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The World Health Organization has estimated that a person needs to drink 30 ml of water per kilogram of body weight every day. The recommended water intake can vary based on age, weight, gender, activity level, and the climate in which we live. The human body needs to get enough water to keep urine clear and not dark or bright yellow.
About 40 percent. We get water every day with food, and the rest we have to consume in the form of various drinks. In summer, 2 to 2.5 liters of water should be consumed per day. If the body receives enough water, a person becomes more energetic and tougher, it is easier for him to control his weight because it improves digestion. Researchers have shown that drinking enough water can reduce back pain, migraines, rheumatic pain, blood cholesterol, and blood pressure.
According to health experts, water is important for brain function, drinking it in sufficient amounts helps prevent headaches, which are often caused by dehydration.
Tap water is healthy
The water management company Vilniaus Vandenys has compiled common misconceptions about drinking water that are common in Lithuanian society. One of them is that it is not safe to drink tap water.
Lithuania is one of the few countries in the world that is 100 percent. it supplies the population with water from underground wells while maintaining its flavor and quality properties. This water is better protected because it has no interaction with the environment, it avoids external chemical and microbiological contamination. It is rich in minerals useful for the human body (calcium, magnesium), sulfates and chlorides. To ensure the quality of the supplied water, the quality of the drinking water is constantly monitored and investigations are carried out.
Is bottled water better?
Both store water and tap water must meet the criteria for drinking water. However, the quality of tap water is unsurpassed and, in some parameters, even surpasses bottled water sold in stores. For example, according to Vilniaus Vandenai’s calculations, the mineralization of tap water in Vilnius houses is approximately 450 mg / l. And the mineralization of non-carbonated natural mineral water that is sold in stores is about half. In this parameter, tap water is second only to mineral water sold in highly mineralized stores, the mineralization of which is approximately fifteen times higher.
Calcium and magnesium are considered the most valuable minerals. These substances are necessary for every living organism. Natural milk contains the highest amount of calcium, approximately 1300 mg / l, followed by highly mineralized mineral water with a calcium content of approximately 552 mg / l. Tap water also contains calcium and magnesium at 85 mg / l and 16 mg / l, respectively. In this parameter, tap water outperforms spring water, which contains only 62 mg / l (calcium) and 15 mg / l (magnesium) of these substances.
Vilniaus Vandenys also draws attention to the fact that drinking tap water not only saves money (tap water is approximately 300 times cheaper than bottled water), but also contributes to the environment: it saves the world’s water resources. , increasingly scarce (produced in 1 liter capacity), consumes up to 2.8 liters of water per bottle), reduces the effect of global warming (the production of plastic water bottles emits 2.5 million tons of dioxide of carbon per year, which is the main contributor to global warming), protects the environment.
Do you boil water?
The third floating myth is that boiled water is more beneficial for health and boiled water is often harmful.
When water is heated, the calcium and magnesium bicarbonates it contains break down and precipitate. This removes the minerals calcium and magnesium that our body needs from the water. Therefore, water that has reached the boiling point and then cooled down will no longer have most of the valuable substances, so it is healthier to drink water without boiling. Boiled water many times is also not harmful to humans, because when the same water is repeatedly boiled, its composition still does not change.
In Lithuania, water supplied by centralized systems is constantly tested and safe. However, “Vilniaus vandenys” recommends boiling only water that has not been studied, for example, drawn from a well or some source.
Are calcareous and brown waters harmful?
Another myth is that whitewashed water harms the human body, can form kidney stones, and damage blood vessels.
Lime, formed by the decomposition of calcium and magnesium bicarbonates in water and the formation of insoluble deposits, does not accumulate in the body. They are successfully decomposed in the stomach, from which the necessary elements are assimilated. Kidney stones are formed due to an altered metabolism and not due to calcium, magnesium, or other substances in the water.
We obtain these minerals not only with water, but the body absorbs them through the foods and supplements we consume. The composition of the water or lime has nothing to do with the “calcification” of the blood vessels: their walls are covered with cholesterol.
For centralized supply water, iron compounds sometimes give a brown color. Although it is unpleasant to drink such water, it is not advisable to be afraid, it will not be dangerous to health.
Groundwater is rich in naturally occurring iron and manganese. Water treatment plants remove iron and manganese before the water enters the consumer’s home. The water pumped by the submersible pumps from the wells to the water supply station passes through the aeration thresholds, where the unpleasant smell of hydrogen sulfide is “vented” and the water is saturated with oxygen from the air.
The water is then filtered through open filters filled with quartz sand, on which solid iron and manganese particles are deposited. Although removing excess iron and manganese clears the water, not all of the iron is removed. Fine particles settle on the walls of the pipes and in some rare cases (for example, when the pressure changes or the water supply is temporarily stopped) they bounce off the walls and paint the water brown. It is almost always temporary and does not present any health risk.
Wells may be contaminated
The quality of well water depends on its location, installation and maintenance. Excess fertilizer that is not assimilated by plants enters groundwater and contaminates drinking water sources, especially nitrogen compounds. For chemical analysis of well water, it is recommended to test the content of nitrite, nitrate, ammonium, permanganate number, and specific electrical conductivity.
Nitrates and nitrites are toxic elements that do not have a specific taste, odor, or color in contaminated water. They are not removed by boiling water or household filters. Higher levels of nitrates and nitrites are especially dangerous for pregnant women and babies younger than 6 months. age. Increased levels of ammonia may indicate increased bacterial contamination or rotting processes. The permanganate number indicates the presence of organic compounds such as organic acids in water.
Its high content mainly affects the physical properties of the water: it becomes more cloudy, with a yellowish-brown hue and a sweetened taste. An increase in the permanganate index can be a precondition for environmental contamination. Specific electrical conductivity shows the total amount of various salts of inorganic origin (sulfates, calcium, magnesium, chlorides, bicarbonates) in the water. For example, the higher the mineralization of the water, the more salts are dissolved in it, the higher the value of the specific electrical conductivity.
Well water test results show that the allowable nitrate concentration limit is generally exceeded in Lithuania (the nitrate concentration limit in drinking water is 50 mg / l; it is often 60-150 mg / l, but there are cases where it exceeds 300 mg / l). Chemical contamination was found in the water of one in three wells studied in Vilnius County.
Birutė Litvinaitė
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