water, water, everywhere.....

[tvillemom]

I have really no idea what is the best water to drink at this point. I thought buying distilled was the best. Now, I've read and seen pictures of how deformed water molecules look after distillation.....

What's a girl to do??? I've considered just buying a filter for my faucet.....

what kind??? I DO NOT have the money for an expensive filtration system...

I would really like some insight from the rest of you.

What's best???? And why????

You hear so many "kinds" of water tossed around
distilled, remineralized distilled, reverse ozmosis, filtered, spring, artesian....I'm sure I could go on

HELP!!!

Wendi:eek:

[SharonC]

I totally relate!! Such a hard decision - have been reading about this for years and ask everyone I know that is into health what they do. I do not think I will ever know for sure what is best - way to many contradictions. But for now, I am leaning on the distilled water side (distill at home), but have been adding watermax from Hallelujah Acres -
https://commerce.hacres.com/product.aspx?id=332
Their research - http://www.hacres.com/diet/research/waterRevision.pdf
Distillers - https://commerce.hacres.com/productcat.aspx?cat=9|43

The couple who run a raw food co-op in my area go through many steps. They buy the purified water that you fill yourself, then distill at home, then run it through another device (to structure it I believe), and then add
Crystal Energy - http://www.sunfood.com/cgi-bin/order/index.cgi?id=525725437633&d=single&item_id=0931&c=Supplements&sc=Water&tc=

I also try to stay away from plastic. Have a friend who used to work as an engineer working with materials before she had children, and she witnessed first hand the leaching of chemicals from plastic. She has spring water (bottled in glass) delivered to her house!

[RowanC]

Depends on what you're worried about.

Most city tap water is cleaner or as clean as bottled water, in my opinion. I'd prefer it to water bottled in plastic!

Seems to me that if it's chlorine that concerns you, you can just fill a glass container (pitcher) and let it sit out overnight. The chlorine will dissipate.

You might try a Brita - cheap at yard sales or goodwill.

For flouride, well, I don't know.

Sometimes, you just do the BEST you can do and hope the other things will equal out. Life, unfortunately, doesn't always present us with ideal options 100% of the time.

[tvillemom]

Thanks ya'll.
Rowan: I think I am afraid of the chemicals used at the processing plant to purify our water, including the chlorine. With a filter like Brita....does it filter out chlorine...I know alot of filters say they get rid of the TASTE of chlorine, but no actual mention of getting RID of it....or is there a difference????

I'm so confused.

I do agree about bottling in plastic...I do buy my gallons in plastic at wally world, but sometimes I can really taste it. I need to look for better storage!!

Thanks again,
Wendi

[Zuri]

I'm in the same boat. I don't know what to do except invest in a filter that attaches to my faucet. To add some energy to the distilled water you could add trace minerals to it. It takes some getting used to but it really charges your water.

[SharonC]

I store extra water in those big gallon size apple juice bottles (glass). I saved them years ago when I was still drinking pasteurized juice - maybe you could find someone who could save them for you. You can use them to fill up purified water yourself. Whole Foods has one that is deionized (close to distill) and also reverse osmosis - refills are only 39 cents a gallon.

There are many chemicals in tap water that I do not want in my body. I consume more water than anything else, so it is a priority to me. Can do without lots of other stuff, but not my purified water!!

[SharonC]

Forgot to say that Brita does not filter out much at all. There are reverse osmosis filters that do a pretty good job and some that are not that expensive.

Also, the hard plastic is supposedly better than the soft plastic.

[tvillemom]

Thanks to all who posted. There is a reverse osmosis filter system at my grocery store, where you just fill up your container, and pay per gallon....I think I'll start to use it again, instead of buying distilled.

Thanks again,
Wendi

[trinity082482]

My father is a farmer and he tested bottled water for me.. apparently,

Aquafina? tested 100% top BEST bottled water!

And the worst was Nestle, which tested the same as tap water :eek:

So I "try" and get Aquafina, but it's aprox 3.99 for 12 bottles and the other guys are 2.99 for a 24 case!

[Noone]

My father is a farmer and he tested bottled water for me.. apparently,

Aquafina? tested 100% top BEST bottled water!

And the worst was Nestle, which tested the same as tap water :eek:

So I "try" and get Aquafina, but it's aprox 3.99 for 12 bottles and the other guys are 2.99 for a 24 case!

??????:eek: :eek:

Source, www.newstarget.com


Pepsi admits Aquafina comes from tap water

It's a great marketing gimmick: A bottle of water with a clean, blue label showing images of snow-capped mountains and the claim, "Pure water, perfect taste." That's the image created by Pepsico's Aquafina brand of water, and many consumers leap to the incorrect conclusion that Aquafina is sourced from mountain spring water.

