Hydration is vital to overall health. People who are well hydrated are less likely to be overweight, more able to stay focused and alert and their bodies find it easier to carry out a range of everyday functions. In fact water is so important, that even short periods of dehydration can leave us feeling tired and lethargic and cause potentially serious damage to our bodies.

As bottled water isn’t always convenient to buy or store, the easiest way to stay hydrated throughout the day is to drink plenty of tap water. Incredibly affordable, refreshing and high quality, tap water is the obvious answer to your hydration needs.

However, do you really know what’s in your water? And is there an easy way to boost its quality?

Additives

In order to ensure tap water is safe to drink, water companies add a number of chemicals during the preparation process. The most common additives are liquefied chlorine, aluminium sulphate, calcium hydroxide, sodium silicofluoride and fluorosilicic acid.

Some of the chemicals added to tap water are designed to kill bacteria and microorganisms, while others, like fluoride, are added to help protect our teeth from decay.

Contaminants

As many of the water pipes in the UK were laid down in Victorian times, it’s not uncommon for other contaminants to find their way into the water supply. Hormones, pesticides, metals and other substances can be found in tap water, with minor outbreaks of more serious contaminants occurring sporadically in the UK every year.

Bottled water

These chemicals and contaminants put a lot of people off of tap water. More and more consumers are shunning tap water in favour of bottled water, with sales of pre-packaged water rising by around 10% per year.

However, though bottles labelled as ‘spring water’ or ‘mineral water’ have to be sourced straight from the ground, labels that simply read ‘bottled water’ could have come from anywhere. In fact, as journalist David Derbyshire says, “believe it or not, around a third of bottled water sold in supermarkets is nothing more than reprocessed tap water”.

What’s more, studies have shown that, thanks to lower levels of fluoride in bottled water, children who don’t drink tap water on a regular basis have much higher levels of tooth decay than those who do.

Water filter

If you’re concerned about additives in your tap water, installing a water filter could help to put your mind at ease. Not only will a water filter remove almost all of the impurities found in tap water, it will also soften your water supply and ensure your tap water is always enjoyable to drink.

Plus, as bottled water has a huge and long lasting impact on the environment, due to the plastic discarded on an enormous scale; choosing tap water instead will help you keep your carbon footprint to a minimum.

To find out more about how a water filter could transform your home’s supply, explore our site today.