In the past I have written about the importance of hydration and why it is so vital if you want to move yourself from illness to wellness and stay there.
If you are susceptible to migraines, then you need to drink water.
Knowing how much water to drink, is trickier. We’re all different shapes and sizes and are active in greater or lesser ways. There’s also the (albeit rare) risk that we can drink TOO MUCH water and make ourselves sick with Hyponatremia or “water intoxication”.
Today’s post is, unashamedly, yet another take on the whole water, water, everywhere idea…
Ian McEwan is the British author, and Booker-Prize winner, who wrote the novel “Atonement” (2001), amongst many others. Not that long ago, Mr McEwan gave a speech at the Cheltenham Literature Festival where he criticized society’s out of control obsession with constantly sipping from water bottles:
“Thirty years ago, nobody had bottles of water. You had a drink from the tap when you got home […] And suddenly we were persuaded that you can’t go 10 minutes without being thirsty. This is a derangement. […] Millions of plastic bottles everywhere, as if being thirsty was a terrible affliction. It only is in extremes. Just wait 10 minutes and go home and have a cup of tea. […] It’s a very small thing, in a sense, but it’s a symbol of how life can change without us really noticing.” (source)
Hmmm… it is true.
I don’t think I took a drink bottle to school in the 1970s / 80s… the way I remember it, we unthinkingly risked our lives and drank from a communal bubbler… assuming no one had wrapped it in chewing gum… and if they had, well, as Mr McEwan says… you waited until you got home… and survived.
Now? Now, I’m as bad as everyone else. I have an emotional support water bottle on my table at this very moment. It’s a recycled electrolyte drink bottle that I feel guilty about trashing. I’ll use it for a few weeks and then… I’ll trash it… and yeah, I probably could just use a tall glass, but there’s something mortifying about having an open glass on your work desk beside all your computer equipment…
Things get even ickier when you take into account that not everyone washes their water bottles between uses.
So, hold on tight, we’re going to spin off on a tangent!
I recently found an article – Stanley cup hygiene: How often should I be cleaning my water bottle? – they wondered if your bottle has “developed a suspicious layer of grot around the lid that you’re trying not to think about. That you accidentally left festering in the car on a swelteringly hot day”… And when it comes to cleaning, they’re not “talking about a cursory slosh of fresh water and a bit of damage control around the neck,” they mean “a proper scrub, or at least a go-around in the dishwasher.”
I clean mine almost always between uses, but never in the dishwasher, and, I’ll be honest, probably leaning towards the ‘cursory slosh’ end of the washing-up-spectrum.
OK – so what’s the big deal?
Well…
It’s pretty gross.
As the article goes on: “…the stomach-churning truth is that our trusty vessels are actually harboring quite a staggering amount of bacteria […] In 2023, researchers […] swabbed reusable bottles and found that the average one was 40,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat.”
A doctor added to the article: “Bacteria grow in bottles due to moisture, warmth and nutrients, from saliva or drink residue. […They can] start multiplying in as little as 20 minutes […] and in 24 hours can reach a staggering billions or even trillions of cells.”
The article mentions that good washing up isn’t enough. Bacteria loves moisture remember, so be sure to completely dry the bottle between uses, with the lid off.
Circling back to the drink for a minute, you also need to know that if you add sugary fruit juice to your bottle… or a milky protein shake… that little micro-ecology that’s in your bottle is going to thank you with an even more rapid rate of reproduction…
Oh, and if your bottle has a fiddly built in straw? The levels of bacteria you’re probably harboring apparently get close to what you’d find in a pet bowl.
Um…
OK…
YUK.
Then there’s the problem of old bottles shedding their microplastics into your drink (read more about that on my blog here). I recently read an enquiry about spring water that went something like “if natural spring water has been in the ground for thousands of years, why is there an expiry date on it?” Apparently, it has nothing to do with the water expiring (it doesn’t) – it’s the plastic bottle that has a limited life span…
Except that it doesn’t… sea pollution anyone? I didn’t look up exact statistics, but I’m pretty sure the average plastic bottle takes hundreds of years to break down but never really ‘disappear’.
So, to avoid digesting microplastics and contributing to the mountains of plastic suffocating the planet, maybe we should all be a little like Mr McEwan (and our younger selves), and drink water from a glass… and venture outdoors occasionally without yet another bottle of water to keep us company.
Maybe.
But I’m going to be difficult and reiterate that dehydration is an absolute trigger for my migraines, so I for one won’t be going anywhere without a water bottle… that said, I will try to use a glass more often when I’m home, and I will definitely be spending more time and energy cleaning my bottles between uses… because I will no longer be able to get the image of me licking a toilet or dog bowl out of my mind… it’s so accidentally disgusting… yikes.
[Sorry if I have left you with a mental image of toilet-licking too!]
Take care taking care everyone, Linda xx
The Mindful Migraine 
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