Camels have a lot of things humans don’t. Three sets of eyelids, sealable nostrils, reservoir humps of fatty tissue (well, some of us…). Most of all, they have a resistance to dehydration that evades the rest of us.

Daily, we should all drink half our weight, converted into ounces. I weigh 130 lbs; I should drink 65 oz. of water every single day.

We also need to drink the amount we sweat out while exercising - and please, don’t try to measure this by wringing out your exercise towel. Try this statistic:  on average, you need 1/2 to 1 cup for every 15 minutes of exercise.   Under very intense physical exertion, such as during marathons, our kidneys actually tighten up and process water a lot slower.  Therefore, you hardcore fitness buffs should drink 1-2 cups even before exercising.

Dehydration-conscious preventative drinking is crucial in scenarios outside of fitness, since we often don’t feel thirsty until after we’ve already become physically dehydrated.  Additionally, we should keep in mind to drink 2-1/2 cups for every lb. lost. Never mind feeling bloated.

What recently got in the way of our necessary hydration was three little letters- BPA, or Bisphenol-A.  Long-ReigningWater Bottle king Nalgene released a statement earlier this year calling “the risks from exposure to BPA in polycarbonate bottles…negligible and theoretical…regardless of whether the water in those bottles is hot or cold”. They recently backtracked in April 2008 and vowed to stop producing the polycarbonate bottles, which resemble glass in clarity. Their standard indestructible hard plastic glass-resembling bottle is gradually phasing out, posing a threat to nature loving hippies and college students who use the bottles for far too many different liquids that end up giving the air-tight containers a patented Nalgene funk—a combination of water mold and sometimes, in the most poorly thought out cases—beer stench. R.I.P. Nalgene funk.

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