Anybody savvy to the 5th best selling beverage?

[RonMiller]

I never would have guessed it, but is not surprising. We buy some ourselves if we are on a road trip, or go somewhere where we are suspect of what is there.

www.betterwayhealth.com/bottled-water.asp

[stetto]

Great expose', Ron, but in the end you have to realize that the site is an advertisement...No bias here, eh?...

[RonMiller]

I know, but still decent information about it.

[stetto]

I agree with you, though these people have the same ability to skew the info.

I will be checking more carefully the brands of water I buy on those ocaisions that I do purchase water...

Was/is there a list of brands and the content/source of their product?

[RonMiller]

I didn't really see a link to that. However, ahem, I see that he is selling a water ionizer. Yes it would be good to know what water might have been contaminated, as I get very very quickly tired of pop (soda) quick.

My son and his wife had a baby in Oklahoma last year, and while in the hospital, brownish water actually came out of the taps. And is not the first time either. The city has been having water problems. So, would be nice to find a brand of water that was KNOWN to be free from bacteria and such, and in a container that didn't ooze its own particular properties upon the water either.

[Cablemender]

Several months back the University here held a sort of job fair/industry showcase where all these folks in various businesses looking to hire candidates in technical fields were invited in. As a technical student, it was a mandatory thing to show up, so I did.

One of my instructors called me over to meet this guy who was owner of a company that has several different bottling facilities around the country, and he was looking for some with a background in programmable logic controllers for his bottling plant in Texas (near Houston, somewhere). When I asked him what they did there, he told me they bottle water for nearly a dozen different brand names and ship them to distribution points. These were not just store brands, they were some of the big names in water you'd easily recognize. I was amazed. I said, "Are you telling me that all those different high-dollar waters for sale in the stores all come from the same place?" His answer: "If they are in my sales area, yes, they do. We have one helluva filtering system too.."

I really didn't need a job in Texas, I kind of gave up moving after my Navy days, so I didn't pursue the job lead. But I thought it was interesting that this guy was filling bottles of all brands from the same source.

Here is what I did with water. I had a local bottled-water place come out and test my tap water. As expected, they add all these reagents and chemicals and such, and it gives you a visable indication of what is, and isn't in your water. It's pretty gruesome. Naturally, their product is everything your tap water isn't, and I bought it there for a while. But I later joined this natural (organic) food co-op thing, and they have a water filtration/sterilization machine there that works great, and it's very reasonable if you buy it by the 5 gal jug or larger. So that's what I do now.

Be aware, though, that if you go the bottled water route you need to pay attention to the mineral content that you DON'T get, especially the calcium, because you will pay for that mistake later in life with osteoporosis if you don't. So I take a mineral supplement. And if you take one of those, you have to take a vitamin too or it's likely you will derive little benefit from the minerals you intake. IMO, it's best done that way, so you know your water isn't filling you with lead and contaminants, and you use another means to make sure you get the stuff you need.

[Richard]

My Aunt Mary is 96 and been drinking well water for 96 years with no filtration except the limestone where the water is filtered orginally. She said she tried bottled water once and didn't like it, no taste.

[Patch]

It's water!!!!
The best water I ever drank came out of my Grandfather's well.
The second best WATER I ever drank was American beer. Still water, but tasted a bit better. ;D ;D ;D