What's in your bottled water?

Hydration


Hydration is key to effective training.  From a health aspect though, there are some pretty major differences in the types of waters you can put into your system.  Since I do this stuff for a living, I keep tabs on brands of waters and lab results.  My clients all receive the reports as so desired. 

Let's look at one important aspect of water.  It's PH level.  It's pretty important.  A low blood PH (under 7.2) usually represents sickness.  Alcohols, Coca Cola and other sugary junk drinks all have PH levels in the acid range.  Your water should attribute to a healthy PH blood balance.  Remember that your body uses it's water supply to make blood.  Now a low PH does not always mean that the water is unhealthy.  It's just that your body will have to work a little harder to "restore" its healthy balance.  Most municipal tap water supplies come in around 6.4 to 6.7 (as do the "tap in a bottle" brands from Coke and Pepsi).

Now that I'm on the subject of "tap in a bottle" brands, do yourself a favor and stay away from the brands that spend more on advertising than the waters even worth.  Aquafina and Dasani have the same Acidic PH as tap water and is the same water they use to make Coke and Pepsi.  They send it through a filter and then sell it as "refreshing".  I really can't even provide clients with reports because the water comes from 33 different public faucets!

Here are some results of locally available water:

Brand Source PH Average Cost (1.5L)
Trinity (either one) Underground well (2.2 miles deep) 9.6 About $2.50
       
Penta Ultra Premium Public but water is cleanest known 6.0 About $4.00
Tipperay Ireland (found in Irish pubs in Westchester & NYC) 7.7 varies
Fiji Fiji 7.5 1.59
Vittel France (high in calcium!) 7.5  
Smart Water      
       
Probably want to stay away from these:
Poland Spring Maine and another location 5.5 to 6.95 90 cents
Great Bear   6.7 90 cents
Dasani About 30 or so public faucets ~6.4 90 cents
Aquafina About 30 or so public faucets    
Coca Cola Coca Cola taps 2.5 Pay with your health!
       
Sparkling Waters
San Pellegrino Carbonation added 5.10 1.59
Perrier Naturally occurring carbonation 5.45 1.59
 
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