What's Up with Spring Water and Drinking Water?

Drinking Water Filter:

What's Up with "Spring Water" and "Drinking Water?"

A Water Filter Turns Tap Water into "Drinking Water"

by Josh Day

A pure drinking water filter screwed onto your tap faucet. "Do I look all rancid and clotted? You look at me, Jack. Eh? Look, eh? And I drink a lot of water, you know. I'm what you might call a water man, Jack - that's what I am. And I can swear to you, my boy, swear to you, that there's nothing wrong with my bodily fluids. Not a thing, Jackie."

- Captain Lionel Mandrake, as portrated by Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove

Have you been down the water aisle lately in your local grocery store?

You have an incredible variety of water choice. Depending on your location and grocery store franchise, you may even have water bottled in glass containers instead of the standard gallon cartons.

Here are some of the kinds of waters I've seen in my neighborhood grocery store:

Spring water (bottled from a "natural source," though often a product of a major soft drink company with added sodium)
Drinking water (usually from your local municipal source, purified through reverse osmosis)
Distilled water (as above, from your local water treatment plant)
Water w/ fluoride (that's right, some people buy fluoridated water for drinking)

Quite a selection, huh? I wager you've seen all of these and probably more in your grocery store.

If you're after what's commonly known as "drinking water," your best bet's going to be a home water filter. You'll be saving a lot of money by going with the drinking water filter as opposed to repeatedly buying plastic 1 or 2.5 gallon containers over and over again. You'll also be doing the environment a good service.

Granted, your average water filter's not going to take out fluoride or heavy metals (though some can!). But the active filtration in your average water filter will remove chlorine, chloramine, benzene, pesticides, and herbicides.

A quality drinking water filter will meet your needs for pure water emanating from a faucet. You won't have to worry about buying heavy cartons from the store or recycling or throwing away the plastic containers.

And if you want to go all the way with water filtration, so to speak, reverse osmosis may not be your thing. Let me explain.

If you're looking for water for you and your family, reverse osmosis water may not be your best bet because of the loss of minerals. Contact your local water department or run a google search to see if they have a website. You can obtain a report of your water read-out, usually free of charge. You can find out if your water is fluoridated, as well as see the level of phosphates, nitrates, and other bad things that come from the plant to your tap.

Note from Chet: Click here because you'll want to read our detailed review of a water purifying unit that produces crystal clear healthy water for less than 10 cents a gallon.

Disclaimer: Throughout this website, statements are made pertaining to the properties and/or functions of food and/or nutritional products. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and these materials and products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.