Thoughts on water and gut health

[Chinese Pistache]

I'm trying to figure out what to do. The city water here is heavily chlorinated (bad for gut flora). We have filtered water from a refrigerator filter, but it comes out very cold (also bad for gut flora, from what I've read). I don't know that it filters the chlorine either. I've read that leaving water in an open container for 24 hours will allow the chlorine to dissipate. So, I'm thinking that I'll fill several pitchers of water and leave them out for a day to come to room temp and get rid of chlorine. Is there another solution?

[MoonWillow]

A reverse osmosis filter but they are pricey. I use an Aquasana filter which I like.

[momofmine]

We have an Aquasana too. We have a whole house filter, to filter out the bad stuff in baths and showers also. I also have a counter-top one for drinking water. The reason I got both is because the whole house filter does a good job of filtering, but only gets about 85%, while the one on the counter is something like 98%. So, I figured the combo worked.

We also have flouridated, chlorinated city water. The chlorine does evaporate to an extent (sitting out), however, for me, flouride was just as big of an issue. I also thought about a reverse osmosis system, but after doing a lot of research, I read a lot about how the RO systems remove everything including the good stuff like minerals from the water, and that oveer time, you should probably supplement with minerals if you have the RO system. But, how would you know which ones, how much, etc? The RO system is best as far as getting the most stuff out, however it takes some of the good stuff out too. I felt like a couple of percents better wasn't worth it with the added mineral problem.

I thought about this and researched it for like a year before I finally did something, but I feel good about the Aquasana choice.

[nalo]

We, too, use an Aquasana at our sink only. We use it for drinking and cooking. We live in a condo/townhome but when we ever get into a real house I would LOVE a whole house system.

[healthyfishies]

This is really a great question and I appreciate the responses as well!! :
We currently are drinking and using distilled water for our cooking, but have been looking at better options.
We do have well water, but are surrounded by farms which use pesticides. I looked at some of the counter top ones from Lehman's, but since I am not sure they would eliminated the unwanted residual pesticides and such, we just have not found something we think we might like yet.

I too, look forward to reading more about what everyone else uses. :

[kangaroomum25]

Drink more fermented beverages

ETA I don't mean beer or wine

[WuWei]

I have come to believe that water is the solution for all that ails the human body. And probably what ails the human body. :

I don't know an answer. I was pondering this today. We have a well, and copper pipes. So, I'm not keen on drinking that directly. We also have an RO system for drinking water. And I've heard that if the filters are not changed religiously, they purge a dump of minerals back INTO the drinking water.

So, I'm damned either way. And more. We cook with the well water, so we are getting some minerals, but which ones?? And we use bottled water, one a week, maybe. I try to purchase some spring, mineral water a few times a month. And we drink bottled water rarely at a restaurant. Or get a cup of city, chlorinated water in the McD drive through occasionally. : Just to make the meal Perfectly McBad For Us.

I believe that spring, mineral water is probably the best choice, behind decent well water.

I do wonder about some of those mineral additives for replacement, Concentrace or some volcanic supplement. But, historically, I'm not sure we drank volcanic water "regularly".

I would only avoid drinking city water regularly, everything else is probably a huge step above that.

I heard about a salt water "homeopathic". Not sure that is the correct designation. Basically, the idea was to consume our micronutrients from sea water. But, where does one get CLEAN sea water nowadays???

So, we use the Celtic sea salt and I'd like to add sea vegetables to our diet more, especially since we (theoretically) strip our water of all minerals with the RO system. Who knows?


Pat

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by kangaroomum25

Drink more fermented beverages

ETA I don't mean beer or wine

: And I mean beer or wine too.



Pat

[lastrid]

Is there any way to remove fluoride other than an RO filter?

[momofmine]

Originally Posted by lastrid

Is there any way to remove fluoride other than an RO filter?

The Aquasana says that they remove most of the flouride that is added to the water, as in our city flouridated water, but not flouride that would be naturally occurring. When I asked, they gave me a percent, but I don't recall it right now, but it was most of it, depending on which system you were using (whole house removes a bit less than the countertop versions).

[chlobo]

We're struggling with this too. We have well water & copper pipes. Our water is acidic & we have a "soda ash feeder" to improve the PH of the water.

So should I drink tap water or should I filter it? What kind of filter should I use?

All so confusing.

[changingseasons]

I really need to look into this more too....

We drink city water filtered through a Brita pitcher. How bad is that?

[momofmine]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

We drink city water filtered through a Brita pitcher. How bad is that?

That;s okay, we did the same thing, just because I wanted to get something and I didn't know what to get. Then we did bottled water for a while, but I hated the idea of all the resources that used up, etc. So I really researched it for a long time trying to decide, and from everything I have read, Aquasana is a great choice. I am sure there are others, but if you want a recommendation and don;t have time to do the research yourself, the Aquasana does filter out both chlorine and most of the flouride, in addition to all the other bad goop. Those were my two requirements. They are also very nice, if you call and talk to them and very helpful, but not pushy. The countertop system is not that expensive, and even if you rent, I would invest in at least that for your drinking and cooking water. We bought ours through an MDC co-op, too bad they aren't doing that anymore. Actually, I think that some people started a site to continue to do co-ops after MDC's shut down. If you go read through the old thread saying it was shutting down, you can get to a link for it.

[FireWithin]

Originally Posted by momofmine

The countertop system is not that expensive, and even if you rent, I would invest in at least that for your drinking and cooking water. We bought ours through an MDC co-op, too bad they aren't doing that anymore. Actually, I think that some people started a site to continue to do co-ops after MDC's shut down. If you go read through the old thread saying it was shutting down, you can get to a link for it.

I have a question - is it attached to your faucet on the counter top? We have an illegal washing machine in our apartment that has a special hook up on our faucet, so I think I remember deciding not to use a counter top filter. maybe I should rethink it. We drink straight city water. Brita never seemed to work for us.

ETA: I just saw that it does. hmmmm. maybe we can do the under the sink thing

[kangaroomum25]

Seriously, drink more fermented drinks (like the one's in Nourishing Traditions) They're full of probiotics, minerals, electrolytes... of course you'll have to use filtered water to make them, but you'll get more benefit from them. By the time the water is filtered to take out all the bad stuff, all the good stuff is gone too.

Chlorine (sometimes referred to as free chlorine) is being displaced by chloramine, which is much more stable and does not dissipate from the water before it reaches consumers.

Home brewers use reducing agents such as sodium metabisulfite or potassium metabisulfite to remove chloramine from brewing liquor as it, unlike chlorine, cannot be removed by boiling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
There's some research that says that chloramine is neutralised with vitamin c, (hmm seems like another good reason to drink the fermented drinks, especially the ones with citrus. )

I'm a big fan of crazy water http://www.famouswater.com/ although if you can't get that, just adding a tiny bit of good sea salt to your water will help a LOT. http://www.articlesbase.com/nutritio...me-362267.html