Enjoy the Spring Showers

Spring is here & I hope everyone is enjoying the unusual Spring and even Summer like weather we are having. I have been seeing more people outside lately - running, walking, cycling, and even pulling weeds. it is a great time to get outside, dust off the winter blahs and begin to see the sunshine. But, don't forget to hydrate.

What?

Yes, hydration is very important even this time of year.  You need to drink plenty of water during all of your physical activities despite the weather not being as high as those intense summer months. Here is why water works - a recent Nurses' Health Study shows an increased in hypertension among those who drink sweetened beverages - diet or regular. In a similar study, the French research institute INSERM reports that people who DON’T drink at least 2 cups of water a day are more likely to have high blood sugar - which is a risk for pre-diabetes. So, just because we are getting into warmer temperatures doesn't mean you can forget to refresh yourself with water.

 Leave the soda on the shelf in the super market, try picking up some H20. And to naturally sweeten your water try freezing fruit (grapes, berries, etc.) and then chuck those frozen blocks of fruit into your water.

And please - as you are trying to stay hydrated - consider the environment.  Please try to use reusable water bottles if you can. It saves you money, as well as, the environment. If you can't - then please recycle your plastic water bottles! Keep them out of our landfills and oceans!

According to National Geographic: 

In 1976 Americans drank an average of 1.6 gallons of bottled water every year. Roughly 30 years later consumption increased to 30 gallons per person, according to the Earth Policy Institute --- despite the fact that bottled water can cost anywhere from 240 to 10,000 times more than tap water, which is brought right to your home for pennies a gallon. Bottled water also creates its own share of pollution --- the production of plastic bottles requires millions of barrels of oil per year and the transportation of bottled water from its source to stores releases thousands of tons of carbon dioxide.

Americans drink more bottled water than any other nation, purchasing an impressive 29 billion bottles every year. Making all the plastic for those bottles uses 17 million barrels of crude oil annually. That is equivalent to the fuel needed to keep 1 million vehicles on the road for 12 months. If you were to fill one quarter of a plastic water bottle with oil, you would be looking at roughly the amount used to produce that bottle.

Recycling

The recycling rate for those 29 billion bottles of water is low; only about 13 percent end up in the recycling stream where they are turned into products like fleece clothing, carpeting, decking, playground equipment and new containers and bottles. In 2005, that meant approximately 2 million tons of water bottles ended up in U.S. landfills, according to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Plastic bottles take centuries to decompose and if they are incinerated, toxic byproducts, such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals, are released into the atmosphere.