10 Cups a Day // GE Water Filters

Ever since we started trying to conceive number two, I've been particularly picky about the stuff I put in and on my body. For example, we swapped out more conventional body and beauty products with natural counterparts (and I even make some of my own, like my DIY face scrub). We started eating fewer fruits and veggies from the dirty dozen. And I even started getting more concerned with that beverage we all consume in gallons each week -- water.

I mean, seriously. Pregnant women are supposed to drink a whopping 10 cups (2.4 liters) of fluids (mostly water) each day according to the Institute of Medicine. If you're active, and I try to be, you should guzzle even more. The reason why so much isn't incredibly surprising. Hydration is important no matter your walk of life.


For pregnant women, lots of water helps to prevent:

• Constipation
• Hemorrhoids
• Excessive swelling
• UTIs and bladder infections
• Premature or early labor

I'd like to avoid all that . . . so, I'll grab another glass. Today's post is in partnership with General Electric (GE) and SheKnows. The topic? Water filtration. While I used to heartily source my cups directly from the tap, I started thinking more about water filtration when I upped my intake during pregnancy. We now filter our water through our refrigerator, and it's a system that works well for us.

Let's take a quick step back. What about bottled water? Well, I'm glad you asked. I've long shunned bottled water for environmental impact reasons. Who wants to waste all that plastic? When I researched a freelance article for Wisebread a few years ago, I learned a ton about this 11 billion dollar industry and water in general.

Here are the highlights:

• Bottled water costs 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water.
• Water -- even poured in the same area -- can have wildly different contents depending on a building's pipe age, material, etc.
• 25% (to as much as 40%) of the bottled waters consumed in the U.S. come from municipal water supplies.

So, I think you can see how filtration beats out the bottle on a variety of points. You can use your own container (mine is the Lifefactory 22-ouncer -- this bottle goes with me absolutely everywhere). You can pay your regular water bill. You can drink clean water. Those are all positives in my opinion.


Did you know that there are three different ways you can use water filters in your home?

• Refrigeration filtration (this is the kind that fit conveniently into your fridge if you have a water source like we do)
• Under the sink filtration (systems that filter water at your sink – Check out this new under the sink model (it doesn’t require an added tap and is super easy to install. You turn the controller when you want filtered tap water! )
• Whole house filtration (as it sounds, this system filters water directly at the source for all your cooking, cleaning, drinking, bathing, etc. -- we have particularly hard water in my town, so this is something we're investigating.)

GE offers a variety of water filters that fit right into all these systems -- from GE appliances, reverse osmosis systems, and more. (They even make a water filter specific for select Keurig machines!) These filters contribute to better-tasting, safer water that will also save you big bucks in the long run.

You can find their entire selection of filters and options on their website.

Not only does the water coming out of a filter (from experience) taste cleaner and clearer than what comes out of the tap, it's also far lower in common contaminants, minerals, and other hard deposits that even "safe" tap water contains. And if you're drinking a lot of it like I am, it's also good to know that fresh, filtered water only costs a few cents per gallon versus upwards of $5 with bottled counterparts.

How do you guys handle water in your homes? 

Do you do bottled?
Drink directly from your tap?
Or do you use a filter?

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