Exercise is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle, but is important not to forget that muscles do not work as well when dehydrated.

We can lose over a litre of water in an as little as an hour when exercising, so it is important to put those fluids back. Experts recommend drinking water before, during and after exercise to avoid dehydration.

Under the weather, one way to start feeling better

There are a few times when keeping fluid levels topped up is quite important as when we are ill, water is lost in a number of ways, particularly through sweating and diarrhoea, often at a time when the stomach is particularly sensitive. Keep a BRITA water filter close to hand to make sure the patient can help themselves to a glass of water to sip whenever they're feeling thirsty.

In retirement – as important as ever

As we get older, our ability to recognise feelings of thirst fades. This can result in symptoms of dehydration that are easily countered by keeping water levels topped up. Keeping a jug filter topped up is a good reminder to drink the recommended amount, and ensures you are drinking water at its best.

Seven Golden Water Rules

Drinking lots of water will keep you fit: you will not become physically tired as quickly and you will also be mentally "on the ball" when your water reservoirs are filled up.

Rules for healthy drinking:
• Drink at least 8 x 250ml glasses a day or more if you get a lot of exercise. Do not wait until you are thirsty.
• Drink lots of water evenly distributed over the day. The best way to do it is to always have a supply of drinking water close by: on your desk, in the train, in the car, at the beach...
• Water cannot be replaced by coffee, tea or soft drinks. Coffee and alcohol even have a dehydrating effect.

• Drink before, during and after working out. Take regular water breaks!
• The very best thing is to start and finish each day with a glass of water, because while you sleep your body loses water.
• Cold viruses can dehydrate your body. Therefore you should always keep a big bottle of water near your sickbed, so that you do not have to get up to get a drink.
• When the weather is hot, drink room temperature or warm water for keeping your water equilibrium in balance; warm water is absorbed much faster than iced water.

From Pregnancy onwards

In fact, soft and fizzy drinks seem to be replacing water, with children drinking on average over two soft or fizzy drinks a day. More worrying is that more than one in five drink three to six soft drinks per day and 6% drink seven glasses or more.

Water consumption is not high enough with more than a third (36%) of children drinking only two glasses of water or less. Worse still, 4% of parents say their children do not drink any water at all.

Water enables your body to digest food more efficiently and assists the bowel in getting rid of waste products. It also helps your body to deal better with the sugar and salt in food so that it does not retain too much of these potentially health-damaging substances.

It can reduce fluid retention as well as cushioning unsettling swings in blood-sugar levels.

Today, drinking water is taken for granted in the majority of the developed countries. Still, it is one of our most precious resources. Most of our tap water comes from reservoirs or rivers, the rest being taken from underground sources.

The 'raw' water goes through an intensive treatment process to make it safe for human consumption, although ground water, because it goes through a process of natural purification, needs little treatment (apart from some disinfectant to keep it safe during transportation).

• Makes great tasting coffee and tea.
• Reduces limescale build up in kettles and coffeemakers.
• May improve the colour and texture of foods cooked with water and can reduce the amount of scum produced during cooking.
• Costs much less than bottled water.
• Helps cut flowers to last longer and household plants thrive.

Hard or soft water – what does it mean to you?

Confusingly there are two different kinds of water hardness, both caused by calcium and magnesium salts. The first, found in most water, is known as permanent hardness and is caused by the calcium and magnesium salts of chloride and sulphate. They give water its characteristic taste but do not cause scale deposits when the water is heated.

The second type of hardness is called temporary hardness and is caused by calcium and magnesium bicarbonate. Calcium and magnesium bicarbonate are destroyed by boiling and therefore this is sometimes referred to as "temporary hardness". Boiling changes it to insoluble carbonate, which is the deposit we know as scale. This fixes to surfaces such as heating elements and boiler walls. It also causes that murky, scummy appearance in tea and coffee.

Maxtra offers an advanced filtration technology that works in four steps:

Step 1
Intensive Pre-Filtration
In a first step the water flows through a fine mesh filter. This is the pre-filtration. The mesh retains particles, which are present in the tap water.

Step 2
Ion Exchange Filtration
The ion exchange resin comes into action! It reduces the carbonate hardness, which causes limescale that affects the water quality and leads to a limescale build up in your household appliances. Also, levels of metals such as aluminium, copper and lead are significantly reduced.

Step 3
Activated Carbon Filtration
The granulated activated carbon is another step in the BRITA water filtration. It significantly reduces substances that affect smell and taste of your tap water such as chlorine, certain pesticides and organic impurities.

Step 4
Intensive Final Filtration
In the fourth and last step a special fine mesh filter retains the particle mixture.

The Maxtra FlowControl leads to a consistent flow rate through the cartridge for an improved water filtration.

Contact times between water and filter cartridge contents have been optimized for your convenience and our best ever performance!

Filtering water is now even more convenient!

Maxtra fits all new BRITA jug water filters easily! Just insert the cartridge into the funnel and press it down until you hear a slight "click".

A ring pull handle on top of Maxtra and the non-slip grip make the exchange process easier for you. Maxtra cartridges require no pre-soaking and there is no need anymore to keep the cartridge immersed in water.

Easy and efficient - designed for your needs!

You will find all information on exchange frequency and which jug water filters fit Maxtra on the packaging of your BRITA jug water filter and in the instruction manual inside.

Recycling:

Do your bit for the environment…

Recycle your used Brita cartridges.
All components of the BRITA cartridge are recyclable. Cartridges returned to BRITA will be returned to our own recycling plant in Germany where the component parts are separated and processed for secondary use.