Belly of the Whale: Bottled Water — Surprisingly High in Calories
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a blogumn by Howard Leder
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with plastic water bottles, particularly those ubiquitous little 16-ounce jobs that seem to have taken over what it means to drink water.
I’ve been reading the book Food Matters by Mark Bittman, food writer for the New York Times and the author of the book How to Cook Everything. One of his key concerns in the book is the interconnectedness between our daily, individual diet and the economy & environment at large. For instance—and maybe I’m the last person to learn this—agricultural livestock production accounts for 1/5th of all greenhouse gasses. I’ll write more about this book at a later time: it is by and large a prescription for eating a lighter diet, higher in traditional plant foods, but he connects this to the bigger idea that we simply cannot maintain the style of eating to which we’ve grown accustomed in the West. Put quite simply, if the entire world were to eat the way we eat, it would destroy the planet.
When it comes to water, he pulls out an incredible statistic. He compares the amount of energy it takes to produce various foods: one calorie of corn takes on average about 2-3 calories of energy to produce (in the amount of energy needed to water, fertilize, harvest & transport it). One calorie of beef, by contrast, requires about 40 calories of energy to produce (when you factor in feed, grain, fuel for transportation etc.) The staggering statistic for me, though, came when he started talking about water: a one-quart plastic bottle of water—which has zero calories—takes 2400 calories of energy to produce: The bottle alone. Bittman says:
Overproduction drives overconsumption…but these negative effects can be diminished by more moderate consumption, which in turn will eventually lead to lower production. This is where we come in: Every time you drink a glass of tap water instead of bottled water, you save the calorie equivalent of a day’s food:the 2400 calories it takes to produce that plastic bottle.
In my own home, I’d grown completely lax about the Brita. In fact, it had languished on a shelf high up in one of my kitchen cabinets. But I pulled it back out, dusted it off, plugged in a new filter & was back in business. I’m just one person, though, and I’m rarely home. What about the rest of the time?
This all harmonized nicely with something that happened a few days later at work. I started a new gig recently—on a TV show that shall remain nameless—and at the first production meeting, the show’s creator announced that from now on they wouldn’t be buying any more water in individual plastic bottles. Instead, she had decided to provide everyone on the show with a reusable water bottle & to place water coolers throughout the set & offices for refilling them. This was, she pointed out, considerably more expensive, but she couldn’t condone the waste she was seeing––and the amount of waste on the average TV show is pretty shocking, particularly in paper.
I’ve begun implementing other changes that Bittman talks about in his book. But so far, this has been the main one. I guess I’d challenge other readers here in the coming weeks to look at how you consume water and see if there aren’t ways to cut back on the number of plastic bottles you go through.
Am I the only person in America who still drinks out of the tap?? If it hasn't killed me in $^$# years…
We get those big water cooler bottles of water at work, which given are cleaned and reused, after they are hauled on a truck to and from the office. I work within a mile of my home. People scold me for drinking the tap water at work. I'm always geeze people its not like I magically get different water down the street.
Apparently–I've been told–dentists can tell immediately when they look in your mouth if you drink tap water or bottled water. Not sure if this is an urban legend….but most cities flouridate the water. And an observant dentist can tell the difference.
Am I the only person in America who still drinks out of the tap?? If it hasn't killed me in $^$# years…
We get those big water cooler bottles of water at work, which given are cleaned and reused, after they are hauled on a truck to and from the office. I work within a mile of my home. People scold me for drinking the tap water at work. I'm always geeze people its not like I magically get different water down the street.
Apparently–I've been told–dentists can tell immediately when they look in your mouth if you drink tap water or bottled water. Not sure if this is an urban legend….but most cities flouridate the water. And an observant dentist can tell the difference.
We did the same re-usable water bottle thing on our show last season–a great policy. Here's a tip if you really want it to work, though. Put everyone's names on the bottles first. Bottles got lost so quickly or confused with others, eventually fewer and fewer people used them, and the crew started getting dehydrated! This season the 16 oz bottles are back, sadly. My own small effort-I never use the plastic utensils, but real metal forks and spoons that I wash myself.
