Although our bodies are 50-60% water, our inability to store it requires us to continually replenish it. Twenty percent of the water we need can be replenished by the average diet and that percentage can be increased by increasing the amount of high-water foods we eat. Boiling grains increases water content six fold, vegetables lose negligible water when cooked and 4 ounces of steak retain 2.2 ounces of water after cooked. When we get water in food, we also get sodium and potassium, which help our bodies hold onto water - thus avoiding a Waterloo.
Because five times more water is used in dining halls than in any other place on campuses, universities are going trayless. Having students carry their food to tables without using trays saves Georgia Tech - enrollment 18,000 - more than 3,000 gallons a day. The University of Florida - enrollment 50,000 - estimates it will save 470,000 gallons a year and the University of Maine at Farmington - enrollment 2,000 - has saved 288,000 gallons since it went trayless in February 2007. Going trayless also saves food. There's a 25-30% per person reduction in food going to waste - or "waist".
Then there's the fertilizer waste that's polluting the mouths of rivers along crowded coastlines. The nutrients in fertilizer feed algae blooms. When the blooms die and sink to the bottom, they're eaten by bacteria. That process takes oxygen out of the water, creating dead zones that kill marine life. The number of dead zones has doubled every 10 years since the 1960's. Now there are 405 dead zones worldwide, covering 95,000 square miles. The good news is they can be fixed. New runoff laws are helping to keep fertilizer out of the Hudson River, which has shrunk the dead zone at the river's mouth. The bad news is - there isn't enough good news.
To raise awareness about plastic polluting the ocean, Marcus Eriksen and John Paschall spent 3 months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles. The "Junk raft's" six pontoons were filled with 15,000 plastic bottles, the 30-foot deck was made from salvaged sailboat masts and the cabin was made from the fuselage of a Cessna airplane. Because the 2,600 mile trip took longer than expected, the men had to get used to eating peanut butter and fish. One of the fish they tried to eat had a stomach full of plastic confetti - which is food for thought.
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