When something as important as your drinking water comes into play, there are bound to be concerns. While we can all agree that not all reverse osmosis systems are created equal, many systems are able to provide the safe, high quality drinking water your family needs. Removing unwanted and harmful contaminants is the main job of any drinking water filtration system, but are we losing out on the good stuff, too? Do reverse osmosis systems remove too much? Is RO filtered drinking water actually safe to drink?
As with any water filtration system, there are some definite pros and cons. While some consumers believe reverse osmosis water to be unhealthy to drink, the truth is that it is actually very clean and very good for our bodies. RO water is not just meant to be used in industrial applications but can be used in households for human consumption.
Most people think that there is no such thing as mineral-free water, therefore filtered water cannot be good for you. Let’s compare it to rainwater – it has been stripped of all minerals and is one of the purest and cleanest forms of water on Earth, aside from contaminants due to excessive air pollution and the industrial age. It’s also true that with all the scientific research that has been done over the years on reverse osmosis water, none has ever documented any negative health effects from water treated by this method. In fact RO technology was actually invented by the US military and our military personnel still use it currently for drinking water.
Do you consume more RO water than you think?
You probably do. Bottled water is typically RO treated tap water. Some US city and municipal water facilities in Orange County, CA are already providing RO treated water to their communities. When you drink soft-drinks and soda, you are drinking mineral-free treated RO water. Vitamin water, sports drinks & energy drinks are also made from RO purified water. General Electric and DOW chemical are two of the largest and most respected companies in the scientific community, and both sell and endorse reverse osmosis technology for drinking water. Arrowhead, Culligan, Aquafina and Dasani are just a few brands that sell reverse osmosis water. Finally, even Google campus water is RO filtered drinking water.
Other concerns are that reverse osmosis filters change the water itself, some even going as far as stating that RO water is some high-tech, super, genetically altered water that could one day destroy the world. This is simply not true. RO uses a normal film based filter that pushes water through a film-membrane from one side to the other. The only difference is that the RO membrane is much more refined which means it restricts more contaminants than other filter systems.
Does reverse osmosis remove inorganic healthy minerals that we need?
Studies show that these water filters remove unhealthy inorganic minerals. We typically get all the minerals we need just from the foods we eat, not from our drinking water. In fact, drinking one glass of orange juice has the same amount of minerals as 30 gallons of tap water. Most tap water contains only inorganic minerals which cannot be properly absorbed by our bodies. Humans require organic minerals which are only available from living organisms, like plants and vegetables, and are easily absorbed by our systems. Then there is the claim which estimates that over a 60-year lifespan, a person drinking tap or mineral water, will be ingesting about 200 to 300 pounds of rock that their body cannot use! Wow!
Finally, it is important to remember that some of the minerals found in our drinking water can cause health issues down the road. One of the most common is calcium salts; over time they can cause gallstones, kidney stones, bone & joint calcification, arthritis, and hardening and blocking of our arteries. Dr. Paul C. Bragg, a World Renowned Nutritionist and Pioneer in America’s Wellness movement once said, “What the human body cannot utilize or excrete, it must store. Consequently, the inorganic salts and inorganic minerals which are stored over time, can take their toll in the form of hardening of the arteries, stones within the kidneys, urethras, gall bladder, joints and an etiologic factor in enlargement of the adipose cell fat cell. To be one hundred percent healthy, the human body must be free of inorganic minerals.”
So while we want to stay healthy and drink plenty of water, do not be concerned about reverse osmosis filtered drinking water being unhealthy, rather be concerned about the unfiltered drinking water you’re consuming and the dangerous contaminants that could be lurking. In this debate, the pros seem to always outweigh the cons. Learn more about our drinking water systems today and how we can help provide you and your family with safe, high quality drinking water!
