AquAid’s Best Practise Guide for encouraging fluid intake during the Work Day

AquAid’s Best Practise Guide for encouraging fluid intake during the Work Day

by | Feb 21, 2017 | Water, water cooler

We’re here to help. Yes, of course, we’re in the business of providing you with cool drinking (and hot) water at your premises, whether that’s at your office; warehouse; site; practice; university; college or school, but we’re also concerned with ensuring that you drink enough water to keep yourself well hydrated throughout the day, which is why we’ve written this ‘Best Practice Guide’ for you:

Step One

  1. Educate: Having everybody in the work space on board is the most crucial component in an hydration plan. Educate yourself about the negative effects and downsides resulting from drinking too many fizzy drinks and caffeinated drinks instead of water. Use visual reminders – e.g. put up a poster illustrating good hydration techniques; these are a great way to continually reinforce to you the importance of drinking water. The benefits of drinking sufficient water are manifold.

Step Two

  1. Assessment: The best way to assess your hydration status given the variables of body mass, work routines and other personal and physical aspects is to monitor urine colour. When you are drinking enough water your body is in balance and your urine will be a pale straw yellow colour (Hydrated). When you haven’t drank enough water your kidneys try to save as much water as they can and cause you urine to be darker in colour (Dehydrated). Speak to your local AquAid branch about our dehydration charts, which clearly illustrate the difference between being hydrated to mildly and severely hydrated.

Step Three

  1. Implementation: – The most critical part of the best practise guide is to ensure that drinking water is very readily accessible and is appealing to drink. Keep a bottle of water on your desk to encourage continuous sipping during the day. If you’re in a smaller work space, perhaps you and your colleagues can ask that the water cooler be placed in an area that you can either see from your desk or that you are walking past on more than one occasion during the day.

Conclusion: Encouraging hydration during the work day can have a significant impact on your own overall performance and well-being. This requires a commitment from you, so keep up to date on the positive effects of staying hydrated.

Contact us at AquAid today – we’d be delighted to assist you with which water cooler dispenser is best suited for you based on your requirements.

How to Kick Off your New Year (healthily)

How to Kick Off your New Year (healthily)

by | Jan 19, 2017 | benefits of water, Water Coolers

There are a large percentage of us Britons who make New Year’s Resolutions, but a very small percentage who keep them. Perhaps there’s a better way in which to approach resolutions and in so doing, make resolutions a breeze to keep.

Research shows that as soon as we attach the word ‘resolution’ to intent, our resolve goes out the window, round about a few days after the resolution was first made.

Now imagine if we all approached the dreaded res. dilemma with a new outlook – as an example – what if we started making decisions about the year ahead? If you think about it, we make decisions (the good, bad and the neither here or there) every day of our lives, but they’re decisions nonetheless – no big deal.

So perhaps a good idea is to kick off the year is to haul out your New Year’s Resolution list, tack it up somewhere and re-word it, so it reads something like this:

Lose weight x        I’ve decided to walk to the office/shop/school.

Drink less x             For each tea or coffee I drink, I’m going to drink a glass of water.

Spend less x           For each 50p I save, I’m donating to a charity close to my heart.

Eat less x                 I’ve decided to drink more water before each meal.

What decisions have you decided upon for this year then? Mine reads something like this:

I’ve decided to spend more time outdoors and to walk more.

I’ve decided to drink more water and less of the fizzy stuff, especially at work.

I’ve decided to spread more awareness about how paying it forward truly makes a difference to others.

You get the gist of this decision making vs. resolution failing, right? I’m just going to leave this here for you then.

Here’s wishing you all a splendiferous 2017.

A Tomato = Fifty Litres of Water

by | Jun 8, 2015 | Water

I’m sure you all have a pretty good inkling about some elements of what your carbon footprint is and have, in your own way, implemented certain strategies on how to lessen that footprint.

But are you at all aware of what the water footprint is for each bit of food you consume?

Here are the water footprints for a few foods that may surprise you – making it high time perhaps to get the most out of your allotment or even your windowsill gardens for that matter.

1. Tomato: On average, one tomato (250 gram) costs 50 litres of water. Tomato sauce / ketchup costs 530 litres of water per kilogram of tomato ketchup.

Tomato puree costs 710 litres of water per kilogram of tomato puree.

2. A pound of lettuce = 114 litres

In general, vegetables take much less water to produce than animal products:  That’s where the Meatless Monday suggestion comes in. You don’t need to go vegan, but every bit helps. Lettuces’ water footprint for the UK can be a lot higher as the produce can need to be brought in for consumption from other countries in the winter months.

3. A kilogram of chocolate = 17 000 litres

On average, cocoa beans have a water footprint of 20 000 litres/kg. Cocoa beans are first made into cocoa paste, with cocoa shells as rest product. About 97% of the total water footprint of cocoa beans is allocated to the cocoa paste that is derived from the beans; the rest is attributed to the by-products. One kilogram of cocoa beans gives about 800 gram of paste, so that the water footprint of cocoa paste is about 24 000 litres/kg. From this we can calculate that chocolate has a water footprint of about 17 000 litres/kg.

