It is amazing how many people will choose lower prices over healthy foods and drinks. Fortunately, when it comes to drinking water, tap water is usually better for your health than bottled water. Now how often does that happen? 

It is generally accepted that people should drink about half a gallon (64 ounces) or 2 litres of water per day. If you drink bottled water, you will be surprised how much the cost of the water adds up to in a year. If you drink bottled water purchased while “on the go” from vending machines or stores, you will typically pay between 5 to 8 cents per ounce.  That equates to $3 to $5 per person per day, or $1,000 to $1,500 per year.

Very few people drink bottled water purchased exclusively from small bottles. If you drink exclusively from 18 litre  jugs, the annual cost of drinking water for a person is about $300.  That sounds like alot, but if a single person drinks the 2 litres per day(the recommended amount), then they need an 18 litre jug of water every9 days, which sounds reasonable.  A jug of water costs about $7.50 when it is delivered (at home or work), so the math is correct.  If you use bottled water for cooking, the cost jumps again.

People who drink from coolers at home and work oftern supplement their water consumption with small bottles that are purchased “to go” because they are not always around a cooler.  In that case, they typically spend $500 per year.  For drinking water!  For a couple, that means $1,000 per yearn, and the figure could jump up tp $2,000 for a family of four.   Unbelievable!  When I wrote this, I had to go back and check my math as the figure seemed to be too high to be possible.  If you see situation described above, you might want to consider thinking about alternatives that provide you with superior water and allow you to take a nice vacation every year.

Most families who drink bottled water don’t spend $2,000 per year because they simply don’t drink enough water.  They can also cut costs by filling small reusable containers. 

If you do fill up reusable containers, the options typically include: glass, plastic, or stainless steel.  Glass is always the best as they don’t leach anything into the water.  Glass bottles are much more sturdy than most people think and they are able to absorb a significant impact without breaking.  For example, the glass bottles that we use can fall off our kitchen counter and land on a tile floor without breaking.  Don’t ask! 

If you participate in vigorous activities and are concerned about your bottled water container breaking, you can choose stainless steel or plastic, with stainless steel being the choice of preference.  If you happen to be one of the lucky/smart people who have access to ionized water, don’t use a stainless steel container as the container will deionize the water.

If you have made the smart choice to drink water because it is the ideal liquid for your body, don’t feel bad about whatever you are spending.  The alternatives to water cost a lot more money, and force your body to work much harder to get rid of the extra calories or contaminants that your body doesn’t need.

Before I leave the subject of the cost of bottled water, please consider that we pay about 2 cents per ounce for gasoline versus 1 to 8 cents for bottled water. Think about that for a minute! Procuring bottled water is virtually free while it cost millions to explore and drill for oil. Then the oil has to be transported to refineries that cost about $4 billion to build to be refined into gas. Then the gas has to be shipped to storage areas and then shipped to gas stations that are expensive to build. Then you must consider the labour costs involved in all of the processes. Now you get to the really expensive part, which is government taxes on the gas. All of these costs are included in gasoline that you purchase for about 2 cents per ounce. Think about that the next time you purchase a 20 ounce bottle of Dasani or Aquafina for $1.75 out of a vending machine.

When you consider the phenomenal profits margins available on water sales, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that bottled water companies spend tens of millions of dollars convincing the public that “pure” bottled water is good for you. It should also come as no surprise that our natural water sources are being bought up and privatized. If you think water is expensive now, wait to see what water costs in the future.

But what about the awful taste and the contaminants such as chlorine, chloramines, and fluoride that is in our municipal drinking water?

Governments mandate that municipal drinking water is safe. What does that mean? It really means that the water that comes out of your tap won’t kill you right away.  Municipalities take the bacteria out of the water which chlorine or chloramines, and they do a good job of it for the most part. However, there are always exceptions.  

In order to remove the bad taste of chlorine or chloramines, a simple and inexpensive charcoal filter that can be installed under your kitchen sink will do a great job. You should be able to purchase a good filter and canister housing for under $100.

If you want a more sophisticated filter system, a three canister system will most likely remove virtually all the bad stuff while allowing the healthy minerals to remain. A three canister system, including the filters typically cost about $250. The filters should last about a year, and the replacement filters should cost about $100

The bottom line is that you can provide clean, safe, good tasting water for your family for about $100 per year if pre-filter your tap water. Talk about a “no-brainer”

Stop drinking bottled water. If not for your health or the environment, do it for the $500 you will save each year.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and the quoted sources.

