#2

... So this blog is a bit of a continuation from my last one. In it, I was looking back on different things that my family was consuming every single day, that are poisons, carcinogenic, and unhealthy for humans.
It's taken a while to write another entry because my family and I went to the mountains of Tennessee for a fun get away with some of our church family. The day before we left I started to come down with cold-like symptoms. Packing still had to be done and my kids still had to be tended to. There was no time(or energy) to go to the doctor or the health food store. With children, us moms do not have the luxury of lying down when we feel ill. So I drank lots and lots of water.
Water. One of the most basic elements that the Lord gave us to enjoy, use, and make the world go round. Water flushes out our bodies and helps the liver and kidney function properly in removing waste from our bodies. Water washes the outside of us and the inside of us. It quenches our thirst like none other. (There is quite a picture of Christ here that I can't resist pointing out).
In 2008 the Associated Press investigated America's tap water, coast to coast, and found that it is contaminated with an array of prescription and over the counter medications. This happens when we take medication. Our bodies don't absorb all of it and the rest is flushed down the toilet. Water treatment plants do not remove pharmaceutical residues. My family was drinking this water and getting these medications in minute doses year after year... who knows what kind of an effect this would have on us if we drank tap water day in and day out over a lifetime. There is no national strategy to deal with this issue. Water makes up 70% of our muscles and brain tissue(that actually explains a lot about some people, just kidding).
Both fluoride and chlorine are added to water in an effort to kill harmful bacteria, but then it is not taken back out before given to us to drink. These chemicals are known to cause cancer. The Earth Day Network has declared that 14 million people in the US right now are drinking water contaminated with chemicals that DO cause cancer, one of them being perchlorate, or rocket fuel. To check your local water quality go to www.nrdc.org, find the "issues" page, then click "water". Now, your own water could be further contaminated because of old pipes leading to your faucets. There are several companies that will test your water for you. If you go to amazon.com and type in water filter testing, you'll find quality kits.
Something else we realized when we were looking into getting a good water filtration system was that we also needed to clean our shower and bath water. I could drink filtered water all day long, but the next morning when I took my shower I put a whole day's worth of unfiltered water into my body. When I took a hot shower and the water steamed up I was breathing those harmful toxins in as well. We got a filter for our shower head and a bottle of ascorbic acid for our children's baths. A few sprinkles of ascorbic acid into a bathtub will neutralize some of the chemicals in the water.
I am going to go ahead and also state the obvious and well known here... plastic water bottles are bad. The kind that you buy filled with water and then put in recycling when done with them, they are harmful. About 1/3 of the bottled water tested was positive for significant chemical or bacterial contamination, exceeding levels allowed under a state or industry standard guideline. The longer a bottle sits on the shelf, the more likely you are to consume larger doses of a chemical called antimony(a carcinogen that leaches from the plastic).
Store your water in stainless steel or BPA free water bottle if possible. Sometimes I do drink water from a plastic bottle... it just makes life easier and a few bottles of water won't give me cancer(hopefully).
So to end this blog I will just express how grateful I am in that the good Lord gave us something so simple, yet so good to consume for health, wellness, and life. I am thankful that He gave us water in abundance. It saddens me a little at what we've done with this earth that we've been entrusted to care for, but He has also given us a "way out". Our Lord has provided ways to consume the healthy water that was originally put on earth for us.
Thank you for reading!
Love,
Jackie
p.s. If you do buy a water filter, make sure it is independently certified by NSF International and maintain as often as the manufacturer recommends. Healthy water = worth the trouble.