Christmas at the Water Cooler
A recent blog titled ‘And a Water Rich Pear Tree’ was actually about pears and how they’re such a water rich fruit (go and have a read, you’ll be glad you did). This blog, however, is actually about the origins of the rather wonderful (some would say long-winded) Twelve Days of Christmas.
According to Wiki: “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is an English Christmas carol that enumerates in the manner of a cumulative song a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas (the twelve days that make up the Christmas season, starting with Christmas Day). The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin.
In the interests of brevity, here are the opening bars:
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree.
On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
The song is then added to (refer to the above image for the sequence), always returning to the initial bars.
You may be wondering what this has to do with your water cooler – in fact, with water in general. It’s simple, really – we’re all aware of the term ‘water cooler humour’ – which generally refers to the habit where those worker bees who gather at their dispenser for a short break to refresh their water and top up their water bottles, and use this time to swap stories, compare notes and generally catch up on what’s been happening since everyone last got together (since the last water cooler break, that is).
Now that we’re racing towards Christmas and we’re all of good cheer, but we’re all a little tired after a big year filled with conkers such as ‘to Brexit or not to Brexit’ perhaps we’re running out of steam, or cheery topics – this is where this song comes in. You can amaze and delight your colleagues with your knowledge; you can retrieve the song on your mobile and who knows, begin a rousing rendition at the water cooler break station, which might just get everyone in more of a festive spirit (or might not, either way, we won’t be accepting any responsibility if the water cooler break goes south).
However you choose to your water cooler break, remember to stick with the original quest – to replenish your water all the better to keep your merry little self hydrated this festive season.
P.S. If you don’t currently have a water cooler where you can gather to chat to your colleagues, contact us at AquAid – we have 20 years’ experience in the provision of the right water dispenser to meet your requirements.
Make Drinking Water a Habit
Frederic Matthias Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique – a form of body mindfulness that has one break the cycle of unnecessary muscular and mental tension leading to ill health – said of habits ‘people do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their future’.
This is particularly true when it comes to choosing habits that will help your body function optimally and better encourage longevity, and one of the most important habits you can form is to regularly visit your water cooler to ensure your body remains properly hydrated on a daily basis. While drinking coffee, tea and soft drinks through the day definitely helps; drinking water remains the healthiest way to ensure you remain adequately hydrated. To help form that habit, here are a few simple, but effective ways to keep drinking water top-of-mind.
Make a point of drinking a glass of water at regular intervals throughout your day – when you wake up, when you brush your teeth, with each meal and then again before bedtime. And if drinking water on its own doesn’t appeal to you, try adding natural flavors like sliced strawberries or lemon – even freshly chopped fruit frozen in ice cube trays and then added to your water makes for a more enticing drink.
Keep a water bottle on hand and make regular trips to your office water cooler to replenish it and try to remember to sip on the bottle throughout the work day – studies show that sipping water throughout the day is more beneficial than trying to gulp down a few glasses all in one go. And if you’re at the gym be sure to do the same and be particularly mindful of taking regular sips to replenish the water you lose while exercising.
Sometimes the best way to enforce a new habit is to schedule reminders and then track your progress, so it might be a good idea to set up regular alerts on your phone or computer to prompt you to get up and walk over to the water cooler so that you drink that next glass of water. And at the end of the day be sure to review how much water you’ve consumed so that you know what your target is for the next day.
In short, the best way to form any new healthy habit is to keep working at it, so here’s to repetition and trying to be the healthiest we can be.
Water Cooler Health Cheats – the All-Powerful Grapefruit
Typing the query ‘which fruit contains the most water’ into the omnipresent Google produces this result:
‘Grapefruit.’
*Then more about watermelon and strawberries – thing is, watermelon and strawberries seem to contain more water than grapefruit – 92% as opposed to the 91% of water in grapefruit. This leads me to believe that there’s some secret grapefruit marketing organisation that’s fruit bombing Google to ensure that the lesser watered grapefruit receives pole position.
