Is your water fit to drink?

Water is not simply H2O. Natural water provides significant quantities of minerals: a typical spring water, for instance, provides 100mg of calcium per litre. The recommended daily intake of water is at least 1.5-2 litres a day (that’s eight glasses), while for calcium it is 600mg. So natural mineral water can provide sixth of your calcium requirements. However, not all bottled water is the same. In the European Union (EU) only water that comes from uncontaminated spring that has a consisted level of minerals across the seasons and the years (which means the source of the water is very deep and hence the water is very old) can be called ‘natural mineral water’. Other bottled water is not as reliable.

Tap water in a soft water area provides as little as 30mg of calcium a day. In addition, tap water contains significant levels of nitrates, trihalomethanes, lead and aluminum, all anti-nutrients in their own right. In much of Britain and the US the levels of these anti-nutrients exceed safety limits. Concerns over pollutants in water have led many people to switch to bottled, distilled or filtered water. However, filtering or distilling water removes not only the impurities, but also many of the naturally occurring minerals. This again pushes up the need for minerals from food.