Drinking tap water

[Willisa1]

How much tap water is safe to drink a day ? I only drink tap water nothing else, I drink about 3 litres a day. I'm 5'10, 75kg and I do cardio 3 times a week.

[Jay Evans]

Hm, your advised to drink 2 litres a day I believe! but I dunno if its bad to have extra 0.o.

[Smiler]

Hi,

It depends on the person, what you are doing, and what environment you are in.

Your body can only handly 1.5litres (average) per hour, any more than that and you are overdoing your system.

If your tongue feels furry, your urine is going yellow, you aren't sweating, you are starting to cramp, these are all signs of dehydration. If you are dehydrated you will lack blood volume, and problems can start with all of your working systems...

If you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated, time for a drink...

Try a glass of water an hour...

And if you train weigh yourself before and after training. 1kg weight loss usually equates to 1ltr of fluid loss, so you can gauge better how much you need.

Worth saying again though, everyone is an individual...

Hope this helps!

Smiler

[Rosi]

How much tap water is safe to drink a day ? I only drink tap water nothing else, I drink about 3 litres a day. I'm 5'10, 75kg and I do cardio 3 times a week.

As far as tap water goes, it depends on who you ask. The "official position" is that tap water is perfectly safe - but if you ask some of the hippy types who are into homeopathy and crystals they'll tell you that you're risking life and limb just by taking a bath in the stuff.

The real answer is probably somewhere in between. Things like chlorine and fluoride that are added to the water supply are probably not great for you in larger quantities, and there have been stories about drug residues and traces of estrogen in tap water. The thing is - bottled water is probably not much better.

I use a water filter at home. I'm not sure how much difference it really makes, but it does improve the taste.

[Al Wallace]

I heard somewhere along the line that water filters are pretty pointless as the tap water in the UK is bang on and should just be drank straight, is that bollocks then?

[MMAFightnut]

Richard Hammond did a series called 'How safe is....'

One of the episodes was on tap water.

They tested his home supply and found that it was perfectly safe and no different from bottled or filtered water for chemical balance.

They concluded that its down to personal taste as they are all the same.

Personally mine goes thru a filter at home, mainly because its in the fridge and i prefer my water cold.

Hope that helps.

[Jimmy Boogaloo]

I don't know if I've been fed a pile of misinformation -

Does drinking cold water in the morning do anything for your metabolism?

drinking a load of cold water, does it burn significant calories as your body warms up to maintain a higher temperature? must burn some, but is it significant?

[Rosi]

I heard somewhere along the line that water filters are pretty pointless as the tap water in the UK is bang on and should just be drank straight, is that bollocks then?

Possibly true, but I'm not completely convinced.

My main reasons for using it are - (1) my house still has lead water pipes, which are definitely Not A Good Thing, and (2) I just prefer the taste of filtered water. Chlorine may be perfectly safe in the amounts they use it in, but it tastes nasty.


Does drinking cold water in the morning do anything for your metabolism?

drinking a load of cold water, does it burn significant calories as your body warms up to maintain a higher temperature? must burn some, but is it significant?

You can work out how much energy it takes to warm up a given amount of water - it's 1 KCal of heat per litre of water per degree celsius.

So a 200ml glass of cold water at 5 degrees C would take 0.2 x 32 = 6.4 calories to warm up to body temperature... and then you have to consider that your body is producing heat anyway as a byproduct of other stuff it's doing, so you're probably not even burning the extra 6.4 calories.

[DetoxGuru.com]

i have been told that water is better at room temp , i always use a water filter and never put water in the fridge.

[Jimmy Boogaloo]

You can work out how much energy it takes to warm up a given amount of water - it's 1 KCal of heat per litre of water per degree celsius.

So a 200ml glass of cold water at 5 degrees C would take 0.2 x 32 = 6.4 calories to warm up to body temperature... and then you have to consider that your body is producing heat anyway as a byproduct of other stuff it's doing, so you're probably not even burning the extra 6.4 calories.

many thanks!

[Sports-Select.co.uk]

The room temp thing is spouted by Chekies but I don't see the reasoning behind it.

Flouride content of tap water is normally the concern...it might have some credibility.

[DetoxGuru.com]

chekies?? the person who advised me said "people dont eat enough hot food and drinking cold water/canned drink makes things worse" plus i prefer it at room temp :)

please explain as i havent heard this term , flouride is a highly toxic chemical , just so happens its cheaper to be disposed of in toothpaste that it is to bury in the ground . b.t.w flouride free toothpaste is available from boots and still leaves your breath fit to kiss pretty girls :)

[Sports-Select.co.uk]

Chekies

Members of the cult of Paul Chek.

