Counter top water purifier?

[rawstrength]

I just found out about the dangers of fluoride (aka rat poison) in tap water. My town puts fluoride in the drinking water, and my brita water pitcher is doing nothing to clean it out. What brand of counter top reverse osmosis or distiller would you recommend? I can't get a whole house or under the sink filter. Also, the more affordable it is and the more lightweight/compact it is, the better!

[Rinda]

Is it affordable for you to buy spring water? I have the understanding that filters remove not only the bad stuff but also the good minerals that are naturally present. I know the hydrotech reverse osmosis water filter (under counter model) that we have installed hardly gets used anymore after understanding how there are really no minerals left in the water after the water runs through it. Then, in order to balance itself out in our bodies, it takes minerals from us.......BUT, don't take my word for it.....it's just what I've been told. You may want to research it out yourself.

For now, we have sourced out a decent spring water and use that instead of water from the reverse osmosis.

I guess if you are getting plenty of minerals otherwise (which you likely are), a filter would be just fine. I think Hydrotech has a counter top model.

[Raene]

I honestly don't have a recommendation, but aside from fluoride in the water, there have been several articles about how there are hormones and medications in the water too from people who dump them into the toilet, etc, so now we're consuming fake hormones and medications just by doing what we have to do...drinking water.
Humans...

[rawstrength]

I'm sorry if I sound negative, but I just have to let this out.
I feel so angry and disgusted and betrayed that our government is allowed to dump DRUGS and POISONS into our WATER SUPPLY!!!!!!
Not only am I angry, but I'm really scared. I don't want to be afraid, but right now I feel pretty powerless. I just have to keep reminding myself that in 6 weeks I will be able to move out and get my water distiller (parents would think I'm crazy/wasting money if I get one now).
I'm really sad.

[Raene]

Don't buy bottled water...not a good alternative...that stuff is in leeching plastic. Much worse in my opinion.

[rawstrength]

feeling a little better now
I just called the company that takes care of the water in the city where I am moving to in the fall. The fluoride in their water is only .85 parts per million, which is very low. However, in the town I am living in now (my hometown), the fluoride is at least 1 part per million. I also am going to China for 24 days this summer, and the water quality there is atrocious.
I grew up drinking the water in this town, so who knows how much fluoride is already in my system. Does anyone know any techniques for detoxing from fluoride?

[tanishamarshall]

reverse osmosis is not as good either as it can be acidic but I'm sure it's better then drinking floride. I think you can buy some drops that would make the water more alkaline.

[cherries]

I use a waterwise distiller, what I like about waterwise is that they sell individual parts (http://www.waterwise.com/customers/customers.asp#partslists) for repairs, I think that you can buy every last nut and bolt of their distillers as a part. (I'm not sure if other distiller companies do this or not but, to me, selling parts is a sign of a good company).

There is a lot of misinformation that you need to get some minerals from your water. But these would be inorganic minerals, the worst kind, ingesting them is as useful as eating the dirt they came from. They cause so many health problems and, it is true that distilled water leaches minerals from your body, the good news is that distilled water leaches the bad minerals!:)

There are also rumors that distilled water is acidic, but I used ph teststrips and tested my distilled water and my tap water, and they were virtually the same!

http://www.sukapi.ca/WhyDistilled.htm
"It is vital at this point to understand the difference between organic and inorganic minerals. Water flowing through or on the ground collects inorganic (non-living) minerals from the soil and rock through which it passes. These are not minerals that humans or other animals can utilize. Only plants have the capability of transforming inorganic minerals from the ground into living, vital, organic minerals we can use for nourishment. For this reason, we cannot absorb any minerals from eating finely-ground rocks or soil from our garden. We must allow the plants in the garden to take in these inorganic minerals through their roots from the soil and transform them, by the process of photosynthesis, into organic minerals that we can utilize. Inorganic minerals from the earth are absorbed into ground water, so we cannot benefit from minerals in water any more than could benefit by eating rocks or dirt.

Because inorganic minerals cannot be absorbed into the cell wall as nutrition, they become distributed elsewhere in the body, causing arthritis in the joints, kidney stones, gallstones, hardening and blocking arteries, etc."

[tanishamarshall]

I know most people use distilled but then I thought another problems comes with it being in plastic containers.

There seem to always be something good or bad about something. I think we all have to figure out what feels ok to our body.

To bad we all can't have our own research lab to figure everything out.

[oai]

wow cherries. thank you for that very informative post.

lol docsharp... if only we had our own lab. :)