Water, the most abundant substance on the planet, but also the most misunderstood when it comes to drinking it. I think we all know that drinking water is good for us. We hear it from health experts every day. But just how important is water for us to have a healthy life? With the sweltering Nagoya summer approaching quicker than a herd of salarymen descending on a nomihodai, it's becoming more and more important to keep your body hydrated. So let's take a closer look at the big H2O. When you were a kid in school, you learned that each molecule of water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom - hence H2O. You may also have learned that it was great fun to fill up your squirt guns with water and unload it at your unsuspecting friends and school mates, at least until the principal caught you. What you may not have learned, however, was how much water you need to drink in order to stay healthy. Your body is roughly around 60-70 percent water. Blood is mostly water, and your muscles, lungs, and brain all contain lots of water. So it should come as no surprise that we need lots of water everyday in order to function properly. The body needs water for regulating body temperature, to provide the means for nutrients to travel to all your vital organs. It also transports oxygen to your cells in order to replenish them, remove waste (which will get dumped in your organs and tissues if you don't get enough water to flush all that stuff out), and protect your joints and organs from disease.

Every day we lose about 2-3 quarts (12 cups) of water through perspiration, urination, breathing, through pores (especially the soles of your feet), and in the cleaning processes the body goes through regularly. If you do any kinds of sports of physical exercise, it's even more. The best way to replenish the lost water content is to drink more water, of course (as if you didn't know that already).... But drinking water not only replenishes your lost supply of water; it also has many other health benefits:

• Weight loss - Not only does it replace high-calorie drinks like soda and juices, it is also a great appetite suppressant. Water has no fat, no calories, no carbs, no sugar....It's just water, and that's a good thing. *Healthy for your heart - Drinking lots of water significantly lowers your risk of heart disease and heart attacks. If you drink more than 5 glasses a day, you are 41% less likely to die from a heart attack, according to a six year study in the American Journal of Epidemology. 
• Energy - If you're dehydrated, your energy levels drop faster than a virgin's morals on prom night. Even mild dehydration (as little as 1-2 percent of your body weight) can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness and dizziness. Don't wait till you're thirsty since it's already too late at that point. Keep your body hydrated throughout the day to have a steady supply of energy. 
• Other benefits include: Cure for certain kinds of headaches (a symptom of dehydration), healthy skin, good digestive health, cleansing of the body, greatly reduced risk of colon cancer, and better athletic performance (fellas, I'm not just talking about going to the gym here...)

So, how much water should you drink? Well, let's just say that by the time you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated. So instead of sticking to the old: "drink 8-10 glasses of water per day" mantra, I will simply say try to keep yourself from getting thirsty in the first place. NO...PUT THAT DOWN....don't even think about it! I saw you salivating over that Triple Vitamin and Mineral Enhanced Strawberry, Citrus, and Kiwi flavored water (bottle) from the top shelf of a combini cooler. Popular culture would have you believe that carrying a water bottle with you and taking little haphazard swags from it looks cool, chic, in, hip or whatever adjective you want to use. Hell, in Japan some people even have cute little coats for their plastic bottles, but I know that by now you know better than to buy plastic bottles. Not only is the plastic quite bad for the environment, but the water out of a plastic bottle actually has more impurities than tap water. Think about it: tap water has movement, whereas bottled water sits idly in the same plastic bottle for weeks, or perhaps even months at a time. Also, tap water is highly regulated and quite frequently checked (don't know for sure about Japan, but it's 100 times a month minimum in the U.S) for E. coli and other bacteria. The same rules don't apply for bottled water, which is only required to be tested once a week at the most. Bottled water companies don't have to list the source, or purification methods used on the bottle,so you really don't know what you're drinking...

A little test I did last year really opened my eyes, when it revealed that there were roughly 3-5 times as many impurities in Evian bottled water, than in regular unfiltered tap water. And not to forget the chemical leech of plastic bottles, which we talked about in the Green Spot in a previous issue.... Of course, not using so many plastic bottles is tremendously beneficial for the environment as well, as less bottles need to be produced, packaged, filled, shipped, and eventually end up on landfills, or in the incinerators. So, the best thing you can do for your body, your health, and the earth is to buy a good (read, not the cheapest one) filter for your tap, and a good (preferably not plastic) reusable bottle and take your water with you when you leave the house in the morning. It's safer to drink (once filtered for metal residue from the pipes, and other impurities), costs less in the end, is better for the environment, and certainly beneficial for our bodies. It doesn't matter what your'e interested in in this life, because it's not going to happen if you can't breathe the air or drink clean water. Do something about the state of the environment now, because it comes down to you...  yes, YOU. You are alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of mankind. Make your stand and protect the natural resources we have available. Do your part and inspire others to conserve rather than deplete, to make little changes in their lives that, even though seemingly insignificant, can have a huge impact for everyone.

For more information about water, head over to the following website and beprepared for some truly shocking insights:

http://imparo.wordpress.com/2007/08/27/tap-water-vs-bottled-water-and-the-environment/