As shallow as it might seem at times (pun intended), water is literally our life source. And while most of us look at a glass of water and see nothing more than a refreshing beverage, others have studied this life-saving liquid for years and years.
So, if you’re curious, here are a few crazy water facts that you might have not known about:
Babies consume seven times as much water per pound as the average adult
It is estimated that Americans drink around one billion glasses of water every single day. Divide that by about 300 million people, and you get somewhere around 3 or 4 glasses per day.
Not that much when you think about it. However, babies in the first six months of life drink two or four ounces of water per day. When you calculate that against their body weight, you’ll realize that their water intake is actually much higher than an average adult. Crazy, right?
In contrast, we also lose a cup of water each day through breathing
About 237 milliliters of water get thrown out of our system through breathing. Does that mean you shouldn’t breathe? Well, of course not.
We also lose another two cups of water per day through sweat. And, finally, we also eliminate about six cups of water through urination and excretion. Because of this, our body also loses a lot of electrolytes and nutrients. This is why you constantly see messages reminding you to stay hydrated.
Fortunately, you can get 20% of the daily needed water through food. Plus that some foods are nearly 100% water, such as watermelon. As a rule of thumb, you should drink about eight cups of water per day – although this can vary depending on many factors.
How much water do we waste on regular stuff?
It might sound counterintuitive, but an efficient dishwasher uses far less water than washing dishes by hand. How much less? Four gallons compared to 20 gallons. About 16 (or even less) gallons of water. Spending a few hundred bucks on a dishwasher doesn’t sound like a bad investment anymore, right?
Incidentally, you also use twice as much water to produce coffee than when producing tea. So if you wanted another reason to ditch caffeine, this might just be it. Another wasteful activity is leaving water to evaporate on road trips. And about 180 gallons of water are wasted outdoors through overwatering.
Even more frustrating is the fact that you lose about an average of 10 gallons of water to leaks. Household leaks can waste more than one trillion gallons annually nationwide. That’s equal to the annual household water use of more than 11 million homes. Moreover, it is estimated that some homes have such bad leaks that they waste up to 90 gallons of water in a single day.
So fix your plumbing and don’t hesitate to spend some extra money on quality components.
Pollution
One not-so-crazy fact about water is that a lot of it has some nasty pollutants. Unfortunately for us, there are too many things to say about this subject for just a short article. The one thing to note o
If you want to keep your family safe from the dangers of consuming polluted water, you can visit https://waterfilteranswers.com/ to see which filter is the best for your needs, as well as detailed reviews and how to test your water. It’s also where we got some of the info in this article, so we had to give them credit somehow.
Final Thoughts
Water is essential for absolutely everyone. Having access to clean, drinkable water makes you luckier than a huge portion of the planet.
Our advice: don’t waste too much water. Use your resources wisely to get the most out of this precious element.