Ried Rants

It’s just water, or is it? I was grocery shopping the other day. And I ventured into the water isle—something I almost never do. I was on a mission. A mission to find an alkaline infused water. But not for the reason you may think. I have not been misled to believe that we as humans can alter the alkalinity of our blood as some people may believe and recommend.

There was a movement a while back—maybe it is still going on—encouraging folks to “alkalize” their bodies. This brought about a marketing campaign. In it people were encouraged to ingest water and foodstuffs that would turn their blood more alkaline.

This is hooey. You cannot alkalize your blood. The body—in its constant effort to maintain homeostasis keeps the body acidic. The pH scale is from 0 to 14. Seven is neutral. Below 7 is acidic. Above 7 is alkaline. Your skin’s pH can be as low as 4, your stomach is about a 2, a woman’s vagina is 3.5 to 4.5. The reason your body is acidic is because acid kills bacteria. So even if we were able to alkalize our bodies; it would be BAD thing to do.

This brings us back to why I was in the water isle. Well, since the body secretes alkaline in the urine and the belief in the medical community is that the bladder can be inflamed by ingesting acidic foods. Then maybe ingesting alkaline rich food will temper the inflammation in the bladder. This seems like a plausible theory. But I have not been able to find any clinical studies or papers on the subject.

What I found amusing is that there are somewhere upwards of 192 different bottled brands of still water. Some of these brands are more than $40 a bottle. Some brands claim to be “naturally alkaline.” News flash pure water is neutral. It can become slightly acidic due to the delivery system; meaning the pipes it travels through to get to you.

Now, the sad thing is that water is not pure. It is treated with fluoride and chlorine as well at other chemicals to make it “safe” for consumption. Read your water report that comes with your water bill. It’s terribly scary.

Here in Tampa the water is treated with a constellation of chemicals. It is ironic that the final disinfection adds chlorine and ammonia to your drinking water. But wait, there’s more…sodium hydroxide is also added in the final step of treatment. Sodium hydroxide is a corrosive. You may know it’s more common name—LYE. Yes, lye! That stuff that they used to put in soap (some still add it to soap); soap that would burn your skin.

So should you buy water? Is it better for you? Well, I think that depends on where you live. Here in Tampa I would definitely have some sort of filtration unit on your tap water. Bottled water can be high in estrogens and pollutes the planet.

But in the mountains tap water tends to taste better. In certain areas of Hillsborough county the water is from a well. Well water stains orange and tastes terrible. Is it better for you? I don’t know maybe that is another blog post.