Drinking Water and Absorbing Water are Two Different Things

Wilma Young CPT — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:04:12 +0000

The debate about water and what kind we should drink has been an ongoing dilemma especially over the last several years. You can walk down any grocery store and see the multitude of choices brands and claims. At Angie’s World, we test for hydration constantly because of the significant role it plays in healthy body composition, weight loss, reduction of fatigue, cellular integrity and the list goes on and on. Anyone who has ever seen a plant that has been neglected from water will see a dry, brittle, non-thriving organism. Well it is exactly the same for the human body. When we deprive our organs of water the effects are dramatic. Kidneys look like prunes instead of plums. Our body fat stubbornly adheres to our thighs and our brain becomes foggy. At Angie’s World, the issue that we have been running up against has been the absorbtion of the water. We have had frustrated clients who finally have committed to drinking the water they need (a good rule of thumb is 1/2 oz per pound of body weight) but don’t see the hydration go up. Sometimes it’s the fact that they are not getting enough protein so the muscle can’t absorb the water that they are drinking. It can also be that they are still drinking and eating too many acidic foods which makes the cells not absorb the water and it runs right through you (aka, A River Runs Through It…and Brad Pitt is not in the picture!). We have also found that water that uses reverse osmosis for purification ( a method that extracts the valuable mineral content) has a low Ph and does more harm than good when it comes to absorbtion. The Ph level of this water is acidic and it keeps the body acidic. An acidic environment does not lose weight and is prone to cancer and chronic diseases. With all of that being said, what water do I drink? Angie and I have had great luck with our Alka Power Water (Ph level is 9-10, although avoid high Ph water if you have kidney issues) with better absorption and lower body fat as a result. But some additional tips are using spring or well water. You can also add a few drops of a mineral supplement (there are several choices of liquid trace minerals available at health food stores) in to each cup or bottle of water you drink. You can also place a few dashes of Hymilayan Sea Salt to your water. This highly absorbable mineral helps to alkalize your water and provide the body with a natural essential mineral and is quite cost effective. You can also add lemon to your water. Although it seems counterintuitive, lemon actually aklalizes your water and your body. In addition, EAT YOUR VEGETABLES! Some of the best hydration you can give your body is in the form of these natural complex carbohydrates (note the word “hydrate” in the word carbohydrate). Vegetables are full of water and fiber and because your body has to break them down before elimination, it has time to extract the water as well as the nutrients. So your primary tips are to drink the water (with a neutral or high Ph), eat enough high quality protein and eat an abundance of vegetables everyday. Your body with thank you and you’ll start off the holidays on the right foot!

Don’t take another sip of water before you read this!

Angie Lustrick, CN, CPT — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:59:55 +0000

We all know that soda is bad for us. The media is making us quite aware of all the sugar that is in our drinks. We are constantly told to drink more water but is it really all that good for us? The obvious answer is YES, but after a weekend at the beach, I realize the answer is a bit complicated. In a previous post I mentioned to not leave your plastic water bottles inside your cars because the BPA (bis phenyl A) in it will leach into the water when exposed to heat. These BPAs are responsible for causing excess Estrogen in our bodies and may lead to weight gain amongst other things. But now, I have also discovered that many “healthy” waters are in fact very acidic! Drinking water should be at a pH of 7.0 or higher. The higher the number the more basic, or more alkaline, the water is. Our bodies cannot absorb acidic water, which means, after downing bottle are bottle, our bodies remain dehydrated. Many of my clients have increased their water intake to discover that it wasn’t “working” to increase their dehydration status after testing them. My initial thought was that they were eating too many processed foods and their body was still too acidic to absorb the water they needed. But NOW, I realize their is another problem: ACIDIC WATER. Yep. Most waters on the market today are highly acidic. After visiting a shop down in Carlsbad where they had tested the pH of many popular bottled waters, I saw that most waters on the market today scored well below 6.0.
So, Wilma and I decided to do our own test this week. We bought water from Trader Joes, Ralphs, Rite-Aid, and even our local Water & Ice store. We discovered that, indeed, all our waters were about 5.4- 6.0 in range! Yikes! This included Smart water with electrolytes. The only waters that did better were Spring Waters, good ole Arrowhead Water. Interestingly enough, the better (high alkaline) waters didn’t taste as good to me. Well, no surprise, the more alkaline the water, the more minerals and the harder the water. Hmm.. Makes you want to rethink everything we are doing – softening our water, reverse osmosis, ultra purified…. All this in the end makes a commercial tasty water, much like Wonder Bread is a tasty bread – void of all the good stuff.

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Drinking Water and Absorbing Water are Two Different Things

Don’t take another sip of water before you read this!