Water is Life, And Maybe Death

So I've been drinking a lot of water lately, more than usual because of the new diet. Ahh, gasp! Not possible you say? Very possible. But I've been a lot more conscious of the water I've been drinking for two main reasons: (1) Kevin and I got a Reverse Osmosis system (thanks Mom and Dad) because our water tastes pretty bad and (2) because of the following.

That ain't what you think it is.

This is what water looks like where I work. This is the reason why our drinking water filter (at work) has been changed out twice in the past 2 months. I've been told this lovely rust color in the water is due to construction in the area. But can this be healthy? If not, where are the alerts to say it's not?

Water is the numero uno important substance that our bodies need. But we channel it, we pipe it to our homes, we bottle it in factories, we add fluoride and chlorine to treat our waste that gets pumped back into the system, we filter it, we boil it. But when we diet or try to get fit for our health or to train for a race, how often do we ask ourselves, "Did I drink healthy water today?" I know I don't. I'm usually focused more on taste, color, and convenience. Bottled water is easy to grab on the way out of the house. Our city water tastes bad, so in order to enjoy water we have to filter it. And then there's the rust colored water. Yuck. But these are all surface level issues.

Most articles that try to identify healthy water aren't unanimous. Take this one for example. Bottled water is handled by man-made equipment just like tap. And anything that's "handled" could be contaminated with all sorts of chemicals, fungi, bacteria, and on and on. So, unless we live near glacial waters, I wonder, could water effect or possibly encourage allergies? In addition, think about all of those calorie free or reduced calorie powders that we stick in our water. Think about my RO system. Are we just covering up the problem. And maybe even adding more chemicals and new problems?

Can we even stop?

Note: This has been a philosophical rant to some degree. Our regularly scheduled recipes will come back shortly.