Each of us is a living filter: our brains are about 90% water, and our bodies are about 70% water.
As a filter, your body deserves to be flushed out and cleaned regularly. And you ought to use the cleanest, healthiest water to do it. Most health experts say you should drink about half your body weight in ounces of water every day. It’s an investment that has a huge payoff: You’ll start to feel and act younger almost immediately.
According to the USDA, organic products are now available in nearly 20,000 natural food stores and nearly 3 out of 4 conventional grocery stores. Organic sales account for over 4 percent of total U.S. food sales, according to recent industry statistics.
Yet despite all we know, the movement toward healthy water isn’t as widespread and doesn’t have as much momentum as the organic food drive.
In this blog, we’ll engage in a bit of a thought exercise. If there were to be a healthy water movement, what would it entail?
Healthy Water Makes for a Healthy You — And the More, the Better
The thing about healthy water is tricky: It’s about much more than what you’re drinking.
Anecdotally, people trying to lose weight have long extolled the virtues of drinking water to help the body understand when it’s full better. And in fact the impact has been scientifically confirmed. In a study called “Inadequate Hydration, BMI, and Obesity Among US Adults,” researchers found a strong association between not drinking enough water and having a higher BMI. (A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.)
The researchers determined that drinking more water helps you understand your body’s hunger cues better (and not misinterpret them, so that you think you’re hungry when you’re actually just thirsty). It also helps amp up your metabolism and improve your energy and mood.
So to answer the “what makes healthy water” question, one aspect has to do with quantity — in general, the more the better. And to continue the generalizing: Most people don’t drink anywhere near enough water to put their bodies at peak performance.
pH Matters
“Alkaline water,” or water with a pH greater than 7, is trendy. In chemistry, pH stands for “potential of hydrogen,” and it’s a measure of acidity or alkalinity. Almost all substances have a pH between 0 and 14. A pH of 7 is neutral, neither acidic nor alkaline. The lower than 7 the pH goes, the more acidic a substance is. The higher than 7 it goes, the more alkaline it is.
Pure water has a pH of 7, so it’s neither acidic nor alkaline. However, the water you encounter in daily life is almost never pure water. It contains minerals and other substances that raise or lower the pH. Typically, the normal pH range for surface water is about 6.5 to 8.5. The normal pH range for groundwater is about 6 to 8.5. Water that’s been treated may have a pH that’s outside those ranges.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Scientists agree that cancer grows in acidic, low-pH environments. Some have claimed that raising the pH of your cells by replenishing them with alkaline water should help protect you against cancer.
Does “alkaline water” stop or slow cancer growth?
The answer isn’t totally clear. Anecdotally, many have claimed that alkaline water has helped cure them of cancer. “Alkaline water” as a miracle cure for cancer comes up frequently in places like the Cancer Survivors Network.
Bottom line: While personal stories are hopeful, there hasn’t been conclusive evidence just yet that proves or disproves whether alkaline water actually has any cancer-inhibiting properties.
Purity is Important! Whole House Filters Are Your Best Bet for Clean, Healthy Water
As with organic food, when it comes to clean, healthy water that’s free of toxins, you get what you pay for. There will always be cheaper alternatives, but in most cases, they’re no replacement for the real thing.
Elsewhere in the blog, we’ve discussed the cheaper — but unfortunately not sufficient — alternatives to getting a whole-house water filter.
Check out that article to learn more about what options like a carbon filter such as Brita; DIY water treatment; and biofilters made of materials like stone, gravel or sand may be like. (For example, the last option may leave harmful contaminants like arsenic, chromium, perchlorate, nitrates, fluoride and more in your water.)
Only a whole house water filter or a point-of-use system utilizing reverse osmosis and activated carbon will remove the full range of contaminants, including lead, chromium, arsenic, nitrates, perchlorate, chlorine, trihalomethanes and VOCs.
