Food For Thought, Nutrients, Other Nutrients, Supplement Information

Water: Is Alkaline Water A Miracle Or A Scam?

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The internet has made it easy to promote products of questionable value that claim to provide health benefits.  It is prudent to verify the health claims before spending extra on these items.  Here is an example:

What is the benefit of alkaline ionized water to health?

There are no credible health benefits attributable to alkaline water that could not be provided by regular drinking water.

If what you want is pure water, then buy steam-distilled water – it has nothing in it, and you can purchase large quantities of it inexpensively.

Most bottled waters are tap or spring waters that have been filtered and sometimes processed (ozonated for example). Bottled waters are required to meet health standards in Canada and in the United States before they can be sold.

“Alkalinizing” water is a gimmick in my opinion.

Alkaline water and alkalinizing diets are promoted by people who appear to misunderstand how the body tightly controls the pH of various tissues throughout the body. It’s also possible the dietary term “alkaline ash” has been misinterpreted to mean these foods make your body more alkaline.

Your body is not like a battery – you don’t want to be in an alkaline state everywhere.

The word “acidity” refers to the pH score for a substance when it lies below 7 on the pH scale. A score of 7 on the pH scale is considered to be neutral. A score above 7 is “alkaline” or “basic”. The pH of your body varies by region (organ or tissue) and is maintained by a complex system of mechanisms within a narrow range.

Examples of how pH differs by body region:

  • Stomach secretions have a pH of 1.5 – 3.5 which is below 7 and therefore considered to be acidic.
  • Blood is normally slightly alkaline, with a pH of 7.35 – 7.45. When it becomes “acidic”, it is relatively acidic because the pH is below the normal range for blood but still in the alkaline range of the pH scale. Because blood pH is tightly regulated, it would rarely be in the acidic range of the pH spectrum because if it goes to about 6.8, the likelihood of death is high.

Your health will benefit from drinking lots of water and eating lots of vegetables but not from any supposed effects these acts have on the pH of your body’s tissues. This holds true whether you consume regular water or alkalkine water.

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Parts of this article originally appeared on Quora.