Twenty per cent of our atmosphere is oxygen. When this gas is united chemically with hydrogen gas, the result is water, our body's most important nutrient.

Water benefits us in many ways. It washes toxins from the body, keeps blood at the right viscosity, maintains body temperature, lubricates and cushions organs, transports nutrients, metabolizes body fat, and does many other things for the body. Water makes up 70%-80% of our body weight.

Sixty-four ounces is the minimum amount of water needed per day by each of us. If you exercise regularly or do physical work, you will need even more. When you don't take in enough water, you become dehydrated and the body begins to search for water from other sources, like the blood.

This causes the closing of some capillaries, making your blood thicker, more susceptible to clotting, and harder to pump through your system. This can have serious implications in hypertension, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Recent studies have also linked the lack of water to headaches, arthritis, and heartburn.

Some have guessed that up to 75% of Americans suffer from dehydration. At times the body seems to be asking for food when really it is needing water. A drink can also satisfy the stomach's cravings and thus help to keep proper body weight.

Our bodies take in water three ways. We get it from the foods we eat, the fluids we drink, and as a by-product of metabolism. It is always better to drink pure water instead of soda, tea, or coffee. These products may actually increase your need for fluids because most contain caffeine, which is a diuretic. Diuretics force out stored water along with certain essential nutrients, a reverse osmosis of the cells.

Dehydration is dangerous. Dehydration leading to a 2% loss of body weight may affect mental ability. Reducing water in the body as little as 5% can result in as much as a 20%-30% drop in physical performance; 10% reduction can make you sick, and 20% can mean death. With water pollution on the rise, it is best to drink filtered water whenever possible.

A number of ailments can be directly linked to the lack of water. Significantly, water can also provide the cure, at times better to any medication. Some of these ailments are headaches, stress, kidney problems, hypertension or high blood pressure, cholesterol, and ulcers. Drinking 8 glasses of water a day reduces the risk of breast cancer an incredible 79%, decreases the risk of colon cancer 45%, and makes a person 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Perhaps your body is craving water right now and you don't even know it. So go get a glass. But be sure it is pure first. Water taken from the tap will probably have impurities. So might even bottled water. Best is the water you purify yourself through a charcoal filter like the Royal Berkey. You can trust it to help you maintain good health.

If you're interested in not only the health but savings benefits you can receive from purifying your own water, check out the Berkey Water Filter - the most powerful and economical personal water purification systems available.

You may have heard that coconut oil is one of the hottest oils on the market - it's with very good reason.

Not only is coconut oil delicious, its health benefits are profound, and each day they are becoming more widely recognized. Coconut oil been found to be a very effective natural antiviral, anti-fungal, and antibacterial agent. The medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil are powerhouses, and they are effective against disease of all sorts, including heart disease and cancer.

Coconut oil has unique properties that actually speed up the metabolism to make it easier for those with excess weight - to lose that weight. Coconut oil is also detoxifying, and can help you cleanse your body, simply by enjoying it regularly.And coconut oil is easy to add to any meal. In fact, coconut oil can replace most oils used in cooking, and it a wonderful butter substitute.

Coconut oil once had a bad reputation as an unhealthy saturated fat, but research regularly proves that wrong. The medium chain fatty acids in coconut were confused with the truly bad long chain fatty acids in animal products, and that is where the confusion arose. Fortunately, as more and more natural health experts promote the benefits of coconut oil, the correct information is reaching the public.

Besides being a delicious addition to many meals, coconut oil is an effective skin cleanser and skin moisturizer. Coconut oil has highly moisturizing properties that repair the skin and even prevent premature aging and wrinkling, without what can be dangerous man-made chemicals. And although it’s light and easily absorbed, coconut oil also forms a protective barrier on the skin which serves to keep harmful bacteria out of your body.  

Knowing this, don’t you think coconut oil is good addition to your family's daily diet? You might be very surprised at what just a few tablespoons a day can do for you. You might even try using it as your daily moisturizer for added protection in our disease-ridden world.

Counting the calories is a key part of shedding the pounds, especially with holidays arriving if you want to squeeze into those Speedos or flaunt that bikini on some sun kissed beach.  Losing weight by calorie counting is flexible enough to fit into the most hectic lifestyle and can accommodate your personal likes and dislikes. There are no forbidden foods when you diet through calorie counting.

Provided you eat less calories than you burn each day you will lose weight. For men that means eating less than around 2,500 calories on a daily basis while for women it’s closer to 2,000 (add a bit more if you’re overweight already, tall or very muscular.The other aspect of a calorie counting diet is of course to watch the calorie value of what you eat The other aspect of a calorie counting diet is of course to watch the calorie value of what you eat in the first place and try to eat as healthily as possible and try to eat as healthily as possible.  Not many of us would think of the pizza delivery service as a gateway to weight loss, but the perhaps surprising truth is that a pizza or a burger contains fewer calories than the perceived “healthier” option of a milkshake.

Take your favourite pizza dishes delivered to your door like Pepperoni (352 calories per slice), Margherita (238 calories per slice) or the Hawaiian (222 calories per slice).They all pale in comparison with your average chocolate shake for example that comes in at a whopping 950 calories. Even a Starbucks White Chocolate Frappuccino packs 410 fattening calories as well as a generous helping of sodium and sugar.

So don’t disparage or rule out the pizza from your weight conscious menu.  Even if you leave the exercise bit entirely up to pizza delivery bloke and order your take away on line, sharing a pizza and eating as many as three slices will still beat a single milkshake into a cocked hat.And apart from exercising the jaw and being more satisfying to chew, Pizza just tastes better!

Kitchen Kitsch, Fast Food Faddism or just plain old Take Away tat?There seems to be no limit to the lengths some people will go to in order to avoid that messy contact with their takeaway food. There’s a bewildering variety of devices out there to assist in storing, handling, and even eating the takeaway of your choice.Some are genuinely ingenious and practical.It's true that some do seem to have merit, either as useful household items or maybe as amusing gifts.  Others are plain insane and still others leave you wondering who on God’s green Earth actually buys  this stuff?

If you’re really into fast food, and you want it fast, so fast you can’t be bothered with the conventional pizza cutter, then  something like the Pizza Boss 3000 is for you!You can show that pizza you mean business with this gadget that looks just like your average circular saw.It’ll tear through pepperoni, extra cheese and even those hardy anchovies thanks to its laser-etched stainless blade.

But wait, I seem to hear you cry!  What if your favourite fast food is Chinese? We’ve all been there:  tucking into the sweet and sour when a killer idea for making a fortune comes (without the aid of the cookie).  How to record it for posterity before the allure of the prawn balls wipes all memory of the economic epiphany from your mind?  Pencil Chopsticks!  Obvious really.Square shaped and coloured black for that authentic chopstick look and feel they can make your next writing experience as enjoyable as your last dim sum.

If your notion of the ultimate fast food is the humble burger then what you need to raise the tone is a device called Chompr.This lavish hamburger holding devioce is an ergonomic and stylish eating utensil.Made of two pieces of carved walnut separated by spring-loaded polished aluminium supports, the fastidious fast food fanatic simply places the burger between the grips.  With a degree of stylish sophistication never before possible, can then hold and consume the sandwich with an elegant ease, safe in the knowledge that fingers and clothing are safe from errant sauces or bits of pickle.