 We need to hydrate with pure water to retain our physical and mental health. All our tissues' cells need to be hydrated to function properly. Would you believe that most of us are dehydrated? It's not just your five or so quarts of blood serum that contain water. Your organs' cells contain water. Your brain and nerve tissues are 80 percent water. Severe dehydration leads to mental derangement and death. Most of us, perhaps 75% of the population, suffer from mild dehydration, which if chronic leads to poor health, aches and pains, low energy, mental fogginess, and even serious diseases of all types. Pure water helps our bodies detoxify. The water helps separate blood platelets and floods fatty tissues where toxins often accumulate. While undergoing any kind of detox protocol, drinking more pure water is necessary. Caffeinated beverages and alcohol dehydrate. Sodas are poison carriers. Almost all bottled waters are plain tap water leeching petroleum toxins from their containers. How to make sure you're drinking pure water A study of 29 USA cities' water supplies uncovered all sorts of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides, as well as traces of prescription drugs. Chlorine is bad enough, but much worse are its byproducts, known as disinfection byproducts or DBPs. DBPs are formed when chlorine combines with minerals and heavy metals in tap water. Then there is this stuff called sodium fluoride, you know, to prevent cavities. It is highly toxic in large quantities and continual low dose consumption slowly makes us dumb and sick, and it is added into 70 percent of the USA's municipal water supplies ( http://www.selfnews.com/032129_fluoridation_intelligence.html ). Forget the off the shelf bottled waters. In most of those products you'll have contaminated tap water with leeched plastic petroleum by products and the endocrine mimicker BPA (Biphenol-A) to throw off your sex hormone balance. If you don't have access to real spring water delivered in glass jugs, there are two effective approaches for purifying your drinking water: Reverse osmosis with added charcoal filtering, and Berkey type portable systems originally intended to purify contaminated stagnant water from jungle environments. Water purification expert Robert Slovak, interviewed by Dr. Mercola a few times, recommends reverse osmosis over all other types , including distilled, ionized, or alkalized. He says if you feel the need to make your water more alkaline, add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. It's cheaper. Distilled water used consistently will leech vital minerals out of your body. But it's a good base for natural medicines or tinctures. Reverse osmosis does remove a good deal of important minerals but they can be restored simply with a few drops of liquid mineral solutions (available at health food stores) and/or pure sea salt. But reverse osmosis, coupled with charcoal filtration is accessible and works to remove almost all chemical contaminants and most of the fluorine. Filters alone don't remove any fluorides. The least expensive reverse osmosis is available at all health food stores and even most non-organic grocery stores for 25 to 50 cents a gallon. Take a moment to examine the diagrammed flow chart on a water dispensing machine. Look for cycles labeled charcoal filtering and reverse osmosis. Bingo, there you have the least expensive effective water purification available to refill your containers. There are household reverse osmosis/charcoal systems that are expensive, and under the sink systems that are considerably less expensive. The major difference is with the household system, you purify bath and shower water. Under the sink will take care of your drinking and cooking water. Yes, cooking water. Boiling does not remove fluorides or heavy metals. Berkey type systems don't require electricity ( http://www.berkeywater.com/start.main.html ). 