In reality, Aquafina comes from tap water. Yes, the same water you get when you turn on your kitchen faucet. Of course, Aquafina is filtered, purified and perhaps even enhanced with trace amounts of added minerals, but it's certainly not mountain spring water. It's just processed tap water -- the same stuff that fills your toilet bowl when you flush.

Both the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and the FDA believe there's really no need to require bottled water manufacturers to admit their products come from tap water. No surprise there -- both these organizations routinely act to protect the interests of powerful corporations, and when it comes to bottled water, the biggest companies are often those sourcing the lowest quality water (such as tap water).

This idea that consumers should not be informed their high-priced bottled water is really just filtered tap water is consistent with the aims of food, drug and beverage corporations, who almost universally agree that consumers should be given less information, not more, about the products they're swallowing. Over the last several decades, corporations have vigorously opposed truth in labeling laws and regulations, including those requiring the labeling of trans fatty acids, sodium content and even ingredients lists! (If the food corporations had their way, all ingredients would be considered "proprietary formulas" and not listed on the label at all.)

This bottled water issue brings to light the apparent deceptive practices of some of the largest suppliers of bottled water products. By avoiding the honest labeling of the source of their water while relying on snow-capped mountain imagery, these companies quietly mislead consumers into thinking their water products are from a pristine, natural source such as a mountain spring.

CAI pressures PepsiCo to tell the truth
PepsiCo only agreed to tell the truth on their bottled water labels after being pressured by Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a non-profit organization that helps protect consumers from corporate abuse. See their website at http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org

CAI rallied consumers from around the world to complain to PepsiCo about the current labeling of Aquafina, and thousands of consumers slammed PepsiCo's phone lines so hard that the company was forced to shut down call center operations. CAI told NewsTarget that within 30 minutes after the call-to-action announcement went live, PepsiCo's consumer phone lines were no longer being answered and would not allow callers to leave voice mails. Pepsi executives reportedly held an emergency meeting and made a decision to add the phrase, "Public water source" to Aquafina labels.

Reluctantly admitting a small part of the truth
Even then, the phrase "public water source" isn't very descriptive. To some people, the phrase simply implies that Aquafina is itself a public water source. It's not the same as admitting, "Aquafina comes from tap water," which would be a far more honest way to label the product. But PepsiCo seems to have no interest in advertising the source of their Aquafina product, and my guess is that the "public water source" text on the label will be really small and difficult to read. It's much like the labeling of side effects of prescription drugs: They bury the bad news somewhere that most consumers won't ever look.

Aquafina is currently the top-selling bottled water brand in the United States. According to CAI, 4 out of 5 consumers now drink bottled water, and 1 out of 5 drink it as their sole water source! (Gee, that's a lot of plastic going to landfill, too...)

The bottles used to package bottled water are almost always made from plastics containing bisphenol-A (BPA), a carcinogenic chemical that often leaches into the water and gets swallowed by consumers. Click here to read our articles on BPA, a chemical widely believed to contribute to certain cancers. This contamination factor, however, is true for all products stored in plastic bottles, not merely water. Sports drinks, sodas, fruit drinks and even "healthy" smoothie drinks packaged in plastic all share a common risk of BPA contamination.

Bottled water vs. public water infrastructure
The widespread shift towards bottled water products is increasingly causing consumers to lose faith in public water infrastructure, which ultimately leads to public reluctance to support investment in public water supplies. This concerns many cities who are worried that a lack of public support will cause funding for water infrastructure to erode.

These people tend to describe treated municipal water as remarkably pristine and safe for human consumption. In my opinion, however, tap water should never be swallowed without filtering it, since tap water contains scary levels of toxic chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride, a dangerous water additive chemical often contaminated with arsenic. (Click here to learn the truth about water fluoridation.)

So I wouldn't drink from the public water supply in the first place, but neither do I rely on bottled water. I use a water filtration system to clean tap water before I drink it. (Coincidentally, this is similar to what PepsiCo does when creating Aquafina water, except PepsiCo uses plastic bottles, where I only drink out of glass or stainless steel.)

You can get clean public water in places like Hawaii, Oregon and anywhere that's close to the mountains, but most folks in first world nations are getting tap water that's far from pristine. The public water infrastructure in the U.S. may be among the best in the world, but that's not saying much. I won't even shower in U.S. public water without using a chlorine filter on my shower head. (Recommended brand: Aquasana at http://www.aquasana.com )

My view on PepsiCo
Since this story has much to do with PepsiCo, I thought I would offer my personal opinion on this corporation. In my opinion, PepsiCo is a highly destructive corporation that is partially responsible for obesity, diabetes, depression and bone disorders among hundreds of millions of people around the world. Through its aggressive (and deceptive, in my opinion) marketing campaigns, lack of corporate ethics and ready willingness to exploit human beings for profit, PepsiCo has risen to be one of the most financially profitable yet ethically bankrupt organizations on the planet.

