A water bottle, the hot aussie summer and the great outdoors are like peas in a pod. Sunscreen is a must when venturing outdoors between the hours of 11am to 3pm (daylight savings time) and 10am to 2pm elsewhere. The trouble with many chemical based sunscreens is they are designed to soak in to your skin and offer inferior protection to natural sunscreen alternatives.
Natural sunscreens use zinc oxide as their active ingredient. It is designed to sit on top of the skin and offers UVA & UVB protection. Natural sunscreens may not rub or look as good as the stinky toxic alternatives you can pick up from the chemist or the supermarket, but they offer better & safer protection from the hot Australian sun. Read the labels carefully before making your choice this summer.
admin Health & Wellbeing
We received a newsletter from World Vision today. Not only does Shop Naturally sponsor a child, but we also give a monthly donation to World Visions ‘Water = Health = Life’ campaign. In Australia, we take for granted being able to turn on a tap to fill up a water bottle. Even without a water filter on it, the water is clean and safe to drink.
The newsletter had a link to a really interesting video. A 14 year old girl from Uganda vs an adult female from Australia. Their challenge? To pick up a 20 litre container of water and carry it. Anyaka from Uganda easily flips the bottle up on to her shoulder. The Aussie, not so lucky! This may have something to do with the fact that to get water, the Aussie turns on a tap, Anyaka spends hours each day carrying water to ensure her families survival.
Please consider making a donation to World Visions ‘Water = Health = Life’ campaign. Even if it’s only a small donation, every bit helps. We have set ourselves our own challenge – when we reach #1 in Google for the phrases ‘water bottles’ and ‘water bottle’, we will be putting together a major water bottle promotion with some of the world’s leading water bottle manufacturers to sponsor an entire well so little girls like Anyaka don’t have to spend hours of their day carrying something we take for granted and waste on a daily basis.
Author: Shop Naturally Proprietor – Joanne Musgrave
admin Health & Wellbeing, In The News
We just read a really interesting article at Hoax Slayer about the dangers of leaving plastic bottles filled with water in your car in the sun on a hot day. Experiments were done and the magnification of the heat through the water and the clear plastic disposable bottle left marks in the car’s upholstery in 7 SECONDS!
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Whether or not you can actually start a fire in your car this way we really don’t know, but if you can damage the upholstery, here’s yet another reason to avoid storing clear disposable plastic water bottles in the car.
Safe alternatives should include:-
- Stainless Steel Drink Bottles (either single wall or double wall), or
- BPA Free Plastic Water Bottles that are opaque in colour
Visit BPA Free Water Bottles for Australia’s largest range of both stainless steel and bpa free plastic water bottle options.
The full range of Nathan Stainless Steel & Nathan Tritan Plastic Water Bottles can be purchased from selected quality sporting & adventure stores nationally. Visit Everest Sports to find your nearest retailer or purchase Nathan Water Bottles online from Shop Naturally.
admin Bottle Feature, Brand Feature, Health & Wellbeing, In The News
Storing water in a stainless steel water bottle is a great & safe alternative to throw away plastic bottles, but if you leave stagnant water in the bottles and don’t rinse or clean them out, they will get mouldy and start growing things you don’t want to drink!! Here’s some handy tips for taking care of your stainless steel drink bottle.
- Regularly remove the sports cap (or screw cap) and rinse it in warm soapy water. Ideally you will do this daily. It can go in the dishwasher if the manufacturer says it’s dishwasher safe. A lot of the nasties are lurking in your sports cap.
- At the end of each day, empty the bottle, give it a quick rinse with water and let it stand upside down to dry on your dish rack. Especially important if it’s a kids bottle that gets taken to school every day.
- Once a week, wash with warm soapy water. If your bottle is dishwasher safe, put it on the top rack of the dishwasher. Be aware though that a lot of bottles aren’t dishwasher safe and we have heard reports of paint jobs on some cheap dodgy bottles peel away completely or start to chip and fade after dishwasher usage.
- For stubborn & grotty stains that have been let to fester, get some bi-carb soda (the wonder powder) and some warm water and let the bottle soak for a while. Scrub the inside of the bottle with a bottle brush to remove any stubborn marks. Remember, stainless steel bottles are just pure stainless steel, there’s no plastic liner to scratch. Use a bit of elbow grease if you have to!!
admin Health & Wellbeing
THE SHORT ANSWER
Some are safe, some aren’t.
WHY IS THAT?
The number 7 on a plastic bottle doesn’t indicate one type of plastics, it indicates a group of plastics. Some number 7 products are BPA Free and perfectly safe, some aren’t.
HOW DO I KNOW WHICH NUMBER 7 PRODUCTS ARE SAFE?
The only way to know for sure is to ask your retailer or contact the manufacturer directly. At Shop Naturally, Australia’s largest online retailer of BPA Free Bottles, the hard work has been taken out of the equation.
All the water bottles for sale, whether they’re Stainless Steel Water Bottles or Plastic Water Bottles, they’re all 100% BPA Free and safe to use, whether the packaging is marked that way or not.
The following brands of water bottles are sold at Shop Naturally and all BPA Free. We have also included the links to the official websites of each brand to help you do some independant research.
admin Health & Wellbeing
