Do I actually want minerals in my water? A great question. Let’s start with what exactly are minerals? Minerals are inorganic substances (such as rocks and similar matter) found in the earth strata, as opposed to organic substances such as plant and animal matter. Some familiar minerals are what we think of as “good minerals” – things like calcium, magnesium and potassium. There are also “not so good” minerals – at least as far as the human body is concerned – things like lead, arsenic, antimony, aluminum, barium, etc. So, we begin with the knowledge that all minerals aren’t necessarily good for you.
As you saw in the above definition of mineral, minerals are inorganic substances (like rocks). There is considerable debate in the scientific community as to the usefulness of these inorganic minerals in the human diet. You can get calcium from rocks mined from the earth or you can get it from dairy products and fruits and vegetables. That’s calcium from an organic source. The body can absorb nutrients (like calcium) from organic sources very well. It is much, much less efficient to get your minerals from inorganic sources because the body can’t absorb them as well. (That’s why you hear stories about vitamin pills passing right through your body undissolved – because they are tough little rocks that the body cannot process quickly). Milk, cheese and oranges get processed very quickly.
So, back to the issue of minerals in your water. Do you really need them? From the above information, you could conclude that the inorganic minerals sometimes found in water (both tap water and spring water) aren’t very useful to the body. But another question is how much of those minerals are even in the water? Not very much with respect to what the body needs.
For example, let’s take a famous spring water (famously expensive!) from the French Alps – it has around 35 milligrams per liter of calcium in it. The minimum Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for an average person is 1,000 milligrams per day. If you have degenerative bone issues, you’ll want to be higher than that (older persons are encouraged to get 1,200 milligrams per day). So, if the inorganic calcium from your spring water were able to be processed 100% efficiently by the human body (which it cannot be), it would take 28.57 liters of water (1,000 milligrams divided by 35 milligrams per liter (calcium in the French Alp water) to get your minimum daily allowance of calcium. That’s more than 7 gallons a day!!!
That is only half of the answer. In addition, not every mineral is good for you. Mother Nature, when she deposited all of these minerals didn’t bless one area with all of the good minerals and curse another area with all of the bad minerals. They’re laid down together. So with the good, come the bad. Anyone that tells you differently has a very long nose…
At DrinkMore Water, our philosophy is to make sure that you don’t get any of the bad minerals and contaminants. We make very pure water. It tastes better because it’s pure. get your minerals from a healthy diet, not from some overpriced spring water.