Anyhow, I’m all okay with it – I really enjoy grapefruit, not so much watermelon (a story for another time). It may stem from my clever Mother who used to prepare our half a grapefruit with a sprinkle of brown sugar and a Maraschino cherry on top every single morning, rain or shine; or because I’ve just always enjoyed the more citrus of fruits.
Grapefruit also contain powerful anti-oxidants. What are anti-oxidants, you may ask? Well, simply put, they are one of the first lines of defence that the body employs to keep free radicals in check and prevent them from causing a domino effect of damage on other cells. Antioxidant compounds can ‘donate’ electrons to unstable free radicals so they don’t have to snatch electrons from unsuspecting nearby cells. So the ‘all powerful’ in the headline was pretty bang on – it is a fruit containing much power for good.
The rich pink and red colours of grapefruit are due to lycopene, a carotenoid phytonutrient. A carotenoid gives fruit their red, orange and yellow colour. These compounds are believed to protect against certain cancers, heart disease and even vision loss due to macular degeneration. You won’t find lycopene in white grapefruit. White grapefruit? Didn’t know there was white grapefruit! Continuing, lycopene appears to have anti-tumour activity. Among the common dietary carotenoids, lycopene has the highest capacity to help fight oxygen free radicals, which are compounds that can damage cells.
So, aside from its top ranking despite it having the second highest water content, it would seem that grapefruit is all that.
As we head into the colder months, it’s understandable that we may veer away from topping up our water from the water cooler as much as we do when it’s warmer. But this is a mistake – our bodies still need to hydrate irrespective of the weather. What may be worth considering though is to ramp up your water intake with a water-rich, free radical booting fruit like … grapefruit. We may not all have a Mum who prepares our get-up-and-go grapefruit for us, but that’s no excuse.
*updated from a 09 Nov 2015 blog
Water Cooler Benefits – Drinking Water promotes good Kidney health
Our kidneys carry a very weighty responsibility in our bodies – as organs, they are one of the biggest multi-taskers we have – they are responsible for a myriad of functions – primarily these (among others) are:
- To remove waste and extra fluid;
- Control blood pressure;
- Make red blood cells;
- Keep bones healthy (Vitamin D production) and;
- To control pH levels.
As our kidneys are made up of 79% water it becomes more apparent of how crucial they are to keeping our systems running smoothly.
To elaborate: Water helps the kidneys remove wastes from your blood in the form of urine. Water also helps keep your blood vessels open so that blood can travel freely to your kidneys, and deliver essential nutrients to them. But if you become dehydrated, then it is more difficult for this delivery system to work. Mild dehydration can make you feel tired, and can impair normal bodily functions. Severe dehydration can lead to kidney damage, so it is important to drink enough when you work or exercise very hard.
What may not be that apparent though is experiencing pain in the kidneys is often mistaken for back pain, which can be why we may not always realise that our kidneys are water deficient and are unable to function at optimal level.
That’s why it’s important to maintain good drinking water habits as this often is the simplest method towards ensuring good kidney health.
Due to the complex nature of our body’s kidneys function, it’s always good to monitor your water consumption and to rather be ‘water wise’.
One of the first indications you may be dehydrated can be quite easily seen in the colour of your urine. If you’re sufficiently hydrated, your urine will be light yellow or close to colourless. The darker yellow your urine is, the more dehydrated you are.
Another reason to maintain sufficient water intake is this practise can help reduce the likelihood of both kidney stones and urinary tract infections (UTIs). Kidney stones form less easily when there is sufficient water available to prevent stone-forming crystals from sticking together. Water helps dissolve the antibiotics used to treat urinary tract infections, making them more effective. Drinking enough water also helps produce more urine, which helps to flush out infection-causing bacteria.
At AquAid we take the business of proper hydration seriously, from a number of perspectives:
We’re constantly working to ensure that our customers are supplied with the right water cooler for their requirements.
We also provide re-usable water bottles to schools to encourage healthy hydration habits among the children (and staff!)
We understand the importance of helping others gain access to safe drinking water: for 20 years now, AquAid have donated funds to charity. The charities we support implement sustainable water projects for people in need. To date, we have (thanks in large part to our customers) donated over £14 million and helped more than 2 million people gain access to safe drinking water.
