The Truth about Alkaline Water.

What can members do?

You may have heard that alkaline water — water that’s less acidic than plain tap water — is healthier for you.

According to John Berardi, Ph.D., who is founder of Precision Nutrition, the world’s largest online nutrition coaching company, this might not be the case.

Alkaline water is rich in alkalizing compounds, including calcium, silica, potassium, magnesium, and bicarbonate.  Tap water contains different dissolved elements that influence its pH level. Pure water has a pH level close to 7. Alkaline water has a pH above 7. So the idea is that to create a more alkaline balance in your body, you should drink water with a higher pH.

But there are a few problems with this concept.

First of all, each organ system has a unique pH range, and our bodies naturally do a fantastic job of maintaining blood pH within each respective range.

Secondly if your pH is out of balance, it’s important to get to the underlying cause. Without knowing the cause, you can’t determine whether alkaline water will really help you.

What’s more, focusing on the pH level of our water is sort of beside the point. Because if alkaline water is helpful, that might be due to the minerals it contains rather than its pH level.

Also, keep in mind that overall body alkalinity isn’t always a good thing. For example, if you have a kidney condition, or you’re taking a medication that alters kidney function, some of the minerals in alkaline water could start to accumulate in your body. In this case, high alkalinity might lead to negative side effects.

As always, when troubleshooting a health concern, it’s important to get to the bottom of the core issue, and make sure that you’re targeting the real cause, not the symptom.

Where can you find alkaline water?  Bottled mineral waters tend to be alkaline. Non-mineral bottled waters are unlikely to be alkaline. And adding mineral powders to regular tap water can make it more alkaline.

Instead of buying bottled water or supplementing with minerals, you can also buy a machine, called a water ionizer, which creates alkaline water via a process called ionization.

According to Dr. Berardi, it’s possible that alkaline water could offer some benefits, to some people, in certain circumstances.  But until we learn more, he suggests you save your money.  Stick to tap water most of the time and, if you’re concerned about your acid/base balance, plant-based dietary supplements and alkaline mineral supplements seem to have more research support.

Or, you could make your own alkaline water.  The easiest way to make your water more alkaline is to simply add lemons to it.  Some people claim that adding Himalayan salt or baking soda to your lemon water is also beneficial.  Of course, make sure that you use good quality, mineral-rich water like filtered Lucid Water.  Water processed by reverse osmosis removes all the beneficial minerals from the water, and so would make the water too acidic.

If you couple this water recipe with a healthier diet, one in which you avoid processed foods, sugar and additives, your body should become more alkaline.  Furthermore, some foods are more alkaline than others, like raw spinach, broccoli and asparagus.  Here is a handy chart for your reference showing the pH levels of many foods.

Reference

Now, go enjoy some fresh, filtered Lucid Water.  It’s so good for you!!