| What
is the healthiest water; tap, bottled, R.O., Distilled, filtered?
Learn The Facts!
Once
we understand the uncertainties of tap water and bottled water,
home water filtration [ water filters ] clearly becomes the best choice.
When
considering the benefits of home water purification products over
tap & bottled water, first keep in mind that there are no bad
systems... any water filter is better than no purifier.
The
choice to be made is simply which product produces the healthiest
water and represents the best value. Quality home water filtration
can offer significantly purer water than tap or bottled water.
Better Than Bottled!
Determining
the best system is a simple matter of comparing the product's performance
to other alternatives. The performance of a particular water purification
system can be easily verified by reviewing itĪs Performance Data
Sheet which lists all the contaminants the system is certified to
remove and to what degree. The law in California and several other
states requires that this information be included as part of the
companyĪs literature as well as the ongoing replacement cartridge
cost, and that a copy be enclosed with each product. Typically this
information will be available on a manufacturers web site unless
they are not too proud of it. Some manufacturers do not make this
information readily available as it allows an easy comparison with
other legitimate products. (see "Documentation" option under "Products"
tab on our home page)
By
comparing each products contaminant reduction capabilities, system
cost and ongoing cost per gallon, it is easy to determine which
product best fits your needs.
Top 10 Brands Comparison
It
is also important to look at the advantages or disadvantages of
other products or technologies even though they are not leading
brands; such is the case with reverse osmosis and distillation
systems. Although none of the leading brands employ either of
these de-mineralizing techniques, as their popularity has declined
in recent years, there is an ongoing debate over the healthfulness
of de-mineralized water vs. filtered water, with minerals. While
there are studies that argue both sides of this debate, after 15
years of specialized study in water quality and health, we feel
that the benefits of drinking naturally balanced water with minerals
vs. de-mineralized water, just makes more sense.
From
a non-scientific perspective, the simple fact that nowhere on
this planet do we find naturally occurring de-mineralized water,
should tell us that we were not meant to have it. In nature all
fresh water contains traces of natural minerals like calcium, magnesium
and potassium, which is what our body was designed to run on and
what the Aquasana system produces.
On
a more scientific level, there are several very credible research
reports and books that stress the more recent opinion that long
term consumption of de-mineralized water can in fact be dangerous.
Dr. Zolton Rona, author of The Joy of Health, states that "the
longer one consumes distilled water, the more likely the development
of mineral deficiencies and an acid state." Dr. Paavo Airola,
cancer expert and author of "How to Get Well" and "Cancer... Causes,
Prevention and Healing" also reports that "long term consumption
of distilled water eventually results in multiple mineral deficiencies."
Two
very negative things happen when we consume water that has been
stripped of its natural minerals. First, because de-mineralized
water contains more hydrogen it is an acid with a pH below seven.
Any time we consume an acid substance our body will pull minerals
from our teeth and bones to produce bicarbonate in order to neutralize
the acid. Second, it has been proven that when our body fluids become
more acid than alkaline the production of free radicals increases,
causing increased cancer risks. Many studies suggest that cancer
cells can only grow in an acid environment. This theory seems to
be supported by the fact that around the world the areas where people
live the longest most disease free lives are the areas that have
the most alkaline water, water with the highest mineral content.
Reverse
Osmosis and Distillation were first developed over 40 years ago
for the printing and photo processing industries, which require
mineral free water. Because of the popularity and demand for home
water treatment products many companies have marketed these products
as "state-of-the-art" drinking water systems, which they simply
are not. Often these products are marketed by using a demonstration
that measures the TDS (total dissolved solids) and implies that
this measurement shows the systems effectiveness at removing contaminants.
TDS meters measure the dissolved minerals in water, primarily calcium
and magnesium, and have little or nothing to do with contaminant
levels.
Distillation
and reverse Osmosis are not very effective at removing synthetic
chemicals. Distillation removes things based on their relative
boiling point. Virtually all synthetic chemicals boil at a lower
temperature than water and therefore are vaporized and condensed
along with the water in a distillation process. Reverse Osmosis
removes things based on molecular size. Virtually all synthetic
chemicals are molecularly smaller than water and therefore cannot
be effectively removed by reverse osmosis.
The
following paragraphs give a basic description of how each of these
systems work and itĪs relative comparison to the patented Aquasana
multi-stage filtration process. |
