Daily Archives: 14 April, 2012

Myths about water and your health

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Water is amazing – we can’t live without it and we are, in fact, mostly composed of it. So it is not surprising that a whole bunch of half-truths and myths exist about water, especially when it comes to your health.

So here are our top five myths about water.

Myth 1: We should drink eight glasses of water a day to avoid dehydration

Probably one of the most widely-believed yet false beliefs about water – no doubt encouraged by bottled water brands.

According to the British Dietetic Association and the NHS, we should try consume the equivalent of around six to eight glasses of fluid a day, but that’s fluid, not water.

Much of this can be obtained from the food we eat – fruit and vegetables are 80-90 per cent water by weight – and other drinks including milk, tea and coffee.

But even this has come under criticism. Scottish GP Dr Margaret McCartney wrote in the British Medical Journal that there was no strong evidence for the current advice, adding that it was “not only nonsense, but thoroughly debunked nonsense.”

Obviously in hotter, sweatier conditions we need to up our intake to make up for the extra loss, but again, any non-alcoholic drink will suffice.

Your body is very good at regulating water levels; it will get rid of excess by sweat and urine and when levels are low you will feel thirsty and compelled to drink.

Myth 2: Coffee, tea and other beverages “dehydrate” you

While it is true that caffeine has a diuretic effect (it makes you want to pee), this is very mild compared with the amount of water contained in the drink. These drinks mostly contribute to your body’s need for water, without the risk of dehydration.

Water

Water

Myth 3: Water is harmless

Generally speaking, water is non-toxic. But you can drink too much water. In extreme cases drinking too much water can cause an electrolyte imbalance in the body, known as “water intoxication.”

Athletes in extreme sports, such as marathon runners, have been known to suffer from this condition. Their sport causes them to sweat profusely, leading to a loss of both water and electrolytes, including sodium. But if they drink a lot of water in a short period of time without replacing the lost electrolytes, sodium levels in the blood fall, which can be potentially life-threatening.


Myth 4: Bottled water is safer than tap water

Would you drink a liquid that may have been exposed to pesticides, man-made fertilisers and even radioactive materials, and destroys the environment? Then you will probably be happy to pay 1,500 times the going rate to drink water from a plastic bottle.

Tap water is subject to stringent health and safety requirements. It is continuously tested and safe to drink. Bottled waters often come from exactly the same sources as tap water – in fact some are tap water.

Much bottled water is prepared with lower safety standards than tap water, and it consumes vast resources to bottle, ship, market and sell it. That’s why it costs around 1,500 times more per drink than tap water, which is safe, cheap, convenient and by the far the most eco-friendly way to get water.

Myth 5: Water can help you lose weight

There is some truth is this idea, but only some.

Going back to myth 1, drinking calorie-free and sugar-free water is a better way to get your daily fluid intake than gulping sugary, high-calorie soft drinks.

Some studies have also shown that drinking water before a meal can help you eat less.

But the key point here is that you do in fact need to eat less, and reduce your calorie intake; the water itself, does not in any way reduce your body fat.

Inside the Titanic – Part 1

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Titanic was the technological marvel of her age – the ultimate symbol of mankind’s genius, his victory over the elements and a symbol of hope for the new century.

All human life was aboard Titanic.

It contained millionaires and penniless immigrants, the rich from New York and London, the poor from every corner of Europe, men – and women – who were capable of facing death calmly and others who would do anything to stay alive.

The men of first, second and third class on Titanic shared only this – in every class, the majority of them died.

They said goodbye to their families, lit cigarettes and waited for death, true to the old code of honour, “women and children first”.

Those men, from every part of the ship, waving goodbye to the women and children from the deck of Titanic feels like the last act of a lost age of chivalry.

Courage was everywhere that night.

Some wives refused to leave their husbands, and died with them.

The band, in their lifejackets, played as Titanic went down.

And Captain Edward Smith, who legend has dying alone on the bridge, was seen by Fireman Harry Senior in the water after the sinking of Titanic, holding a child up with his last breaths, while others claim he was seen freezing in that black sea, yet still urging lifeboats on, and saying he would follow his ship down.

Inside the Titanic - Cafe Parisian

Inside the Titanic - Cafe Parisian

But there was cowardice, too, and desperate self-preservation.

Bruce Ismay, chairman of Titanic’s owners, White Star Line, slipped into a lifeboat when there were still women and children on board.

Ismay did not look back to see Titanic sink beneath the waves and he was scorned as a coward for the remaining 25 years of his life.


Daniel Buckley, a third class passenger, slipped into a lifeboat by wearing a woman’s shawl – the only evidence of the legend that some men fled Titanic disguised as women.

A stoker who tried to steal a lifejacket from a radio operator was beaten unconscious and left to his fate.

And when Titanic was gone, and a thousand voices screamed in agony in the sub-zero waters of the Atlantic, those in the lifeboats lashed out at them with oars.

Inside the Titanic - First class cabin B38

Inside the Titanic - First class cabin B38

The terror of being capsized by the dying was overwhelming.

Titanic witnessed mankind at its selfish worst – and at its very best.

And for 100 years this single, great unanswerable question has haunted our dreams of Titanic – what would I have done?

Inside the Titanic - First class cabin B59

Inside the Titanic - First class cabin B59

Here is the inherent human drama of the Titanic. Who will live and who will die?

“You go and I’ll stay a while,” Dan Marvin, on his honeymoon, said to his young wife. He blew his bride a kiss as she stepped into the lifeboat. They never saw each other again.

“You must come with me,” insisted Mrs Walter Douglas. “No, I must be a gentleman,” her husband stubbornly insisted. They never saw each other again.

Mrs Isidor Straus, wife of the man who built Macy’s, refused to leave her husband. He, in turn, refused a place in the lifeboat offered because of his age (67).

“I will not go before the other men,” said Isidor Straus, and he sat with his wife in deckchairs, waiting for death.

The couple’s memorial service in New York was attended by 40,000 people.