water to form carcinogens.

Glacier Water Systems is a leading distributor of in-home activated carbon water filters that remove chlorine along with the unpleasant odors, colors and tastes.

If you aren’t drinking enough water now; if you’re spending too much on bottled water; or if you’re not already removing the chlorine and unpleasant taste from your tap water, an water filter (link to new water filter page) may be just the thing to get you and your family drinking more water, for just pennies per gallon!

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world population.)

In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.

One glass of water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.

Lack of water, the number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

Water Cures

Cure # 1:

Water prevents and cures heartburn. Heartburn is a signal of water shortage in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a major thirst signal of the human body. The use of antacids or tablet medications in the treatment of this pain does not correct dehydration, and the body continues to suffer as a result of its water shortage.

Tragedy: Not recognizing heartburn as a sign of dehydration and treating it with antacids and pill medications will, in time, produce inflammation of the stomach, duodenum, hiatal hernia, ulceration, and eventually cancers in the gastrointestinal tract, including the liver and pancreas.

Cure # 2:

Water prevents and cures arthritis. Rheumatoid Joint Pain – Arthritis – is a signal of chronic water shortage in the painful joint. It can affect the young as well as the old. The use of pain-killers does not cure the problem, but exposes the person to further damage from pain medications. Intake of water and small amounts of salt will cure this problem.

Cure # 3:

Water prevents and cures back pain. Low Back Pain and Ankylosing Arthritis of the Spine are signs of chronical water shortage in the spinal column and discs – the water cushions that support the weight of the body. These conditions should be treated with increased water intake – not a commercial treatment, but a very effective one.

Tragedy: Not recognizing arthritis and low back pain as signs of dehydration in the joint cavities and treating them with pain-killers, manipulation, acupuncture, and eventually surgery will, in time, produce osteoarthritis when the cartilage cells in the joints have eventually all died. It will produce deformity of the spine. It will produce crippling deformities of the limbs. Pain medications have their own life-threatening complications.

Cure # 4:

Water prevents and cures angina. Heart Pain – Angina – is a sign of water shortage in the heart/lung axis. It should be treated with increased water intake until the patient is free of pain and independent of medications. Medical supervision is prudent. However, increased water intake is angina’s cure.

Cure # 5:

Water prevents and cures migraines. Migraine Headache is a sign of water needed by the brain and the eyes. It will totally clear up by preventing dehydration from establishing in the body. This particular type of dehydration might eventually cause inflammation of the back of the eye and possibly loss of eye sight.

Cure #6:

Water prevents and cures colitis. Colitis Pain is a signal of water shortage in the large gut. It is associated with constipation because the large intestine constricts to squeeze the last drop of water from the excrements – thus the lack of water lubrication.

Tragedy: Not recognizing colitis pain as a sign of dehydration will cause persistent constipation. Later in life, it will cause fecal impacting: it can cause diverticulitis, hemorrhoids, polyps, and appreciably increases the possibility of developing cancers of the colon and rectum.

Cure # 7: Water and salt prevents and cure asthma. Asthma, which also affects 12,000,000 children and kills several thousand of them every year, is a complication of dehydration in the body. It is caused by the drought management programs of the body. Free passage of air is obstructed so that water does not leave the body in the form of vapor – the winter steam. Increased water intake will prevent asthma attacks. Asthmatics need also to take more salt to break the mucus plugs in the lungs which obstruct the free flow of air in and out of the air sacs.

Tragedy: Not recognizing asthma as the indicator of dehydration in the body of a growing child not only will sentence many thousands of children to die every year, but will permit irreversible genetic damage to establish in the remaining 12,000,000 asthmatic children.

Cure # 8:

Water prevents and cures high blood pressure. Hypertension is a state of adaptation of the body to a generalized drought, when there is not enough water to fill all the blood vessels which diffuse water into vital cells. As part of the mechanism of reverse osmosis, when water from the serum is filtered and injected into important cells through minute holes in their membranes, extra pressure is needed for the “injection process.” Just as we inject I.V. “water” in hospitals, so the body injects water into tens of trillions of cells all at the same time. Water and some salt intake will bring blood pressure back to normal!

Tragedy: Not recognizing hypertension as one of the major indicators of dehydration in the human body, and treating it with diuretics that further dehydrate the body will, in time, cause blockage by cholesterol of the heart arteries and the arteries that go to the brain. It will cause heart attacks, small and/or massive strokes that paralyze. It will eventually cause kidney diseases. It will cause brain damage and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Cure # 9:

Water prevents and cures early-adult-onset diabetes. Adult-Onset Diabetes is another adaptive state to severe dehydration of the human body. To have adequate water in circulation and for the brain’s priority water needs, the release of insulin is inhibited to prevent insulin from pushing water into all body cells. In diabetes only some cells get survival rations of water. Water and some salt will reverse adult-onset diabetes in its early stages.

Tragedy: Not recognizing adult-onset diabetes as a complication of dehydration will, in time, cause massive damage to the blood vessels all over the body. It will cause eventual loss of the toes, feet and legs from gangrene. It will cause eye damage, even blindness.

Cure # 10:

Water lowers blood cholesterol. High Cholesterol levels are an indicator of early drought management by the body. Cholesterol is a clay-like material that is poured in the gaps of some cell membranes to safeguard them from losing their vital water content to the osmotically more powerful blood circulating in their vicinity. Cholesterol, apart from being used to manufacture nerve cell membranes and hormones, is also used as a “shield” against water taxation of other vital cells that would normally exchange water through their cell membranes.

Cure # 11:

Water Cures Depression, Loss of Libido, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy. These conditions are caused by prolonged chronic dehydration. They will clear up once the body becomes well and regularly hydrated. In these conditions, exercising one’s muscles should be part of the treatment programme.

UK Vending Ltd