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1. Why are you still drinking bottled water? Part 1 – Health Issues

More than half of Americans drink bottled water, and more than one third of Americans drink bottled water on a regular basis.   Is that a good thing?  Yes and no.  Drinking water is definitely better than drinking a soda, but you are probably not drinking  the “pure” and healthy water that you think you are. 

There are three significant reasons not to drink bottled water which include: health issues, the high cost of bottled water, and the environmental cost of bottled water.  Covering all three issues in one article would make this a very long story.  Therefore, I have broken down the article into three Parts.  This Part deals with the health issues of drinking bottled water.

Health issues of bottled water:

CTV news reported this week about a recent study in Montreal, Canada, that is “raising worries about bacteria in bottled water, noting they’ve found “revolting” levels that could put certain vulnerable people at risk.” Researchers from a laboratory in Montreal started to randomly test bottled water for bacteria when one of their employees complained about the taste of the water from a bottle and then became ill.  They tested several brands and found more than 70 percent of the samples contained bacteria levels that were dozens of times higher than the levels permitted by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).  That doesn’t mean that all bottled water, or even the bottles that they studied were unsafe.  In fact, the researches indicated that the level of contaminants found in the bottled water that they studied would most likely only cause adverse effects in those that are more susceptible to illness.   

While the potential of the bottled water to cause illness is certainly important, I believe the real significance of the research is that it dispels the public image that bottled water is “pure” and healthy.  The “pure” and healthy perception held by the public has been created over many years by sophisticated marketing campaigns that have cost hundreds of millions of dollars.  That’s right, hundred of millions of dollars.  Bottled water is that profitable.

You can read the article at: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100525/bottled-water-bacteria-100525/20100525/?hub=TorontoNewHome

It has been estimated that nearly half of bottled water is simply tap water that has been filtered.  That may provide some comfort, especially if the filtration eliminates the foul taste and odour of chlorine and other chemicals in your tap water.  However, you can purchase a simple charcoal filter that can be installed under your kitchen sink that will do the same thing or more likely a lot better for a fraction of the cost. 

Having learned the importance of eating an alkaline diet and drinking alkaline water, I’m always interested in the acidic content of foods and drinks.  The ideal pH level of the fluids in our body is between 7.3 and 7.4 which is slightly alkaline.  When you drink liquids that are acidic, you eventually become more acidic, and that is the playground for disease.  Canadian municipalities, by law, must provide drinking water that has a pH that ranges between 6.5 which is acidic, and 8.0, which is alkaline (7.0 is neutral).  The water supplied by most municipalities typically has a pH level slightly above 7.0 because it results in lower long term maintenance costs.  Therefore, most municipalities are doing our bodies a favour.   

Now, let’s take a look at the pH levels of the leading bottled water products.  Dasani (the Coca Cola bottled water product) has a pH of 6.6, which is acidic, and barely above the legal pH level of drinking water in Canada.  Since pH measures are logarithmic, that means that Dasani is 5 to 10 times more acidic than the drinking water supplied by most municipalities in Canada.  If you think Dasani is bad, take a look at Aquafina (Pepsi’s bottled water product).  Acquafina has a pH level of 5.8 which means that it is 7 times more acidic than the lowest legal pH value for water supplied by municipalities.  In fact, Aquafina is 40 to 90 times more acidic that the water supplied by most municipalities.  Think about that the next time you reach for a bottle of water.  

One last little tidbit of info to make you think twice about drinking bottled water.  The introduction of BPA-free bottles has helped improve the quality of bottled water, but there is evidence that chemicals still leach out of our plastic bottles.  You can read about this in the following CBC report:  http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/08/21/f-bpa-free-bottles823.html#ixzz0pPnp5HL4).

While bottled water is much better for you and your children than colas or other sodas, the water is still not as good for you as tap water.  If you really care about your water, filter your own tap water, or better still, filter your water and buy a water ionizer. 

Stop drinking bottled water.  It is less healthy that tap water, it’s expensive, and it is terrible for our environment.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and the quoted sources.

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1. Is your drinking water safe?