As a professional in the health field, I am use to being introduced to the latest gizmos, supposedly to improve health. These gizmos come in all sizes and shapes, and accompanied with their own unbelievable testimonials, studies, and dare it say, “Miracles”. To set the tone of how serious this matter can be, I personally feel that most people are sincere about what they share with prospects, although most of them a selling what they think, believe, and know will close the deal. From juice to cosmetics, from MLM to personal favorites, it’s almost impossible to detect what is true and what is not. So, the more inquisitions would seem to ignite a demand for more proof, but what seems to increase is more ways to get the product sold.
Water is no exception. Water is such a perfect product to sell, just find and angle to convince enough people that the “free” water is not as healthy as the water for sale. But, focusing on the water supply, it is very easy to see how far we have strayed from the main purpose and benefit of water. Fore mostly, water is irreplaceable. There is nothing known to man that can replace water, we need it to maintain and to sustain life…all life. However today, we find our water supply in contaminated with toxins, toxins that appear impossible to avoid. We are constantly exposed to low levels of toxic contaminants in our drinking water. However, with the proper water filtration system installed in your home and workplace, you can reduce your exposure and minimize sources of environmental toxicity.
Over time, drinking and showering in water tainted by toxic chemicals, heavy metals, parasites, radioactivity, and chlorine by-products contribute to a wide range of health disorders. Even at extremely low levels these toxins wreak havoc on our immune systems and exacerbate symptoms in chemically sensitive individuals. Perchlorate is a chemical used in munitions, found in fertilizers, and now detected in drinking water in 35 states. It is known to inhibit production of thyroid hormone and may also affect brain development in children.
Then there is the issue of chlorine. It is required that all sources of water be treated with it to prevent disease-causing bacteria. The downside of chlorination is the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs), chemicals formed by the action of chlorine combining with naturally occurring organic matter in water. Scientific studies have linked THMs to increased risk of bladder and colorectal cancers and may be linked to miscarriages, and heart, lung, kidney, and liver damage.
Claiming the industry has been working to convince consumers that bottled water is more pure than tap water despite no evidence to support the claims. The takeaways from the report: Bottled water costs over 1000 times more than tap water per fluid ounce and uses more than 2000 times more energy to produce; the purity of tap water is better regulated; and in fact, most bottled water is filtered tap water, anyway.
Not surprisingly, a coalition formed by the International Bottled Water Association called Bottled Water Matters has taken issue with the report. In fact, the organization counters, “At a time when obesity, diabetes and heart disease are so prevalent, the consumption of water, whether from the bottle or the tap, is a good thing, and any actions, such as CAI’s report, that discourage people from drinking bottled water are not in the public’s interest.”
After the purification process, there’s a big difference between tap water and bottled water, IBWA says, and suggestions that bottled water isn’t as well regulated as tap are patently false. Not only does it contend that the CAI overstates the oil use in producing bottled water (54 million barrels each year), it says bottle water plastic container recycling is up to 31 percent, double the rate of five years ago. In the end, it argues, bottled water is good for the nation’s economy: “In 2009, the bottled water industry was responsible for as much as $130 billion in total economic activity and generated over $12.7 billion in property, income and sales taxes in the US.”
But according to a Scientific America article, bottled water is ripping off consumers to the tune of 1900 times the cost of tap water, and bottlers aren’t revealing where their water comes from: “…18 percent of the 173 bottled waters on the U.S. market today fail to list the location of their source; a third disclose nothing about the treatment or purity of the water inside their plastic bottles.” The Natural Defense Council reports that 90 percent of the money consumers pay for bottled water actually covers everything but the water itself: bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing and other expenses, and profits.
There are a lot of issues at work in the bottle vs. tap debate. Which camp do you fall into: Do you buy the idea that the pro-tap folks are discouraging water drinking, or do you think the bottlers are going on the offensive to hide environmental misdeeds?
What is an aquifer?
An aquifer is an underground layer of rock or soil that contains water. The water is held in the spaces between the rock or soil particles. There are two kinds of aquifers: 1. a confined aquifer is a water supply which is sandwiched between two layers of soil or rock that water cannot pass through (impermeable layers), and 2. An unconfined aquifer is a water supply that has an impermeable layer below it, but not above it. A confined aquifer that is under pressure is an artesian aquifer. The pressure can often push water to the surface in a well drilled into an artesian aquifer; usually wells need a pump to bring water to the surface from the aquifer they are drilled into. We use aquifers as a source of drinking water and of water to irrigate crops or to use in industry, pumping water from the aquifer using a well. As with any container of water, pumping from the aquifer empties it–or at least decreases the amount of water it holds. Aquifers are refilled, or recharged, in areas where they are exposed on the surface of the earth. Water can re-enter the aquifer in these recharge areas.
