The need for water is no secret yet people in some cases that have plenty available find themselves suffering from dehydration why do you think that happens? It might be considered a universal statement that not drinking enough water say eight glasses a day will lead to dehydration. While the truth of the matter is the amount of fluids that each person needs will vary based on their absorption, activity level, gender and body size. While many consider it to be the best liquid for this purpose there are a number of other sources that can provide hydration including soda, juice, milk, coffee, tea and foods with high water content. There have been quite a few studies on the subject and some would suggest it just needs to be liquid not necessary water. There is much debate on this point given most believe there are very few alternatives that can replace pure drinking water. While we might all agree water is important for the body, the water we chose to drink may not always be good for us. What does that mean? Well consider for a minute the many sources of water we have today. Yes there are probably hundreds of choices of an item that once was so basic. So how important is water to the body well most studies suggest you can live for about 7 days without water under extreme conditions and a little longer if the situation and your health is better.On the other hand you can live 7 weeks or more without food. This would confirm that water is not an option for good health it is a necessity. This being the case it might be essential that you re-think your choices and frequency of hydrating your body. Once as stated earlier the choices were so few and the ingredient so similar that it was a fairly easy decision to make. Fast forward us to the 21 century and break it down to all the things we have learned and developed to improve on a life essential element, water. We will save the discussion for weather it is better hot, cold, filter, ionized and the list goes on for later.For now just focus on the water market and how it has impacted the world economy. The list of sources continue to grow as we re-name and re-market what we use to primarily drink from the tap, a fountain, a well, a stream or even a river. The types of water are so varied now that when you ask for water you need to be very specific. Why is this important? Well think about the choices you make everyday about the water you drink be it distilled, tap, bottled, favored, filtered, unfiltered, cold, warm, with ice or without and this is just the water you drink. What about the water you cook with? The choices vary based on the individual, everything from taste, to fear, to status, to availability and the list goes on. However, the basic truth is the same we all need and do drink water and if that is the case it might be wise to investigate a bit further into some of the assumptions we make about what we put in our body. It may not be an easy assessment to make because some of the assumptions we make are not based in facts. Example most would assume bottled water was better for you than say tap water. However this is truly not the case in all situations because some bottled water is unfiltered tap water...yes that’s right! The convenience of picking up a bottle of water has gone beyond what might have been the original motivation of providing a better drinking water source by processing it and bottling it for general consumption. It has gone far beyond that in that the water bottling industry so if you go back to 2007 the revenue that was generated from the sale of bottle water was expected to reach approximately 6 Billion dollars and grow globally as predicted to be about $82 billion in 2011.
Have you ever wondered about the global market for water? The following statistics should give you an idea of how vital water is on a global level. It is safe to say that drinking water is a good investment in you health and well being.
| Bottled Water Statistics | |
| Total Average plastic bottles per person annually | 167 |
| Total Annual money spent annually on bottled water | $15 billion |
| Total amount of all bottled water sold by Aquafina (Pepsi) and Dasani (Coke) annually | 24% |
| Total percent of U.S. Water Bottle Market owned by Coke and Pepsi | 50% |
| Total amount of bottled water each coke and pepsi sell annually | 3.36 billion |
| Total Profit made by Coke and Pepsi each year individually | $336 million |
| Total amount U.S. spends on bottled water annually | $15 billion |
| Total amount of cases of water sold in the U.S. annually | 2.6 billion |
| Total Global Water Bottle sales annually | $50 billion |
| Statistic Verification |
| Source: Drop The Prop, International Bottled Water Association |
| Date Verified: 2.24.2012 |