4. A slice of pizza = 159 litres of water

That would be 68 litres for the flour, 79 litres for the cheese, and nearly 11 for the sauce. Mozzarella, it turns out, is a real water sucker, as is any animal product. Of course, this is the global average, and water use per slice varies from country to country.  French pizza has less than half this footprint, the US just about hits the average mark, and Chinese pizza is slightly more waterlogged.

Obviously, you can’t live on water alone (although it’s super important to ensure that you drink sufficient water), but perhaps spare a thought in future about where your food comes from.

*excerpts from Waterfootprint.org

Water & Your Health – It’s all about Balance in the Belly – Part II

by | Apr 24, 2015 | Health and Hydration

Last week, we spoke about us having 2 brains – the one in our head and the one in our stomach.

This week we continue talking about stomach and digestive system health and how having a happy tummy is vital to your general health and well-being:

It’s all about balance when it comes to your digestive system’s health. When your digestive system is in tip-top shape, about 80-85 percent of bacteria are good guys and 15-20 percent are bad guys. You feel great, your body is strong and nimble, you rarely get sick, your energy is consistent – life is good. The healthy bacteria are free to do their job with ease. They assist with digestion, produce disease-fighting antibodies, crowd out bad bacteria and produce certain hormones, vitamins and nutrients. 

But when the harmful bacteria stage a revolt, all hell breaks loose. They totally stop up the works and cause painful problems like inflammation and infection, which can then lead to health issues such as constipation, candida, allergies, arthritis, headaches, depression, autoimmune diseases and more.

Medications (especially antibiotics and antacids), environmental toxins and chemicals, stress and illness greatly affect the ratio of good to bad bacteria. When bacteria are wiped out indiscriminately, the good guys are mowed down, giving the bad guys a chance to increase their ranks. Hello, chronic health issues.

The food you eat also affects the ratio of good to bad bacteria. Everything you consume is processed and either absorbed into your body or eliminated via your digestive system. Your stomach completes the amazing task of digesting your food and pulling the nutrients, vitamins and minerals out of the food so that they can be absorbed into your bloodstream.

And your digestive system’s mind-blowing capabilities don’t stop there. Your gut also identifies invaders – toxins, microbes, viruses and allergens that could harm your health – and moves them through your digestive system so that they can be excreted.

The key to this system working in your favour is two-fold:

  1. Lend your digestive system a hand by feeding your body whole, plant-based, nutrient-dense foods.
  1. Consistently practice a healthy lifestyle (less stress, exercise, less exposure to environmental toxins, proper rest) that supports the good tummy bacteria and keeps the harmful bacteria under control.

One of the most important factors in maintaining digestive health remains as always, in keeping hydrated and staying hydrated. Your digestive system needs water to keep bacteria and waste moving through you, which will help prevent constipation and bloating. When you’re dehydrated, these issues can throw off the balance of bacteria in your gut and lead to inflammation. Give your stomach a hand and drink more H2O!

The European Food Safety Authority recommends that women should drink about 1.6 litres of fluid and men should drink about 2.0 litres of fluid per day. That’s about eight glasses of 200ml each for a woman, and 10 glasses of 200ml each for a man.

However, the amount a person needs to drink to avoid getting dehydrated will vary depending on a range of factors, including their size, the temperature and how active they are. One of the quickest and easiest ways to see whether you are dehydrated is to check the colour of your urine (keeping in mind that certain medication or even health supplements can give you Day-Glo yellow coloured urine). The lighter and more pale your urine is, the more hydrated you are. The darker it is, the more dehydrated you are.  Be sensible about your water intake though – again, it’s all about balance.

 

World Water Day – 22 March 2015 – Should you care?

by | Mar 22, 2015 | Health and Hydration, Water

In a previous blog, I spoke about the rather disturbing trend where almost every single day of the year has been tagged as a Day of Something or Other. One seems hard pressed to wheedle out a day that has actual significance or some real meaning or; that is of importance and is worth commemorating.

A day that is worth marking though is World Water Day, which this year, will be held on the 22nd of March 2015.  In case you’re wondering why – as you may have all the water that you need and believe that’s all there is to it – here are just a few reasons – from a personal perspective:

  • Water is essentially life giving.
  • There is no spectrum of our lives that is possible without water – this starts with the fact that our physical make-up is around 70% water.
  • Water is a scarce resource and as about only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh water, it is a resource that needs to be protected and used wisely.
  • Short of developments in nuclear fusion, we cannot ‘make’ water, so we need to ensure that the water that we do have is used in a sustainable manner going forward.

The theme for the 2015 World Water Day is Water and Sustainable Development. Some pertinent facts according to the World Water Day website:

  • Water is health – Clean hands can save your life.
  • Water is nature – Ecosystems lie at the heart of the global water cycle.
  • Water is energy – Water and energy are inseparable friends.
  • Water is food – To produce two steaks you need 15 000 litres of water.
  • Water is equality – Every day women spend 200 million hours carrying water.
  • Water is urbanization – Every week, one million people move into cities. 
  • Water is industry – More water is used to manufacture a car than to fill a swimming pool.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, I think it’s safe to say that the world’s water is of concern for us all and that creating and maintaining a sustainable supply is imperative.

Here at AquAid, a very important part of our ethos is assisting in the creation of a sustainable water supply globally, for those less fortunate, in order for these communities to empower themselves and their future generations.

You can follow this link to see what events are being held where this World Water Day 2015.