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As an athlete, I am always trying to find ways to improve. And by improve, I don’t just mean get faster, although that is the ultimate goal. There are so many things that go into “getting faster” besides running faster on the track. As a hurdler, there is a lot of technique involved, so I have a lot of opportunities to finetune my mechanics, both between the hurdles and over them. We watch a lot of video and do a lot of drills.

There are many opportunities to improve off the track as well, for example with nutrition. As I’ve mentioned before, I try to stay away from supplements as much as possible and try to get all of my nutrients from real food. Nutrition is something I didn’t feel the need to worry about when I was younger, but as I’ve evolved as an athlete, my eyes have been opened to the importance of your diet and what you choose to fuel your body with.

Water is a huge focus for me, in order to stay hydrated and rid my body of toxins. I’m sure you know that drinking water is important, and many athletes and people trying to stay fit set a goal of drinking a gallon of water a day. Personally, I try to drink as many ounces as I weigh in pounds – so 135 ounces a day, which I measure in water bottles. Staying hydrated and getting rid of toxins helps your body repair and recover from your last workout.

But what about the bottled water itself and what’s in it?

Contaminants in Bottled Water:

The New York Times published an alarming article in September entitled The Arsenic in Our Drinking Water. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element “which swirls in a dark, metalloid shimmer in soil and rock across much of the Unites States and in many other countries.” It seeps into groundwater, and for years, researchers noted its presence but dismissed it as mostly harmless because of low contamination. But now they’ve changed their minds!

Long famed for its homicidal toxicity at high doses, a number of studies suggest that arsenic is an astonishingly versatile poison, able to do damage even at low doses. Chronic low-dose exposure has been implicated not only in respiratory problems in children and adults, but in cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancers of the skin, bladder and lung.

Trace amounts in the body interfere with tumor-suppressing glucocorticoid hormones, studies show, which is one reason that arsenic exposure has been linked to a range of malignancies. Arsenic also interferes with the normal function of immune cells. It damages lung cells and causes inflammation of cells in the heart.

New York Times, September 2013

Needless to say, that was enough to make me do some research on which brands of bottled water don’t have arsenic in them! Turns out, arsenic isn’t the only thing to be concerned with. I found an easy-to-use guide for buying bottled water online. Here is the gist:

Check for the levels of the following contaminants in your water:

• TTHMs. TTHMs are “total trihalomethanes,” which are potentially cancer-causing chemicals. TTHM levels should be as low as possible in the brand of water you choose, ideally below 10ppb (parts per billion)…preferably NONE!
• Chloroform. Chloroform is a chemical that was used as an anesthetic during surgery for many years before its harmful effects on the liver and kidneys were recognized. It is also thought to have effects on the reproductive and nervous systems and has been linked to cancer (source). You should choose a water brand with the lowest chloroform concentration…preferably NONE!
• Arsenic. You should always choose a brand of water with the lowest arsenic level possible…preferably NONE!
• HPC Bacteria. The presence of HPC bacteria is not necessarily harmful by itself but can be used as an indicator of overall sanitation during bottling. HPC bacteria levels should be kept as low as possible.

Unfortunately, the levels of these contaminants are not required to be on the labels of bottled water, so it’s hard to know which brands are safe. I found a pretty extensive list of bottled water brands that have been tested for these and other contaminants. You can access it here:

Natural Resources Defense Council: Summary of Test Results: Bottled Water Contaminants Found

However, it’s a pretty big list to sort through, so to help you (and myself) out, I narrowed it down to just the brands of bottled water that had NO traces of TTHMs, chloroform or arsenic. Then I included the amount of HPC bacteria found, so you can look for brands with low levels. The EPA guideline for HPC bacteria is 500 cfu/ml. I’m hoping they conduct further tests, because some popular brands aren’t listed at all, such as Fiji.

Please Note: I am no scientist, so check back to the original source in the event that more brands are tested and newer results are posted! Also, note that some brands had no contaminants detected in the specific type of water mentioned below but may have had contaminants in other bottled water products they offer (for example, in a different size bottle). So make sure to match the brand AND water type when shopping, and not just the brand.

Bottled water with no traces of the contaminants: TTHMs, chloroform or arsenic:

See the NRDC’s full bottled water contaminants test results HERE.

Some common brands are missing from this list. Also, there are brands that have no contaminants in one product they offer (say, a certain size bottle) but in another product they do have contaminants. So I kept looking for other sources on bottled water, particularly on the transparency offered by the different distributors.

Water Brands Offering the Most Transparency:

I found a “Bottled Water Scorecard” offered by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which rated water brands on transparency in three key areas:

• Where does the water come from?
• Is it purified? If so, how?
• Have tests found any contaminants?

Not surprisingly, one of the highest-rated brands when it comes to transparency was Gerber (Gerber Pure Purified Water to be exact). I have heard that baby brands are good choices because they are intended to be safe for mixing baby formula and are often under more scrutiny than water intended for the general public. The other two brands with good ratings were Nestlé’s Pure Life Purified Water and Penta Ultra-Purified Water. Gerber’s water can be found in my table above of water with none of the contaminants, but I could not find the other two on the original source website, so it’s hard to know if they are safe or not without calling them and requesting a water report.

Spring Water vs Purified Water:

One thing to think about with purified water is that while “purified” sounds good, it is a bit like “anti-bacterial,” meaning yes, the water has been stripped of contaminants (provided that the company is actually doing what it says it’s doing), but that often means it has been stripped of its natural nutrients as well, just like anti-bacterial products kill good AND bad bacteria.

For this reason, I try to stick with spring water. True spring water is captured from a natural, mountain, or artesian spring. Natural spring water comes from a clean underground water source, and therefore is considered to be free of the contaminants typically found in tap water. It’s considered “live water” because it is water that is constantly moving. Unfortunately, many brands that claim to be spring water aren’t actually bottling water from a real spring! This is frustrating. The brand that I can find contaminant information for and that I can verify the source of is Evian, so I buy that brand most often.

But Bottled Water is Harmful to the Environment!

I know. Recycle, recycle, recycle those bottles. Drinking bottled water all the time is not ideal, but it is convenient, and there is something to be said for that. There is a website called Find a Spring that helps you find a spring near your location. I may have to take the twindigs to one soon so we can bottle our own water right from the source. But making enough trips to a (relatively) nearby spring to account for my intake of 135 ounces of water a day just isn’t realistic, so for now, I have to just do the research and make the best choice I can from what’s on the shelves at the grocery store. Hopefully the research I’ve done helps you as well, and if you know of any more sources of information, please let me know!

Now I’m off to drink my weight in water!

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