This article was brought to my attention by a client who has been happily drinking our water for many years. She asked for my comments. I’ll add them below. I’m also going to colour red the phrases that actually have no purpose but to reinforce the point.
It’s an ANTI alkaline water article and one reader already thought that because it is on our blog we too were anti alkaline water. Nothing could be further from the truth. We LOVE our water and have done ever since we began drinking it in 2000.
“For the past couple of years a product has slowly infiltrated the natural health arena and convinced unsuspecting consumers to shell out hundreds of dollars for a so-called miracle cure. The miracle cure? Alkaline water. I have to admit when I first heard about alkaline water and its incredible ability to cure cancer, I was intrigued. Then I started doing some research.”
I’d add that in 13 years we have never said alkaline water cures cancer. I am rather upset that a large distributor is about to face a court class action from people who claim it did heal cancer.
“”Right around the time alkaline water became a fad, it was “discovered” that the secret cause of cancer was a body that was too acidic. Instead of telling people what it was they were eating, drinking, and doing to increase their acidity, this so-called miracle water came out onto the market to magically solve the problem.”
alkaline water is not the amazing health drink multi-level marketers would have you believe. As a matter of fact, it has already been proven that you can’t alkalize your blood pH. If your blood levels were too acidic or too alkaline, you wouldn’t be up and walking around. It’s your cellular pH levels that determine health or sickness.
Of course you can’t alkalize your blood! Your blood always returns to around pH 7.35 BUT it uses alkaline reserves to do so in an acidic body, thus depleting those reserves. I wonder who this person is arguing with?
“”While alkaline water can temporarily make you feel healthier and more energized with less pain, drinking it over a period of months or years can have serious consequences to your health.”
OK Here we go. Watch for the scientific references as the writer ‘proves’ to us that drinking alkaline water is bad.
“A Balanced Body pH is Important to Your Health
pH is the abbreviation for potential hydrogen. The pH of your body can be measured by its hydrogen-ion concentration. The higher your pH reading, the more alkaline your system.”
Problem #1. There is no such thing as body pH. All parts of the body operate most efficiently at different pH levels.
“The lower your pH reading, the more acidic and oxygen-deprived your cells. Your ideal pH level is slightly alkaline, at 7.30 to 7.45. Anything too much lower or higher than this can result in serious health problems.”
Problem #2. The writer is no confusing normal blood pH with ‘body pH which has no real definition as discussed in #1.
“”alkaline water Might Cause Cancer, Not Cure It
One of the selling points of alkaline water that really bothers me is its so-called ability to cure and prevent cancer. Making your body too anything is not healthy. It’s not healthy in a highly-acidic state but it’s also not healthy in a highly-alkaline state either.
Keeping your body in a very alkaline state for long periods of time can interfere with your normal digestive process, resulting in nutritional deficiencies and a weakened immune system. Furthermore, excessive alkalinity can encourage the overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria, fungus, and yeast. When your immune system stays in a dysfunctional state over long periods of time, it can prevent your ability to prevent and heal cancer naturally.”
Problem #3: It isn’t possible to keep the body in a ‘very alkaline sate’ for long periods. The kidneys are constantly balancing our pH and we urinate out excess. Look up Wiki for ‘alkalosis’ to check. The rest of his/her argument falls down because you just can’t have an ongoing excess alkalosis. So you don’t actually get the chance to encourage overgrowth even if was true!
“”The way artificial alkaline water is processed can also increase your risk for the development of cancer. For example, many of these machines pass your tap water over nickel plates to alkalize the water. Scientific research has shown that excessive exposure to nickel can increase your risk for the development of lung cancer.”
Problem #4: a typical uninformed comment. No water ionizer I have ever seen over 13+ years has nickel plates.
“”alkaline water Sold by Multi-Level Marketers
Customarily, when a new natural health product hits the market, it’s sold by a supplement company or a company that specializes in healing and holistic products. Most water alkalizers that I’ve researched are sold by multi-level marketing companies that have popped up virtually overnight. Multi-level marketing companies work by selling you a machine that is deeply discounted if you become a representative.”
Problem #5 Ergo, it’s bad for an MLM to deeply discount to the vendor but OK for Big Pharma to mark up product by often thousands of percent?
“For the first few weeks of using the water alkalizer, you may find yourself feeling healthier and more energized. This is due by-and-large to the fact that you’re drinking water of any kind. (Dehydration is a common contributor to illness). After a while, however, you may notice old problems returning and new problems joining them. Unfortunately, since you paid for the machine you sell more of them to recoup your money and maintain your membership.”
Problem #6: Where is the evidence? Water ionizer have been around long enough to clearly demonstrate the long lasting effect of their use.
“This is just not a reputable way to conduct business of any kind in my opinion.
alkaline water May Worsen Nutrient Deficiencies
If your body is in a highly-acidic state, it is caused by a lifetime of poor diet, prescription drug use, and stress. These factors cause a cellular deficiency in alkalinizing or alkaline reserve minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, and a few others. Without these essential minerals, your body is unable to maintain a healthy pH balance.”
Problem #7: This simply makes no sense at all. It acknowledges the acid-created deficiency then blithely asserts that drinking alkaline water may worsen these deficiencies. The mind boggles.
“”Anyone on Medication Should Avoid alkaline water
alkaline water is highly-reactive and, when combined with any type of over-the-counter of prescription drug, can create dangerous by-products that can further harm your health. It is estimated that 90% of people in the United States are dependent on at least one type of prescription drug, which means alkaline water is only ideal for completely healthy individuals.””
Problem #8: alkaline water is NOT ‘highly reactive”. Given that almost all of the USA, UK and Europe have hard alkaline water in their taps every day, I’d love to see the evidence. There is excellent evidence to the contrary and you can download my free treatise on the benefits of alkaline (hard water) here.
“”Balance Your pH Naturally without alkaline water
You do not need an expensive water machine to balance your pH levels. You can balance them naturally through dietary changes and high-grade supplements. The best thing you can do for your health is to wean off highly-processed foods and trade them in for healthier fare. Organic cruciferous vegetables, avocado, cucumbers, sprouts, fresh coconut, and cayenne pepper are naturally alkalizing foods.
I would also recommend replacing your table salt with unrefined sea salt. Unrefined sea salt is filled with natural minerals and iodine to help balance your pH and stabilize your hormone levels. Since chronic digestive distress is often a contributing factor in the development of disease, adding a digestive enzyme can improve your ability to absorb nutrients from food.
It is also important to add a chelated magnesium supplement to your diet as 85% of the American population is deficient. Calcium, zinc, and selenium may be helpful as well depending on your nutritional needs.
If you decide after reading this that you still want to give alkaline water a try, introduce it to your body very slowly and drink it no longer than two weeks. Alkalizing your body too much or too quickly can have serious consequences for your health. Instead, focus on improving your diet. Once you find nutritional balance, everything else will fall into place.”
Problem #9: At last some good dietary advice, but the writer seems ignorant of the true benefit of water produced by a water ionizer. It is not from the amount of alkaline minerals in the water, the microclustering, the negative ionization – it’s in the pH! The infused hydrogen, and if the writer is interested enough to seriously research, here’s an excellent start point.