At Mountain Park Spring Water, we’re all about healthy hydration, and part of this involves learning about why hydration is so important and the best ways of staying hydrated. If you’ve ever fancied a refreshing drink of water at the beach or if you like to imagine how you would survive if you ever got stranded on a deserted island, then you might have wondered if you could take a drink from the sea if you didn’t have any other alternatives.
Maybe you’ve heard that you shouldn’t drink seawater, but why is this? Let’s learn about the contents of seawater and how it affects the human body.
Why you shouldn’t drink seawater
Other than the fact that seawater often isn’t clean and you don’t know what’s floating around in it, the reason we don’t drink seawater is because it contains salt. In fact, around 3.5% of seawater is made up of salt. This is around four times the amount of salt that we have in our bodily fluids.
You’ve probably experienced strong feelings of thirst after eating fast food or any other meal that was high in salt. This is because salt dehydrates you. So, if you’re drinking only seawater, then the salt in the water is counteracting the hydration provided by the water.
How seawater affects the body
When we drink seawater or saltwater, the concentration of salt in our blood increases. Our body does a good job at naturally maintaining balances, so it attempts to correct this difference in concentration by taking water out of our cells and into our bloodstream, essentially to dilute the blood and reduce its salt concentration. This dehydrates your cells, leaving you feeling thirstier than before. If salt concentrations in your blood are high enough, then this process will eventually kill you.
Your kidneys usually keep your blood clean by filtering out waste, such as salt, and excreting it in your urine. As it attempts to do this, more water will be taken from your body in order to sufficiently dilute the salt that you pass in your urine. As well as further dehydrating you, this also puts a strain on your kidneys and can cause damage to them.
While it’s unlikely that you’d ever be stuck without a source of freshwater for an extended period of time, it’s a fun fact to know that you shouldn’t drink from the sea in the unlikely event you end up in a castaway situation.
Stay hydrated at home and in the office with Mountain Park Spring Water’s bottled water delivery service across North Carolina and Virginia. Get in touch with us to find out more.
As knowledge and technology advance over the years, we come to learn what is good for us and our planet, and what isn’t. It’s strange to think that doctors once endorsed smoking before people learned how bad it is for our health.
And the same goes for plastic and the materials contained in plastic products. We now know that excessive plastic use and improper disposal of it is harming the earth and its wildlife. One material that has gained a lot of attention in recent years is BPA.
What is BPA?
BPA stands for bisphenol A, a common industrial chemical that is frequently added to plastic products and packaging in order to make them stronger and more durable. These days, BPA is most commonly found in plastic water bottles, baby’s bottles, and food containers. It is also used to line the inside of cans used for food packaging to improve their durability.
Is BPA harmful?
BPA has been in frequent use since the 1960s, but it started to gain negative press over the last decade. Exposure to this chemical has been found to have a potentially negative impact on our health.
Research shows that BPA can interact with hormone receptors in our body and mimic certain hormones, particularly estrogen. This can particularly have negative effects on babies and children, and can even stunt the development of fetuses. In children, and adults to a lesser extent, it can affect a number of processes, including growth and cell repair.
BPA in water bottles
Water bottles that contain BPA are made using a very low level of this chemical. So, it is likely that these levels are not high enough to have any serious effects. However, BPA is known to leech into your food and drink stored in these containers.
This is especially the case when the plastic is exposed to heat. When you leave a water bottle in direct sunlight or place that plastic food container in the microwave, the structure of the plastic breaks down slightly over time. This means that more of the BPA it contains can leech into your food or drink.
You won’t see any adverse health effects after drinking from a water bottle containing BPA, but this practice over time can gradually lead to side effects, especially if you drink from the same bottle for a long time and frequently leave it in your hot car, for example. So, make sure to properly store your water bottles and change them as needed.
At Mountain Park Spring Water, we deliver spring water to your home or office in BPA-free water bottles, all the way from our 16.9-ounce bottles up to our 5-gallon water bottles. To find out more about our spring water delivery service around North Carolina and Virginia, get in touch with a member of the team today.
