You can eat well and exercise, but to round out your identity as a Person Who Makes Healthy Choices you may feel like you need to drain a large water bottle a few times a day. The benefits of chugging H2O are myriad and legendary, but are they real?

Many things in life get soggy when wet, like paper, or expensively blow-dried hair. But plants do not work this way. Water makes them plumper, crispier, crunchier. Understand this fact and you’ll never suffer soggy lettuce again.

With the recycling industry in flux, the rules surrounding recycling plastic aren’t always a given. For one, you can’t recycle plastic bags or straws and now black plastic is even becoming a problem. How will we ever know the right way to recycle?

Telling people to drink more water is a lazy and mostly useless health hack. You’ll drink when you’re thirsty. Why complicate things?

It’s a message that’s been drummed into us since childhood. Drink water, especially when it’s hot, otherwise you’ll get dehydrated. But how do you know if you’re dehydrated? Who’s more at risk? And what can you do about it?

Summer in Australia is hot. Bloody hot, even.

Each year the temperature seems to hit a new record and many suffer in the sweltering heat. As we head into the hottest part of the season take a minute to read these tips on surviving the next few months.

Trust us, we did not enjoy telling you that steaming your vagina could burn you. Nor did we really want to write any of the posts below. But we live in the real world, where people consider doing harmful things to themselves and others.

Like putting two spaces after a period. Here are the posts that we wish we hadn’t had to write.

Great news for people who hate doing dishes: if you have a dishwasher, washing your dishes by hand is a colossal waste of water, energy, time, and money, and you can prove it with maths.

Water is essential for human life. It accounts for for 50-70% of our body weight and is crucial for most bodily functions. Any deficit in normal body water – through dehydration, sickness, exercise or heat stress – can make us feel rotten. First we feel thirsty and fatigued, and may develop a mild headache. This eventually gives way to grumpiness, and mental and physical decline.

The question How much water do I need to drink? is often followed with the related question Can I drink too much of it? We're here to tell you that, while difficult to do accidentally, it is in fact possible to drink too much water -- and the repercussions can be deadly.

OK look, this is news to me, and even though I got roasted by my editors for only just learning this, I bet it's news to some of you too: You can leave a glass of water out for months, and so long as it was properly cleaned, it's not going to make you sick.

For a molecule so essential to human life, the existence of "distilled water" when tap water is just fine is a bit befuddling, especially if you're not exactly sure what to do with the stuff. Turns out, it's good for more than confusing you at the supermakret, or steaming your clothing. And, in true turns out fashion, some of those use cases are more superstition than certainty.

Baking beautiful bread requires the skillful manipulation of three big, messy variables: technique, equipment, and ingredients. Poor technique accounts for most subpar results, but a sudden change in kitchen conditions or ingredient availability can throw even a seasoned baker for a loop. If your bread has started acting up for seemingly no reason, your water might just be the culprit.

To help your baby become comfortable going underwater in the pool, here's a simple trick: Blow in their face before dunking them. They will instinctively gulp air and hold their breath, making it a perfect opportunity for you to pretend the kid is the next Ian Thorpe for a quick second.

I love a raw carrot. Crunchy and sweet, you can dip it in hummus or ranch dressing. Raw apples have a similar charm, and raw red onions give salads a happy kick. I'm also a fan of raw honey's gritty sugar crystals. You know what all these things have in common? They are perfectly healthy to eat raw. Unlike the latest supposed trend, raw water.

No matter where you are in Australia, you're subject to some extreme heat for the next three months (not you, Tasmania). You need to stay hydrated.

Video: If you've dropped something in the pool and can't spot it from above the water, this super simple trick can help.

Simply floating in water might look easy, but it's actually pretty difficult if you don't have a flotation device, and treading water is an essential safety skill for anyone who plans on spending time on or near the water, well, ever. Here's the best way to do it for as long as possible in an emergency situation.

Leave your book out in the rain? Drop it in the tub? Don't worry, you can fix it if you act fast.