Bottled mineral water -- healthy or hype?

Bottled mineral water -- healthy or hype?

By Clare E. Urwin

SURABAYA (JP): Drinking bottled mineral water is fashionable and smart, and the recent increase in worldwide consumption has been dramatic and is still growing.

Bottled water appears to be an attractive and trendy alternative to alcohol, coffee and colas. Manufacturers, through advertising and clever marketing, specify the purity and mineral content of their products, inferring that their water is somehow more healthy than ordinary water. But is it?

Water is indispensable to the human body. We can go without food for months and live, but without water we would die within days. This colorless, calorie-free liquid plays a vital role in nearly every bodily function. Digestion, absorption, circulation, transporting nutrients, removing toxins, building tissue and maintaining temperature. It accounts for approximately three quarters of our body weight and even bone, which appears dry, is more than one fifth water.

Under normal circumstances, the body's water balance is carefully regulated and adjusted by the combined workings of the kidneys and the "thirst center" in the brain. This means that the amount lost each day through perspiration, water vapor from the lungs and the elimination of water in urine, will be replaced by consumption. Fine-tuning is continually taking place. This is just as well, because any loss of water will result in varying degrees of dehydration, with symptoms ranging from tiredness and fatigue to heatstroke and death.

Sometimes our liquid control mechanisms crash into fault mode, especially when large amounts of fluids are lost. For instance, with kidney malfunction or during severe vomiting, diarrhea, blood loss, high fever or excessive sweating. Water must be replaced immediately. Unfortunately, many victims of diseases such as cholera die primarily through dehydration, not from the disease itself.

Dehydrating conditions can be particularly dangerous for babies. Infants cannot communicate that they are thirsty and, having a large body surface area compared to their fluid volume, can become seriously dehydrated in a very short time.

Older people and athletes are also particularly prone to water deprivation.

Thirst mechanisms are not perfect and sometimes they cannot keep up with the body's demand. Individual water requirements can vary greatly, depending on weight, climate and exercise, but people often only consume enough to quench a parched mouth and not enough to cover their losses.

Therefore, the well-known rule that we should all drink about eight glasses (two liters) of fluid every day, thirsty or not, does seem sensible.

Water is best. Tea, coffee, colas and other tannin and caffeine-containing drinks are diuretics which reduce, rather than improve our body's liquid balance. Sugary drinks and diet drinks containing aspartame steal water from the body, as well as having other negative side effects. Even fruit and vegetable juices, or in fact milk, require water to be properly digested.

Fortunately, drinking beverages is not the only way to satisfy the body's fluid needs. In reality, few of us adhere to the eight glass rule, well-known or not! Clever chemical reactions also release water from the solid foods that we eat. For instance, most fruits and vegetables contain 80 percent to 90 percent water, and even roasted chicken is 65 percent water.

Although extremely rare, it is possible to drink enough water in a short period of time to develop water intoxication. This extraordinary water overload is usually caused because of a psychiatric disorder, although it has been reported in people following fad diets that call for excessive amounts of water for weight loss. In such exceptional cases, the kidneys cannot keep pace with the amount of liquid being ingested. Water intoxication can be fatal or cause convulsions and coma.

Nevertheless, in normal circumstances drinking more water is good for us and we are being encouraged from all sides to do exactly that. Now the dilemma is what type of water? Should we drink mineral or filtered water; spring or purified water; fizzy or still water?

Many groups (often the manufacturers), extol the curative and restorative value of mineral waters which contain small amounts of inorganic essential minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, as well as trace elements such as iodine, zinc, fluoride, copper and iron. It can be bottled straight from a natural mineral spring supply, or manufactured by adding or subtracting minerals to source water during processing for extra flavor.

Mineral water can be still or sparkling; the "fizz" being produced by carbon dioxide which occurs naturally, as in some spring waters, or added by the manufacturer.

Filtered water removes impurities ranging from microorganisms to nitrates, while keeping some beneficial contaminates, and is used worldwide to make water safe for human consumption. Ironically, certain disinfectants such as chlorine, which is used to "purify" local water for municipal use, are now regarded as a health risk in some quarters.

Purified, or reverse osmosis water must be distilled by a process in which the water is boiled, evaporated and the vapor condensed. This leaves a liquid totally devoid of any dissolved minerals, making it "soft" but very acidic.

Mineral water has enjoyed a long-standing reputation for its therapeutic effects. Supporters state that the ideal water for the human body should be slightly alkaline, requiring the presence of minerals which give the water a slight "hardness". It is suggested that drinking hard water may offer certain protective qualities against diseases, especially cardiovascular problems. Followers insist that when these beneficial minerals are available in drinking water, they are more easily and better absorbed than the same minerals found in food or supplements.

Conversely, and to be expected, advocates of purified and filtered water disclaim such mineral magic. Some contend that highly mineralized water is associated with the formation of kidney stones in the urinary tract.

Also, because the average diet is already quite high in sodium, consuming extra through drinking water is undesirable. Furthermore, the champions of pure water add that because the minerals in high-priced mineral waters merely come from the soil and rocks through which the water passes, if you want mineral water just drink the ordinary stuff and suck on a piece of lime (sodium bicarbonate) at the same time!

Bottled water is big business. The controversy over the benefits of one type of water compared to another will continue. However, the somewhat bewildered consumer can still make a sensible choice. We should all drink more water, but, put in perspective, the advantages of one variety and category over another are relatively minuscule, no matter what the so-called experts say. Let your common sense prevail and make a selection based on personal preference, the product's availability, reliability, price and, most importantly, taste. Cheers! (clareu@attglobal.net)