We did the same re-usable water bottle thing on our show last season–a great policy. Here's a tip if you really want it to work, though. Put everyone's names on the bottles first. Bottles got lost so quickly or confused with others, eventually fewer and fewer people used them, and the crew started getting dehydrated! This season the 16 oz bottles are back, sadly. My own small effort-I never use the plastic utensils, but real metal forks and spoons that I wash myself.
Those new commercials "30 minutes in the gym, a lifetime in a landfill" have had an enormous impact on me. I have known for a long time that bottled water was incredibly wasteful (never thought about the caloric impact though – thanks!) but old habits and laziness are hard to change. Thanks again for driving home an important point.
Oh, and the SIgg aluminum water bottles rock, btw. Sylish and functional!
What other changes are you making? I am curious.
Those new commercials "30 minutes in the gym, a lifetime in a landfill" have had an enormous impact on me. I have known for a long time that bottled water was incredibly wasteful (never thought about the caloric impact though – thanks!) but old habits and laziness are hard to change. Thanks again for driving home an important point.
Oh, and the SIgg aluminum water bottles rock, btw. Sylish and functional!
What other changes are you making? I am curious.
Howard, because of this article, I just drank my last bottle of water and ate my last McDonald's value meal before the baby is born — I always feel better about eating McDonald's when I order a bottle of water instead of the usual soda. Hopefully, I can keep it going. But I'm a little worried about flying to St. Louis next week. They do still have water fountains at LAX right?
Howard, because of this article, I just drank my last bottle of water and ate my last McDonald's value meal before the baby is born — I always feel better about eating McDonald's when I order a bottle of water instead of the usual soda. Hopefully, I can keep it going. But I'm a little worried about flying to St. Louis next week. They do still have water fountains at LAX right?
That book is really bad science. I've heard these stats bandied around before. I'm concerned about the use of fuel but the claim that Agriculture is 20% of green house gasses is unmitigated fear mongering. Nature itself produces 20 times(!) more green house gasses than activity from human beings. Even if our Agricultural activity was all the gas we generated cows would be less than 5 percent. Of human created activity transportation is less than 15% and agriculture is less than 15% and that includes activities like growing food. Unfortunately human activity cannot be balanced by nature and the amount of green house gas in the air has grown.
That being said cows evolved (and were domesticated) to live off grass and scrubby plants. Corn is really bad nutrition for cows. Grass feed beef is healthier both for the cow and the human that consumes it. Cows should be allowed to graze on land that can't support plants that we can consume and not fed human food (or each other).
Naturally I'm concerned about the use of fuel. Modern agriculture uses a great deal of oil to raise plants and animals. Even though amount of oil available to exploit has grown in the last 50 years we know there is a finite supply. We will have to learn to reign this in, in order to survive.
All that aside, yes bottled water is a staggering waste of resources. I relate the story above about being mocked for drinking tap water. Also I notice at conferences the hosts want you to drink their water. I think as humans we still want to show how much we are spending on each other and bottled water is a little, extravagant nod.
That book is really bad science. I've heard these stats bandied around before. I'm concerned about the use of fuel but the claim that Agriculture is 20% of green house gasses is unmitigated fear mongering. Nature itself produces 20 times(!) more green house gasses than activity from human beings. Even if our Agricultural activity was all the gas we generated cows would be less than 5 percent. Of human created activity transportation is less than 15% and agriculture is less than 15% and that includes activities like growing food. Unfortunately human activity cannot be balanced by nature and the amount of green house gas in the air has grown.
That being said cows evolved (and were domesticated) to live off grass and scrubby plants. Corn is really bad nutrition for cows. Grass feed beef is healthier both for the cow and the human that consumes it. Cows should be allowed to graze on land that can't support plants that we can consume and not fed human food (or each other).
Naturally I'm concerned about the use of fuel. Modern agriculture uses a great deal of oil to raise plants and animals. Even though amount of oil available to exploit has grown in the last 50 years we know there is a finite supply. We will have to learn to reign this in, in order to survive.
All that aside, yes bottled water is a staggering waste of resources. I relate the story above about being mocked for drinking tap water. Also I notice at conferences the hosts want you to drink their water. I think as humans we still want to show how much we are spending on each other and bottled water is a little, extravagant nod.