Water Myths and Scams

A while ago I wrote a series of articles on water myths. I thought it was time to again revisit this subject, so I summarized all ten previous articles in one single article.

MYTH #1: “OUR FILTERS REMOVE THE BAD STUFF WHILE LEAVING IN THE GOOD STUFF.” Filter companies often make this claim, but it’s completely ridiculous. This statement simply doesn’t make sense because to do this the filter would have to a) know what specific contaminants are in the water (of the more than 84,000 contaminants), be able to determine which ones are good and which are bad, and then somehow only remove the bad ones while leaving the good ones in the water. It’s obvious that this simply is not possible. Oh, and by the way, the “good stuff” in water, is WATER, so take everything else out!

MYTH #2: “DISTILLED WATER IS DEAD WATER.” Another ridiculous claim made by people selling their latest and greatest (and of course patented) magic water machine is that their machine produces “living water” and that other types of water, such as distilled water is “dead water”. So here’s the surprising truth: water is not alive. Water is a molecule of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Water is the primary component of life, but it’s not alive itself. There is NO form of water that is alive and there is no form of water that is dead. There is no machine that can make water alive or dead.

MYTH #3: “MAGIC WATER.” There have been numerous “breakthrough” waters that are supposed to have almost magical healing qualities, such as clustered water, energized water, structured water, alkaline water, etc. There’s always a great story of why the science community hasn’t caught up to the real story. Of course (and this is vital) their process is patented and is the only way you can get this special, amazing, fabulous, life-changing water is to buy it from them or to buy their magic water machine. This is just noise and it distracts you from the real priority, which is to remove harmful contaminants and to consume only pure water. We offer a great product for cleaning your water. Do we have a patent on the distillation process? No. Are there other ways to clean your water? Yes.

MYTH #4: “YOU NEED THE MINERALS IN YOUR WATER”. Here’s why you don’t need the minerals found in water… 1) As Dr. Andrew Weil says, “We get our minerals from food, not water.” The minerals in water are not in a form that are usable by the body. 2) There can be harmful minerals in water. There are many parts of the country that have high levels of arsenic or nitrates, which have both been linked to many different forms of cancer. 3) Whatever minerals are in the water are often mixed with other potentially harmful chemicals. 4) The quantities are too small. You would have to drink a ridiculous amount of water to get anywhere close to the recommended Dietary Allowance of minerals in your diet.

MYTH #5: “DISTILLED WATER IS TOO PURE.” Some filter companies claim that distilled water is too pure and that it can actually leach minerals from your body, which is simply not true. First of all, the term “leaching” is not a biological term, but rather is a geological term. There is no such thing as leaching in a living organism. Second, there is no such thing as high-purity water in your body. As soon as you take a sip of water and it mixes with your saliva, the water isn’t pure anymore. When you swallow pure water it mixes with all of your stomach acids and instantly becomes part of the soupy mixture that makes up your body. The important thing is that it’s as pure as possible as it enters your body.

MYTH #6: “SUPER OXYGENATED WATER.” The premise is that these companies have (like always) patented a unique way to maintain a higher level of oxygen content in water and that this higher oxygen content increases metabolism and improves endurance. A study by Craig Horswill, Ph.D. found that… 1) The bottled water that they tested showed little difference in oxygen content from “normal” water. 2) Even if the oxygen level in water was higher than normal, there is little evidence or scientific basis to think that this oxygen would boost levels of oxygen in the bloodstream. Their conclusion; no benefit.

WATER MYTH #7: “THE AMAZING, STUPENDOUS ALKALINE WATER.” One of the most well traveled water myths is that of alkaline water and its supposed health benefits, but these benefits are not supported by credible scientific evidence. Here are some facts… “Body pH” is a meaningless concept; different parts of the body (and even of individual cells) can have widely different pH values. The pH of drinking water has zero effect on that of the blood or of the body’s cells. Pure water can never be alkaline or acidic, nor can it be made so by electrolysis. Alkaline water must contain metallic ions of some kind — most commonly, sodium, calcium or magnesium.

WATER MYTH #8: “THE MYTH OF CLUSTERED OR STRUCTURED WATER.” These companies claim their water is organized on a molecular level similar to the state water was millions of years ago. Many of them have pictures of water molecules that appear to be in a snowflake or perfectly symmetrical alignment. These companies claim that the angle of the bond between the atoms is altered by their equipment. This is an absolutely false claim and the only way to hold the bond at a specific angle would be to freeze the water. Once again, they state that science just hasn’t caught up to them yet, but in fact it’s just a sales pitch that can’t be verified. Remember that purity is priority #1.

WATER MYTH #9: “THE BIGGEST MYTH OF ALL TIME.” The biggest myth of all is that you should not automatically assume that your water is safe just because the government says that it is. When the government says that your water is “safe”, they are using the LEGAL definition of the word “safe”, not the English language definition. In fact, many cities around the US have high levels of dangerous chemicals in their tap water and yet their tap water is still labeled “safe drinking water”. The fact is, neither you nor the government has a complete picture of what is in your water. You are responsible for the purity of your water, not the government!

WATER MYTHS: HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KNOW THE TRUTH? Maybe the “magic” water that they are selling costs a lot, but couldn’t it be just like buying a lottery ticket; a huge upside potential with not much downside (except for losing money)? It’s not like it’s dangerous, right. So let’s rewind 100 years. The “magic” water that everyone was excited about at that time was radioactive water! No joke! Radium water was bottled and sold. Then they figured out how that they could line a water crock with an ore of uranium. Instant radioactive water, without the need for buying those pesky bottles.  It took a while for people to figure it out, and yes, people died.  

So are the scams on the market today dangerous? This question will be answered in time. We look back on the people 100 years ago and wonder how anyone could have possibly thought that radioactive water could be good for their health. And the same will be true in the future. But I can guarantee you that although time may make certain claims seem completely ridiculous, other water scams will pop up and once again people will clamor to have the latest and greatest “magic” water.  The health benefits of water are many, so it is important to have a clean reliable supply available.  

At Pure Water, what we do is focus on simple wisdom and science. We know that it’s important for people to drink clean water that is free of the toxic chemicals that are increasingly common in our environment. We work to make the best, most reliable machines for this purpose. This is why we focus on manufacturing the best water distillers on the market. So if you agree with our values, check out our products.

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