[DetoxGuru.com]

paul chek sounds pretty cool to me " dont learn to be healthy off sick people" what a great saying

[Smiler]

Hi,

I like most of what Paul Chek teaches, he is a good teacher of health and fitness for life, and I subscribe to much of what he says...

I like the way he backs up what he says with the science studies...

I understood that taking water at room temperature has less 'shock' to your system and therefore is absorbed quicker...and I've heard Rosi's discussion point about the offset of cooling v warming energy balancing things out before, its a lovely balanced view.

Mind you, I'm addicted to millk and have a couple of pints of milk most days...lucky I'm not lactose intolerant!!!

I drink mains water, though if I'm out and about and thirsty, I'll often have bottled water through necessity...

I get some funny looks in pubs and restaurants too, in the UK they don't seem to get the concept of 'table water', and I often get frowned upon for ordering a pint of tap water (no ice, no lemon) with my glass of red...

Smiler

[Jay]

I get some funny looks in pubs and restaurants too, in the UK they don't seem to get the concept of 'table water', and I often get frowned upon for ordering a pint of tap water (no ice, no lemon) with my glass of red...

Smiler

more the fool them for thinking it's gonna be a good idea to throw you some funny looks while you're in the pub! i sense a bas rutten style 'dangada dangada kick to the groin punch to the liver' type scenario :rolleyes:

[OllieR]

A while back i was approached by a company called 'pure ionic' who sell and fit, reverse osmosis filters systems to home appliances. Although i was initially sceptical i listened to their pitch. They did an electroylisis demonstration on two glasses of water, one normal and one that had been passed through the filter. Once a current had beenpassed through the normal water, it looked like pond water ! not only could you see the all the different chemicals dissovled in it, you could also see a very thin metalic layer on top of the water. What sparked my interest was the thought that, nothing had changed to that glass of water but there was no way i would drink it if it looked like swamp water, but i was happy to drink it if all those chemicals were re - dissolved !!! After the presentation i did some further research and found out that my water supplier, severn trent had had recommendations of un acceptable for levels of lead, nitrates, ARSNIC, manganese and pestacides !!! On top of that there is the oestrogen issues that is well publicised.

I haven't drank tap water since....... also having reccomended systems to players, they have found alot of benefits, and knock on benefit for their families.

bit of an essay !

[piratebrido]

You can work out how much energy it takes to warm up a given amount of water - it's 1 KCal of heat per litre of water per degree celsius.

I've read it is a raise of temperature from 14.5 to 15.5 degree celsuis specifically. Doing guess work here but I guess it has something to do with relevance to body temperature and that perhaps it takes different amounts of energy to raise the temperature of 1 litre of water from 2 degrees to 3 degrees and from 80 degrees to 81 degrees?

I don't actually know if any of that is true mind, I keep meaning to look into it, but perhaps someone here knows the answer?

[ocuana]

I work for ANglian water and it is true that in fact, through your tap water you have levels of toxins that are considered "acceptable!"
Thing is, is that we actually have the maximum amount of toxins acceptable so it is always at the limit. The electro test would be accurate and I've seen it a hundred times.
I personally drink bottled water for flavour and a small amount of mineral content is great for me - my housewater tastes crap.
They don't sell bottled water here at work because they say "tap water has more checks than mineral water"... well duh! that stands to reason because from the sky and flowing through a mountain (I do get REAL mountain water not just bottled spring) is much cleaner and doesn't need to be filtered and resevoired from the dirty patch it falls in.
I always say filter or bottle.

Ironically - they won't sell me bottled water - but they will sell me coca cola!

[Keltik]

I work for ANglian water and it is true that in fact, through your tap water you have levels of toxins that are considered "acceptable!"
Thing is, is that we actually have the maximum amount of toxins acceptable so it is always at the limit. The electro test would be accurate and I've seen it a hundred times.
I personally drink bottled water for flavour and a small amount of mineral content is great for me - my housewater tastes crap.
They don't sell bottled water here at work because they say "tap water has more checks than mineral water"... well duh! that stands to reason because from the sky and flowing through a mountain (I do get REAL mountain water not just bottled spring) is much cleaner and doesn't need to be filtered and resevoired from the dirty patch it falls in.
I always say filter or bottle.

Ironically - they won't sell me bottled water - but they will sell me coca cola!


so is tap water safe or not?

[ocuana]

It is safe 99 percent. Take from that what you want.