"bottled water" news and stories

There is a book that came out recently about our obsession with bottled water called Botllemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It. In it, the author talks about our reliance on bottled water and how tap water is generally as pure or more pure than bottled water.

Americans are getting away from bottled water, but it isn't because of this new book. Apparently bottled water is just too expensive, and in an economic downturn it's one of those luxury items that gets cut. This report from CNN.com interviews several people who have switched to tap water as well as a few calculations of how much you can save by cutting out bottled water.

The report also briefly mentions the environmental aspect of this trend. Refusing to buy bottled water helps cut down on the plastic bottles, which we've been told for years is what we need to do. Are you cutting back or cutting out bottled water for economic reasons?

Now that we've seen the paper cup that isn't a paper cup in order to reduce waste, how about plastic bottles that aren't plastic bottles? Italian design house Seletti has created glass water bottles made to look like the plastic water bottles we use then dump. Because they're glass, I doubt they're meant for us to throw into our backpacks and take with us, so they don't necessarily help us reduce our waste of portable plastic bottled water, but at a holding capacity of 1 liter each, they're great for serving water or other beverages at the table or bar.

Available from Lekker Home for $38 a bottle. Comes in four different designs.

Source

Everyone who eats out in restaurants has their list of pet peeves. My biggest is when waiters rush me though my meal.

AOL Food has a list of the 11 most annoying restaurant trends. I'm not sure if some of these are even "trends" or if they're just long-held policies that restaurants have had, like the recitation of menu specials. But some of these are spot on, such as the trend to add "tini" to the end of so many drink names and upselling. Luckily I don't eat in restaurants that have a guy who walks around with a baseball bat-sized pepper mill. Just put a normal-sized one on the table and I'll be happy.

I always feel weird about "taste testing" bottled waters because to me, all water tastes like...water. Sure there are subtle variations that are borne out of where the water originates, if it was bottled at the source, and even the type of packaging it's in, but to me, these are normally undetectable.

What I'm trying to say is you should most definitely take my "review" here with a trace amount of sodium.

I wasn't sure how to feel about Tasmanian Rain because it's touted as bottled rain water. Where I live, if you drink rain water, you'll probably erode the lining of your intestines (I live in Los Angeles). However, the Tasmanian Rain water is collected in Tasmania Australia, "The Edge of the World," where the air is the purest in world. Thats' quite a claim, but the promise is that the air has been scientifically proven to be the purest in the world because it crosses three oceans by the winds of the Antarctic and never touches the ground before it's collected.

Hey, if the Tasmanian Devil has that much energy, the water there must be good!

One of my worst habits, or lack of habit, to be more precise, is drinking enough water. Now that it's on my list of "Make sure you do this," along with taking vitamins, eating more fiber, and cutting down on table salt, you know I'm going to go to my usual OCD addictive extreme and drink too much water.

Sportline's Hyrdo Water Bottle is like a portable water drinking coach that reminds you to drink water because you're carrying it with you, and tells you how much water you really need with a built-in "hydration calculator." Based on your height and weight, you may find that the optimal amount may not even be 8 to 10 glasses. The "Sip Tracker" feature can track how much water you're taking in over the course of the day, so you don't over- or underdo it.

Available from the HydraCoach website for $29.95. For that much cash for a water bottle, you better believe I'll be making good use of it!