Water is absolutely essential for every function of the body. It is necessary for digestion, absorption, circulation and excretion. We might be able to survive without food for five weeks but we can’t live more than 5 days without water. We’re all made up of more than 70% water and we need every drop to help transport nutrients and waste products in and out of the cells, carry waste out of the body, and maintain body temperature.

Most of us do not drink enough water. We should all be drinking six to eight glasses a day. Try hot water and a slice of lemon before breakfast: it’s wonderfully refreshing and excellent for the liver. Herbal teas do count towards your liquid intake but other drinks don’t.

But do you know exactly what is in the water that you drink?

It is estimated that as many as 60,000 different chemicals now contaminate our water supply. In addition to man-made oestrogens (e.g. xenoestrogens and oestrogens from the contraceptive pill and HRT), a 2004 report found traces of Prozac and seven other drugs in the UK water supply. The standard purification techniques used by most water companies remove the bugs from the water but do not remove all the dissolved chemicals. In attempts to clean the water, other chemicals are often added including chlorine and aluminium. Not only may these chemicals be toxic in their own right, but chlorine may react with organic waste to form compounds which can increase the risk of cancer of the colon, rectum and bladder.

The recognition that there is a possibility that much of our tap water is contaminated has seen a boom in bottled water sales. Trouble is the next bottle of water you drink may be nothing more than tap water that has passed through a filter.

Tap water is not ideal but if you filter it, that helps. Filtered tap water is the cheapest and easiest way to ensure the water you are drinking is relatively clean. Water filter jugs are readily available. Use the filtered water for cooking as well as for hot and cold drinks. Bear in mind that filters can become breeding grounds for bacteria so replace the filter every month and clean the jug at least once a week. A good quality filter should eliminate or greatly reduce the levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and chlorine and remove any adverse tastes, colours and smells in the water.

If you want to go to the next level you can buy plumbed in filters for use in your kitchen sink or you can go for a system which is fitted to your mains water system at home. Alternatively buy water bottled in glass rather than plastic as plastic bottled water can increase the amount of toxins from the bottle into the water.

Bottled water now outsells cola in the UK (which can only be a good thing) and is very convenient when you are on the go. There are concerns about toxins leaking into the water from plastic bottles. To avoid this risk buy water in glass bottles or only buy bottled water that has a best before date. Besides the health implications, plastic bottles contribute to the half a million tonnes of plastic we throw away each year.

Be careful of using filtered tap water rule if your house was built before 1970 which may have lead pipes. Tap water that flows through lead pipes can pick up lead particles, which can then be ingested. Children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning and there may be a link between early lead exposure and learning difficulties. If you are concerned that your home has lead pipes use only the cold water as the hot water is more likely to contain chemicals, like lead and asbestos. Let the cold water tap run for a few minutes until it is as cold as it can get to flush out the pipes. The longer it sits in the pipes the higher the level of pollutants. You should also call your water supplier as they may be able to test the water.

There is a difference between mineral and spring bottled water.

Spring Water is normally taken from one or more underground sources and has undergone a range of treatments, such as filtration and blending.

Natural mineral water is bottled in its natural underground state and is untreated. It has to come from an officially registered source, conform to purity standards and carry details of its source and mineral analysis on the bottle.

Naturally sparkling water is natural water from its underground source with enough natural carbon dioxide naturally occurring to make it bubbly.

Sparkling (carbonated) water –will have had carbon dioxide added during bottling just as ordinary fizzy drinks do.

Some waters, if they don’t say mineral or spring, can just be tap water filtered.

Watch out for the flavoured spring waters as they sound wonderfully natural, but often contain sugar or artificial sweeteners and other ‘nasties.

So the best form of water, in my opinion, is to drink still mineral water from glass bottles.

Using pesticides on pot-plants could more than double your risk of developing a brain tumour, according to research released in June 2007.

Householders who use fly sprays, weed-killers and other chemical treatments on their pot-plants are more than twice as likely to develop brain cancer, the findings show. Around 5,000 Britons are diagnosed each year with brain tumours. Some can be removed by surgery but others can be fatal.

Little is currently known about what causes brain tumours, but the study – one of the biggest of its kind – suggested that pesticides play a role. The findings come a week after British researchers warned that using pesticides while gardening could increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease by more than 40 per cent. In the latest study, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine in June 2007, scientists examined more than 200 patients with brain tumours and compared them to a healthy group of people. Researchers found that that those who had used pesticides at home were more than twice as likely to have developed a tumour. They also found that all agriculture workers exposed to pesticides had an increased risk of a brain tumour, while agricultural workers exposed to the highest levels were more than twice the risk.

The researchers added that further research is needed as they could not rule out that difference in diet or exposure to chemicals in household cleaning agents had an effect on tumour development. Nor could they pinpoint which products or chemicals were damaging the brain. However, they did suggest that this was a clear warning for people to think of other methods to keep their plants free of bugs.

We generally trust that ‘health foods’ will benefit us in the way they claim to, but just how good for us are they?

• Cereals: We’re often told to start the day with a nutritious bowl of cereal. While breakfast cereals contain vital vitamins and minerals, what the brightly coloured packaging or glossy advertising campaigns don’t always tell us is that they can also be laden with sugar, salt and saturated fats. Cereals can be a great way to start the day, but be careful to avoid high sugar varieties. Instead, go for an oat-based cereal or sugar free muesli to help stabilise your blood sugar.
• Breakfast/cereal bars: Like breakfast cereals, these are full of sugar and saturated fats, shattering their image as a nutritious, low-fat and low-salt nibble. They can sometimes have the same fat and sugar content as a chocolate bar so best to snack on fruit and nuts or seeds instead.
• Fruit juices: Fruit juice drinks tend to be full of sugar – there can be less than 10 per cent real fruit juice, the rest is sugar (or even artificial sweeteners), water and flavourings. If a ‘fruit juice’ has the word ‘drink’ in the title, then it should be avoided as otherwise it will not be 100% fruit juice. Look out for ‘100 per cent fruit juice’ on the label. This means it contains no added sugar, but you should still be aware of the natural sugars found in fruit, so don’t go overboard, or dilute the juice with half water. In the same way, fruit yoghurts contain little in the way of real fruit pieces and are often packed with sugar, additives and preservatives so go for organic, natural yogurt, preferably with a live culture to aid your digestion. A seemingly ‘healthy’ fruit yogurt, even an organic one, can contain up to eight teaspoons of sugar.
• Canned soups: Canned soups are often packed full of salt and high in fat, especially the creamy and cheesy varieties. A diet too high in salt is linked with an increased risk of high blood pressure. Just one cup of soup can contain a third of your recommended daily salt allowance. Even supposedly low-salt canned soup contains a substantial amount of salt. Your best bet is to avoid completely and go for homemade soups instead. They are so easy to make. Also some soups, like tomato soup, can contain a fair amount of sugar, not what you would expect in a savoury food. Also sugar can be added to spaghetti sauces, tomato ketchup and baked beans so read the labels, as there are alternative products without sugar. .
• Pre-prepared salads: Pre-prepared and ready-washed salads are often washed in chlorine, not water. The chlorine is used to disinfect the salad and kill bacteria, but it also destroys the vitamins and minerals. It can be rinsed in up to 200 times the amount of chlorine found in tap water, although most of the residue is removed to ensure it meets government safety regulations. Organic salads cannot be washed using chlorine, so try to buy these if you can. Watch out too for any dressings enclosed; some can be very high in calories.