Have Canadian Hippies Gone Too FAR?
Paradise C asked:
We on the west coast have all heard of the harmful plastic that Nalgene water bottles are made with, and thus the ever changing “green” world came out with many different versions of the stainless steel bottle. It’s obvious that leaving plastic water bottles in a car in the summer can be harmful to your health because plastic is made out of oil and other chemicals that can leak into your water. But why ban water bottles? I agree that we in Canada are blessed with good tap water, but it depends on the part of the country you are in. OR how rural the society is! I’m sure that well water in some places is still full of lead! And how about shows like Seinfeld where everyone drinks water out of bottles in Jerry’s kitchen? Is it only Canada that is hungry for mineral water? Purified water? I grew up with a family that boiled all their water before it was drinkable when water purifiers weren’t readily available.
How about tourists? They don’t have a sink. I thought this was supposed to be nutrition revolution. They will be forced to buy bottled coke. Which I guess is what the companies want.
Darren
We on the west coast have all heard of the harmful plastic that Nalgene water bottles are made with, and thus the ever changing “green” world came out with many different versions of the stainless steel bottle. It’s obvious that leaving plastic water bottles in a car in the summer can be harmful to your health because plastic is made out of oil and other chemicals that can leak into your water. But why ban water bottles? I agree that we in Canada are blessed with good tap water, but it depends on the part of the country you are in. OR how rural the society is! I’m sure that well water in some places is still full of lead! And how about shows like Seinfeld where everyone drinks water out of bottles in Jerry’s kitchen? Is it only Canada that is hungry for mineral water? Purified water? I grew up with a family that boiled all their water before it was drinkable when water purifiers weren’t readily available.
How about tourists? They don’t have a sink. I thought this was supposed to be nutrition revolution. They will be forced to buy bottled coke. Which I guess is what the companies want.
Darren
April 13, 2009 - 5:10 AM
freeside49
April 16, 2009 | 11:00 AMto listen to people bellyache about the price of Litre of gas ($1.40) and then gladly shell out a $1.49 at Macs for half that water less tested than that which runs from the tap!!
Ive thought it a fraud from the start … but like pay phones.. water fountains are a disappearing sight.
chuckles951
April 18, 2009 | 8:54 AMThough there are many question marks, I can’t identify an actual question here. Please be specific.
SteveN
April 19, 2009 | 9:34 AMI would not say it’s the hippies, but rather the changing information that we are getting from scientists as they find out new problems with supposedly safe products.
Years ago, chocolate was bad for you. Then they figured out that dark chocolate is actually beneficial and its the “milk” chocolate that is bad.
We heard that styrofoam was safe in the 70’s, then in the 90’s they find out the chemicals are leeching into the McDonalds Big Mac, so the styrofoam cartons are swapped with plastic coated cardboard or wax paper.
Next it was wine. Wine bad! Then that changed - Wine good! Then oils. Oil = fat = bad. But wait! Olive oil has health benefits, and so do many fish oils. Hmm…Oil = good?
The latest story from today’s Yahoo! headlines is that soybean products like tofu will lower your ***** count. Less little swimmers if you are planning on having kids? Cannot be good…but it was supposed to be so healthy for you?
The key here is to take certain foods and drinks in moderation, and to be smart about how you store or consume them.
If I left a tunafish sandwich in the sun in a locked car all day, I don’t think I would eat it. The same with my bottled water. Water in plastic bottles is not necessarily bad, but if you are the type that drinks from one constantly, refills the bottle when it is empty, or leaves water in the bottle in a hot car, it is bound to pick up some germs or absorb some of the chemicals from the bottle.
If you live your lives constantly worried about what is supposed to be good and what is supposed to be bad for you based on today’s big news story, how are you going to enjoy life itself?
There are things that you KNOW are bad for you, like smoking, drinking to excess, breathing fumes from a truck, not exercising. I say fix what you can, but don’t make it your priority to catch each of the latest health fads.
I’d rather eat greasy hamburgers and bottled water on a regular basis and enjoy my 76 year life than to eat nothing but bran and prune juice out of glass bottles and live to be 97!
itssoeasy
April 21, 2009 | 5:20 PMjust buy a bottle and a brita filter and refill your waterbottle.
its not that hard, it has nothing to do with hippies, and it would be doing everyone a favour.
KAREN C
April 22, 2009 | 8:36 PMIt’s all marketing! Marketing! Marketing!
And for some things like the chocolate that SteveN mentioned, it is an insatiable need on the part of journalists and scientists to get the word out before they really know what they are talking about.
Anyone who believes everything they see in the newspaper and every ad they see on t.v. has my sympathies.
If you think the food you eat now tastes good, then you have no idea what good food should taste like. I do! 50 years ago before they started putting all the junk they do now in the soil and in the animals we eat, it was good. When a chicken was allowed to grow on God’s schedule instead of man’s schedule, they tasted like chickens when you ate them. Now they taste like paper maché with sage dressing. If you do not know how the chicken in your grocery store is treated, do a little research. It is quite sickening really.
Marketing is in every area of everyone’s day. Fifteen years ago, men could make love to a woman without outside help. Now it seems most of them need a little blue pill or they are useless and while there are some men with some problems, surely not all men have problems. Marketing has become form of brainwashing - the worst sort because it seems so innocent.
Water is just one of those marketing things that most everyone bought. Scary stuff!
crazyperson1972
April 23, 2009 | 6:03 AMI find it terribly ironic that plastic bottles are banned but cigarettes are completely legal.
Bottled water is a scam, anyway. I agree that sometimes water needs to be available, to tourists and the like. The wisdom of water drinking lies with consumers. If we jump every time the media sends us some “shocking new scientific revelation”, we are going to live in a weird world. The only reason that so many companies produce bottled water is because so many people fall for it! If consumers decided collectively to not be taken in by the scam, most of these companies would have to drastically cut back their production or go out of buisness.
Really, all we can do is our best. Eat healthy, local foods that have not been treated with pesticides. Use products that have been approved as not containing toxic compounds (no imports from countries with few or sub-standard guidlines). The less weird chemicals we are exposed to, the better!