As a rule of thumb you should drink at least eight cups of natural or purified water daily. 90% of our body is made of water. Water is the key ingredient to life, without it we will perish in a very short time span. Yet most of the time people drink soda, alcohol, and fruit juice, instead.

Unfortunately, all of the drinks I just listed are incredibly dehydrating, so if you are drinking those you need to be drinking even more purified water than someone who is not drinking soda, alcohol, or fruit juice.

You should not drink tap water because most tap water, other than a few select places, is loaded with flouride and chlorine in order to kill off many harmful types of bacteria caused by environmental pollution.

Flouride, even though they use it at the dentists office, is horrible for you to ingest, and can lead to certain cancers. Chlorine ingestion can also lead to cancer, and weight gain, both chemicals are dangerous toxins to have in your body.

The problem does not stop at tap water, however. Most bottled water is a scam and is awful for you to drink.

Why? Because there are hardly any regulations on the bottled water industry. Almost all of the bottled waters are merely acidic tap water from one region, barely filtered, then bottled and shipped somewhere else.

Ever wonder why some bottled waters are more expensive than the others? There is a reason. Did you think that your local grocery store has a natural spring out back so they can produce their own brand of great spring water for $3.00 a case? It's tap water.

Why should you believe me? I have a very close friend who worked for a reverse osmosis water filtration company, which performed independent tests on all of the kinds of bottled water to find out which were the healthiest and which were not.

So what water can you drink?

Dasani and Aquafina, although ironically made by soda companies, are the least expensive of the safe bottled waters. They are still made with tap water, but the tap water is filtered using a reverse osmosis filtration system, which removes harmful chemicals, such as flouride and chlorine and makes it less acidic. Reverse Osmosis is hands down the best way to purify tap water.

Better still is completely natural spring, or artesian water. Why? Because it is untouched and pure, right from the source and requires no filtration. This water is also loaded with essential minerals to keep your body healthy and naturally has an alkaline pH.

Here are the top bottled water contenders; Fiji, Evian, Voss, Volvic, Penta, Evamor, and Poland Spring. There are also several smaller bottled water companies that produce very healthy bottled water as well. You can usually find them at your local health food store. If you have any more questions on what bottled water you should buy, I am sure someone at your local health food store can help you.

Why is most fruit juice bad to drink? Because most fruit juice that is sold is anything but fresh juice that is healthy for you. The stuff you think is healthy juice is basically soda. Pick up a soda and pick up a sports drink, or a bottle of juice and compare the ingredients. Usually the only difference between them is the carbonated water and the flavoring.

Fresh juice goes bad in about two or three days. Compare that with most juice you can buy at the grocery store, which can last up to a month after you buy it.

Basically the only way to drink really healthy juice is to make the juice yourself at home with a juicer, or go to your local health food store, they usually make fresh juice daily.

Even though fresh juice can provide you with essential vitamins and minerals, it still it not enough to hydrate your body on its own. Most fruit juice is loaded with sugar, which is dehydrating, so you don't want to consume too much juice anyway.

Water, water, water, is really all you need to drink. It will give you more energy, make you more tolerant to exercise, make your mind clearer, and can reduce hunger cravings. Water reduces hunger pangs by 98%, so if you are dieting or trying to lose weight, drink more water. I think that you will be surprised by the results.

Good luck on your journey towards health and wellness!