Mineral Content: Is it beneficial to have minerals in drinking water?Updated 3 months ago
This is actually the biggest myth in the water industry. To understand the issue clearly, first we need to examine "what minerals" are in our tap water. If we were to send a sample of water to a testing laboratory, we would get back a report that includes calcium, magnesium, and sodium along with a list of other minerals and contaminants. While some of these mineral are safe and benign, there are also many toxic ones on this list including fluoride, arsenic, chromium and radium just to name a few. Unfortunately there are no filtration systems available that can differentiate between good and bad minerals. Basic carbon filter systems will leave in all the minerals, including the highly toxic and radioactive ones. On the other hand, RO systems will remove 90-99% of these undesirable contaminants.
The truth is the majority of healthy minerals our bodies need come from the food we eat and not from drinking water. The main concern with water is actually over toxicity, not mineral content. Whether water contains 1 or 100ppm (parts per million) calcium isn't really important, but the difference between 1 and 100ppm arsenic is of grave importance.