It seems the supermarket shelves are now lined with bottled alkaline water. There also seems to be a great deal of confusion as to what alkaline water is and what it can do for your health. Some cancer treatment and prevention websites are even suggesting that drinking alkaline water alone can help treat or prevent cancer. This isn’t true. So let’s talk about alkaline water and how it’s different from alkaline ionized water.
In its simplest form, alkaline water is water with alkaline minerals dissolved in it. These alkaline minerals are usually calcium and potassium. You’ll find that most of the southern US has naturally alkaline water. Places like Southern California and Texas, where it doesn’t rain as much, have very alkaline water. Does drinking this water make you healthier? Not at all.
Unless your diet is deficient in potassium and calcium, drinking water that is full of potassium and calcium isn’t going to make much difference in your health. It is good that this water is alkaline and not acidic but alkaline alone isn’t going to fight illness, prevent cancer, or impact your health in a significantly positive way.
Statistically, the people living in southern California or Florida or Louisiana are not healthier than people who have soft water that live in Washington state or Vermont.
Just because you bought alkaline water from a bottle doesn’t make it any better. Any website that claims that drinking alkaline water from a bottle or from your tap is going to help you fight cancer is simply wrong.
What is very beneficial to your health are antioxidants. Antioxidants are a beverage or food with an extra ion to give to your body. This extra ion gives itself to unstable oxygen molecules in your cells, which are also known as free radicals. Once this unstable oxygen molecule receives that ion, the active oxygen is stabilized to regular oxygen and your body is able to use it as energy.
Ionized water is full of these antioxidant ions. A water ionizer uses water electrolysis to replicate the sun’s natural process of infusing water with ions. A water ionizer also makes the water alkaline by changing the molecular structure of the water molecule. Instead of just being water that’s infused with alkaline minerals, alkaline water from a water ionizer is chemically alkaline. It is this structure that allows it to have the extra ions to give to your body.
In chemistry, regular water is H2O. But ionized water is OH-. The minus sign represents the extra ion that it has to give to your body!
Antioxidants have been shown to be able to fight cancer and prevent adult onset diseases. They have also been shown to improve your metabolism, give you more energy, lower your blood pressure, and help your body repair at a cellular level.
The difference between bottled alkaline water and ionized water is that ionized water is full of antioxidants. It’s the antioxidants that have all of the health benefits.
The next time you are at the supermarket and you see a bottled alkaline water, just keep on walking. Don’t believe any hype you read online about the benefits of alkaline water. You need antioxidants in your drinking water in order it for it to be natural and detoxify your body. The only way to get these antioxidants is by getting a water ionizer or by drinking your water straight from a glacial stream or certain pristine springs.
To your health!
