Does Alkaline Water Really Make a Difference?

You hear all this talk about filtered water, purified water, alkaline water, and so on. Does any of it really mean anything? After all, you just want some water that tastes good when you’re thirsty, right?

When you go to the store you see all this water. It stretches the whole aisle and spans a wide price range. Every single one of them says that they are the best water. How do you decide?

Does Alkaline Water Make a Difference?

My wife and I were at the hospital a few days ago for the pre-op before my second kidney stone procedure. Read about some of my kidney stone adventure. For some reason neither of us had our water bottles with us, so my wife bought some bottled water from a vending machine. We never do this because we know the water isn’t good.

The water was Aquafina, Pepsi’s brand of bottled water. My Dad used to work for Pepsi, so we used to drink this stuff all the time. Later on we switched to a store brand that was a little cheaper, but was essentially the same thing, water purified by reverse osmosis. We used to drink this all the time, so it should taste fine, right?

It tasted absolutely terrible.

Reverse osmosis is great for purifying water. The problem is, you don’t get to drink the purified water. The purified water goes into a cheap plastic bottle where it leaches out some of the chemicals in the plastic, especially if it gets warm. Then when you open the bottle, the water absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and becomes acidic.

I experienced when I drank the Aquafina at the hospital. The water created a mild burning sensation on my tongue. I’m not used to the acidic taste anymore.

What Are Your Water Options?

You probably already know this, but let’s go through it anyway.

Chlorinated Water

Most people have chlorinated water on tap at home. It smells and tastes bad. I don’t personally know anyone willing to drink it. That’s why there is a whole aisle of bottled water at the store.

Chlorine is a toxic chemical. If you have a swimming pool then you know that containers of chlorine all have warning labels on them. The people who work with chlorine all have to wear masks so that they don’t breathe too much of it in. Actually, I remember one time back when I lived in Orlando, FL that the area around Wet ‘n’ Wild (a water park) was evacuated for a while during a chlorine leak.

Purified Water – Reverse Osmosis or Distillation

Purified bottled water is purified with either reverse osmosis or distillation. Reverse osmosis is wasteful because a large portion of the water entering the system ends up flushed down the drain. Distillation requires energy to heat the water to evaporation then more energy to cool it back down to condense.

Either way, as I already said above, you don’t get the pure water anyway because it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air as soon as it comes into contact with it. A whole lot of expense to get water that ends up being acidic.

I should have known that the bottled water at the hospital would taste bad. We had already conducted that experiment year ago. We bought a water filter back in 2006 that made our water alkaline, so we stopped buying bottled water and drank our filtered water exclusively. After a few months we were out somewhere and tried a bottle of the same store-brand purified water that we used to drink.

You don’t really notice the taste that much when you first switch from acidic water to alkaline water. After a few months of only alkaline water though, you will definitely notice the difference if you try some acidic water.

Alkaline Water

We started drinking alkaline water to shift the pH balance in our bodies. Your body needs to be slightly alkaline to stay healthy, but the western diet is mostly acidic. Processed foods, meat and fruit are all acidic. Coffee, soda, and sports/energy drinks are all acidic. Actually, vegetables are just about the only thing that you can eat that are alkaline.

When you drink at least the recommended amount of water during the day, you can go a long way toward correcting your pH by drinking alkaline water.

I know of a few alkaline bottled water brands. We usually drink Fiji brand water when are out of town and don’t have access to our water filter. The store didn’t have any Fiji the last time we went out of town so we tried Eternal. They both taste great.

Good, alkaline bottled water isn’t usually among the least expensive brands at the store. You have to pay a little bit extra for them.

It is more cost-effective to have a good water filter at home and drink from that most of the time, which is what we do. We use our filtered water for all drinking (including the cat) and for all of our cooking.

* I am a distributor for the alkaline water filter that I use. I may earn a commission if you order through the link above.

Taste is the Most Important

Taste is the most important quality of whatever water you drink. If it doesn’t taste good then you won’t drink it, no matter how good it may be for you. That’s just a fact.

If you think chlorinated water tastes better than any other water, then you are better off drinking it than not drinking it. You have to stay hydrated no matter what.

If you drink purified bottle water because it tastes better than your chlorinated tap water, then that’s fantastic. I believe it is better for you without all of the chlorine.

But if you decide to move to alkaline water then you best be prepared. From my experience, once you go alkaline you can’t go back. Nothing else will taste good. You will notice the chlorine odor of tap water and the acidic taste of purified water. They won’t taste good anymore. I believe that alkaline water is the best for your body, and your tongue will agree once you have stopped drinking the others.

Have you made the switch to alkaline water? Have you tried going back? What is your favorite brand of bottled water? Leave me a comment below and let me know. Then please share this post with your followers on social media.

Thanks for reading.