There are people that would tell you that the market will make the best decision. These people would have you think that people will always make decisions base on a calculus involving worth, benefits and price. Here is an example:
The implication of this ‘argument’ is that we feed our children Coke instead of bottled water because Coke is half as expensive per bottle as water or that we feed them a Happy Meal burger instead of salad also because of the price difference.
Water in a 24 ounce plastic bottle costs two dollars. Coke in the same size container costs approximately half as much, but water from the faucet costs $1.50 per thousand gallons. That would equal 5333 24 ounce bottles for 1.50–a much better deal! Water at a drinking fountain is free of charge. Fill your thermos up at the drinking fountain. It’s free. Fill it up at home, its practically free.
Plastic bottles are known to leach chemicals into the water that they contain. Bottled water contains chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen. Plastics leach other chemicals, too that are known to lead to high blood pressure. From Mother Jones:
The chemicals, di-isononyl (DINP) and di-isodecyl (DIDP), were long seen as safer alternatives to their precursor, a phthalate called DEHP, which was associated with hypertension. Even though their use has been on the rise over the past decade, they were never fully tested—until now.
In one study, researchers from the NYU Langone Medical Center analyzed urine samples of over 1,300 adolescents between the ages of 8 and 19 and found that the levels of DINP and DIDP corresponded to levels in blood pressure. In a separate study, the same team studied 356 teens and found a similar correlation between the chemical levels and insulin resistance—a condition that can lead to diabetes.
There are people in this world that will not let their children be vaccinated because there is a controversial link to a negative side-effect that has been reported in underground media on the internet. They would risk catching dangerous communicable diseases instead of taking any risk. Bottled water though, for them, is safer than tap water.
There are federal standards requiring tap water purity. The tests are rigorous and the standards are high. Any time there is a problem with the quality of your water you will be getting a notice from your local water department. I can count on one hand the number of notices that I have gotten in a 55 year lifetime.
Every plastic bottle of water has chemicals that have dissolved out of the plastic. Every single one is adulterated with chemicals that act like hormones once inside your body. They cause high blood pressure, insulin resistance, diabetes and weight gain–in you and your kids. Not to mention that bottled water is 500 times more expensive than tap water. At least a Coke has sugar in it as an excuse why it is more expensive.
We would give the kids a bottle of water instead of a Coke because the water is healthier than the Coke–except that it is not. Some people would spend more for the health claim that water has. Water is healthier, yes, but plastic bottled water is not. People just don’t know that it’s not.
Kids are getting fat. Everyone is getting fat. Two out of three people in the US are overweight. Kids aren’t getting fat because of the price of things, they are getting fat because just about everything they eat has sugar in it, or contains another carbohydrate. It doesn’t help that things you assume to be healthy, like water, are not healthy because of the container. It doesn’t help that the government strictly regulates water quality in the pipes to your home, but doesn’t care at all about the quality of the water in plastic bottles. You just figure they would not let them sell it if it wasn’t safe.
There is your first mistake. You should not assume that everything on the store shelf is safe, that every health claim you see is the end of the story. If you don’t buy anything in plastic, no processed foods, if all you drink is water out of the tap from your home or work, you will be doing yourself a great service. You will be protecting your children and family. Don’t look at the fat people around you and assume that they are that way because fattening foods cost less than the non-fattening alternatives. Help them by spreading the news that carbohydrates make you fat and that tap water is better than any other water.
The problem with the drinks pictured above is the plastic that they are in, and the sugar that they contain. The problem with the hamburger is the bun, not the price. The problem with the whole idea is that we are making ourselves fat by choice, when it is really happening because we don’t know why we get fat.
One Small Change at a Time 