Water is essential for life
All mineral water is not equal, just as all bottled water is not equal. Minerals – a wide variety of them – are vital to human and animal health is hardly questioned. All living things need minerals in specific amounts – some minerals are needed in higher concentration than are others. Many people who would never question the health benefits of a daily vitamin are less sure when it comes to taking minerals as a daily regimen. Many cheaper vitamins contain no or nearly no minerals, or minerals in a form that are not readily absorbed. And there are no real requirements for the minimum amount of specific minerals to be included in bottled mineral water.
All water is technically mineral water unless it is softened or distilled. Water softeners remove minerals that cause scale on plumbing pipes. Distilling removes all minerals. When water comes out of the ground it is suffused with whatever minerals are present in the rock strata it is pumped from or those above it that leach into it. Some areas of the country have a higher complement of minerals in the water than others.
Mineral water in its natural state is usually called “hard” water, and anyone with a well which pumps rusty or lime scale water has either much iron or calcium in their water. In some areas of the country, there is concern that there is a high level of natural arsenic in the water and it is usually filtered out. Minerals are what lend a specific “taste” to water and many households are drinking water of considerable mineral density without even knowing it. Hard water usually has a bad reputation among home owners because of the expensive plumbing problems caused by scale and the fact that hard water does not allow detergents to work so well. This has kept water softener businesses in business for many years.
A couple of generations ago, the majority of the country drank “hard” well water and ate vegetables grown in soil that provided a variety of minerals. These soil minerals are taken up into the plant and provide the most digestible form of minerals for human health. Unfortunately, as the home garden has disappeared, to be replaced with mega-farm fruits and vegetables grown only with the use of fertilizers on worn-out ground, fewer minerals are absorbed into the food crop. Because plants need specific minerals to even grow, most fertilizers are primarily a concentration of minerals. This fertilizer is not balanced to provide optimum human health benefits, however – only to allow the plant to grow and produce. It should be obvious, then, that additional minerals should be added to the diet.
Iron is well-known as vital to the development of a healthy blood system but is readily available in meats, eggs and many legumes. Two other minerals are commonly referred to as being vital to circulatory health. These are calcium and magnesium. Other minerals, such as potassium are also necessary to proper heart function. Calcium in particular is stressed as vital to bones and teeth and as a preventative for osteoporosis. However, the usual recommendation to assure an adequate supply of calcium is to consume lots of dairy products, which I suggest is out-dated and misinformation. Many vegetables are loaded with enough calcium and other minerals to maintain and improve our health. Besides suggesting dairy products is a big problem as many adults are lactose intolerant. Races particularly prone to “milk allergies” are African-American and Asians. As calcium is the most common mineral to be found in mineral water, it can be a vital addition to the diet of the lactose intolerant. Scientific medical studies have proven that calcium-enriched mineral water is just as bio-available as that in milk in a study group of young women.
Often doctors and nutritionists recommend the dark, leafy vegetables such as broccoli as a source of calcium. Once again, the historical concentrations of minerals in plant-based foods has been dropping since at least 1945 and there is little way to tell if a particular head of broccoli, mustard greens or Chinese vegetables contains an optimum amount of calcium. Properly labeled mineral water may well be a better choice in this instance for obtaining needed calcium, and may be of great benefit in the prevention of osteoporosis in the elderly.
There are some concerns over bottled mineral water: a 1977 study in India placed part of the blame for the spread of a cholera epidemic on polluted locally-bottled mineral water. There is less concern over the cleanliness of commercially bottled water in the more developed countries, however, and there is no evidence such water has even been responsible for a disease outbreak here. Other concerns, those regarding the formulation of plastic bottling materials are somewhat valid. A recent study found that harmful chemicals can leach from the plastic into the water but usually only if the water is stored at higher temperatures. Water kept under refrigeration is not suspect, but one never knows the conditions under which it was stored before it gets to your kitchen. This is true of any bottled water, not just mineral water.
Yes, mineral water can have valuable health benefits, but this is a qualified yes: the minerals included, the underlying base of the water (much bottled drinking water is municipal water from one location or another), the bottling method and how the water was stored make a great deal of difference. Medical science need to devote much more study to the availability of minerals in local ground waters and the needs of particular individuals for mineral supplementation to improve their health.