If PepsiCo were to disappear from the face of the earth tomorrow, humanity would be healthier the very next day. PepsiCo's brands include: (followed by my opinion statement about that particular brand)

Frito-Lay: Dangerous junk food that contributes to obesity, heart disease, cancer, depression and other serious diseases.

Pepsi-Cola: Toxic beverages that destroy bone mineral density and poison consumers with chemical sweeteners in diet drinks.

Gatorade: Crap sports drinks that contain artificial colors made from petrochemical derivatives.

Tropicana: A low-end fruit juice brand engaged in deceptive labeling for many of its products.

Quaker: This is perhaps the only tolerable brand in the PepsiCo portfolio. Oatmeal is essentially good for you, although instant oats and all the sugars found in many oatmeal products make it a rather high-glycemic food that's not recommended for most people (especially diabetics or obese people).

Put it all together and you have a collection of some of the least healthy foods and beverages on the market today. When future historians examine today's epidemics of obesity and diabetes, they will no doubt scrutinize the role of companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, both of which are partly to blame for modern disease epidemics. Both companies, by the way, continue to engage in routine marketing of junk foods and sodas to children.

Pepsico is a corporation that won't even list the acrylamide content in their fried foods. Nor will it publicly admit that high-fructose corn syrup has any link whatsoever to obesity. PepsiCo, in my opinion, is a corporation living in a deviant reality, unwilling to take responsibility for its role in poisoning the population through its toxic food and beverage products.

That's my personal opinion of PepsiCo, its brands and its products. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything made by PepsiCo. I have no desire to financially reward this company by purchasing its products. If anything, we should all be boycotting PepsiCo products (and Coca-Cola, for that matter) and getting our water from somewhere else.


If I were in charge around here, I would immediately ban all advertising of junk foods, sodas, snack foods, cigarettes, pharmaceuticals and other harmful substances. It's the only sane thing to do if we care about the future of our children. Of course, such advertising bans will never actually take place because corporations run the government. See my CounterThink Cartoon, Government of the People for a humorous depiction of this current state of affairs.

And as far as Pepsi's water brand goes, I think it should be renamed to AquaFib.

[GlimR]

I always thought Aquafina had a horrid taste to it...or aftertaste...the ONE I would never buy because of that~

[KathleenO]

I'm not sold on buying distilled water for drinking, I don't like messing with the mineral content of water Trying the filtered water from your store sounds like a good idea. Chlorine, if I'm not mistaken, can be removed by letting the water sit out. Much of what works for you will depend on the original quality of the water where you live. I have an under-the-sink filtering system and a Brita pitcher which I don't use in tandem, but I like them both. My concern (for me) is just drinking enough to keep my body happy :) Good luck

[JennyPat]

Of all the bottled waters I have tried Aquafina is one who's taste I can't abide. I am very picky about the taste of my bottled water. I travel a LOT, at least one full week every month, driving. So I end up buying a lot of bottled waters. Dasani is another one I don't like the taste of. I get very frustrated when I can't find water to drink! I do bring from home, but bringing enough water to last me a week or two of traveling, takes up a lot of space in the vehicle. Sometimes I don't have that space availible.

At home I use an under the sink filter system, it has 2 parts, and is NOT the reverse osmosis type. When I was buying it I could not afford reverse osmosis. I stay away from distilled water for drinking, personally I think we need some of the minerals that distillation removes.

Jenny P

[Holli]

I just put in a reverse osmosis system and I absolutely love it! We couldn't afford to buy one (I've done a lot of research and a decent one goes for about $600-$700...you can get a cheaper one, but consider the maintanence if you do. There are some that require you change the filters more often than others and that's were they get you on price charging $30-$60 for a silly carbon filter!)

Anyway, I just wanted to mention this because there is a local water company where I live that rents RO systems for very cheap. We paid $25 to install it and we only have to pay $16 per month for unlimited wonderful water! Plus, they have a great thing that if we decide to purchase it later on down the line, they will apply the install fee and 1/2 of our rent up to year towards the retail price of the system...so, if finances improve we could definitely buy it later. Before we spent close to $40 per month on bottled water, so this is a great savings for us. You should look into this is your area. Companies I know that do somthing similar are Rayne and Culligan. We are going through a local company in the Central California Coast called Richetti.