New water softener - what about minerals???

[winemal]

Hi -

We recently had a water softener put in because of the incredible amounts of dissolved iron in our well water, and I know that it takes the calcium and magnesium (?is that right?) out of the water and I can handle getting more for us, but my husband just asked me if the water we are drinking, with the minerals taken out, would leach the minerals FROM our bodies to get it back.

I've heard that about distilled water (I think it was called, "hungry water", and I'm not sure if it is true, but what about softened water??? I am pregnant and don't want to lose any minerals and I certainly don't want my kids to lose any either!

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[greenmulberry]

So many people drink softened water, I cannot imagine this is an issue. I grew up on softened water and have great bone density. Softened water is not without minerals, there are just enough removed that soap can work and your pipes don't clog.

My concern with softened water is the extra salt you are getting from it.

I run my softened drinking water through a RO system that removes just about everything. I personally think the whole notion of your body leaching minerals from your bones because you drink distilled water is a bunch of bunk (after partaking in discussions with chemists). I used to have to create very pure water with 0 dissolved solids, that is, nothing but water! For a hobby of mine, and this topic came up often. The scientists in the group always thought this was a very funny notion, because of the following reasons.

Because the amount of actual mineral it takes to move a 0 TDS reading of water to say 100 TDS, is very very tiny amount, and you are surely to get that many many times over in your normal diet, (not to mention the accidental dirt everybody occasionally eats). The food you eat has a variety of minerals as well. This means that the mineral count of your water is really irrelevant compared to all the minerals you get in your diet. If this is something that worries you, switch to a natural sea salt that contains trace minerals, and you should be well covered.

[greenmulberry]

Oh! I thought of something else related to this issue.

A couple people I have known who have water softeners, install a "hard water" line at their kitchen sink, so that the cold water in the kitchen is un softened water. Basically this is just a pipe connected to your water line that splits off before your water softener, and this is what the cold water in the kitchen sink connects too. So you could go this route.

The purpose of this is to have drinking water that does not have the extra salt from the water softener, and for taste reasons, as some people do not think softened water tastes as good as fresh hard water.

(Sorry for the repeat posts, water is a topic I am very interested in )