Your Water Bottle Is Filthy

It is great that you don't leave the house without your water bottle. But, you might be carrying around a mini toilet.

I don't know about you but I buy a bottle of water about once every 4 months. I find a bottle I like, then I keep refilling it until I decide to throw it away...which is usually about 4 or 5 months.

But, even if you own one of those reusable water bottles, they are filthy too. A website called Treadmillreviews.net did some research to see just how dirty your water bottle is. They swabbed a bunch of peoples bottles and found A LOT of bacteria on them.

The average water bottle contains nearly 314,000 CFU (colony-forming units) of bacteria. To put that in perspective, the average pet toy has just under 3,000 CFU. If it makes you feel any better, your toothbrush holder is home to even more germs -- nearly 332,000.

Surprisingly, the type of water bottle had an effect on the number of bacteria it harbored. Ones with a slide-top were by far the worst offenders, with close to a million microscopic creepy-crawly things. Squeeze-tops and screw-tops hovered between 159,000–161,000 CFU. And the best and "cleanest" choice was the straw-top. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Go for a straw-top bottle
Less convenient when you run? Big, bulky, and sort of dorky? Yes. But far less germy.

2. Choose stainless steel over plastic
Won't that make long runs fun? (Hard no.) But stainless steel is naturally antibacterial. And easier to clean (more on that below!).

3. Keep your stash o' bottles clean.
Hand wash plastic -- a lot. A brush will get all those nooks and crannies which are fine on English muffins but nasty hideouts for bacteria everywhere else.

[via: Treadmillreviews.net]