Water Bottles

Water bottles are another topic surrounding the importance of drinking plenty of water every day. I encourage anyone who has a busy life style to invest in a water bottle. I use the word invest because owning a water bottle is one of the best choices you can make! 

Owning a water bottle will hopefully remind you to fill it and use it! (smile. wink, wink!) 

For many years, I worked in a small, discount grocery store, primarily as a cashier. My shifts were usually 5 or 10 hours long. I learned, very quickly, the importance of owning a water bottle since I was often glued to a cash register for a few hours before getting a break. 

About once a year, I would purchase a new water bottle since mine got so much daily use. I liked the classic, plastic, Rubbermaid ones that usually cost around $5.00. (I could sometimes find a brand new one where I worked for $1.99.) It was great! I found myself drinking more water every day by simply owning a water bottle. 

Last year though, I discovered that certain water bottles can have an affect on our health. I learned that certain plastics are made with chemicals that can be harmful to our health. This is why you see "BPA free" labels on many plastic products today.

Certain plastic products (like the soft plastic, Rubbermaid water bottles!) contain a chemical called nonylphenols. (you can look up information about this chemical on Wikipedia.) 

Nonylphenols can disrupt your endocrine system which can result in disrupting your hormones. That's not a good thing. Granted, the levels of this chemical in a plastic water bottle might be low, but over time and on a daily basis, that can have a negative affect on your health.  

Plastic is handy stuff; I like it a lot! I own many things made out of plastic (especially storage bins) but my water bottle is no longer one of those things. 

After discovering this fact about plastic water bottles last year, I was shopping at the discount grocery store I once worked at, and I found a brand new, glass water bottle there for sale! It had a blue no slip grip on the outside of it, but the entire thing was made of glass except for the top and straw which were made of hard plastic. I was so delighted to find it! I bought it that day for somewhere around $5.00, and over a year later, I'm still using it. I absolutely love it! It holds 2 and a half cups of water (20 oz.), and I usually fill mine at least twice a day. (my goal is to fill it three times a day.) The brand is called ello and they make glass and stainless steel water bottles. 

If you like to shop online, Amazon sells this glass water bottle for $9.99. Mine is like this blue one, but they have several colors to choose from.  

If you prefer shopping locally, Target also sells this glass water bottle for the same price as Amazon. 

Last November, I had surgery to remove a large, benign, fluid filled, ovarian cyst, and I lost my left ovary and tube with it. (tears!) During my hospital stay, there was a large, plastic water bottle close to me with a straw. I was glad to have some water to sip on when I wanted. The ironic thing is, after drinking from a glass water bottle for several months, I could taste the chemicals in that plastic water bottle the hospital gave me! (yuck!) I was so glad when I came home and could drink from my glass water bottle again! 

If I had been drinking from a plastic water bottle on a daily basis, I probably wouldn't have noticed the plastic taste as much. 

 

I highly encourage anyone to purchase a glass or a stainless steel water bottle instead of a plastic one. You might pay $10 instead of $5 for a water bottle like that, but in my mind, your health is worth it! 

Glass and stainless steel will not leach harmful chemicals into your drinking water. If you're someone who travels frequently (or if you drop things a lot) you might consider purchasing a hard plastic water bottle since hard plastics do not usually contain nonylphenols. Once again though, glass or stainless steel is better. 

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, and I have no medical training. The things I share on this blog are simple, practical things that I've learned help with good health.