Is bottled water REALLY any better for you than your own City water from the faucet?

Question

Are we getting all the natural minerals we need by drinking bottled water? Or doesn't it matter due to the fact the water from our faucets are treated, filtered etc; and the minerals may have been removed. Which one is healthier?

Answer 1

Where I live I think it is pretty much the same, except, of course, for the price. Tap water all the way for us.

Answer 2

As one person mentioned already this will vary greatly between cities. Phone your water works and find out what additives they are using. Chlorine is pretty much the basic one however if flourine is in the picture and even aluminum to help settle particulates than I would choose bottled water or distilled.

Bottle water..assuming it is pure becomes problematic when the temperature of the water drops. Toxins are released from the plastic as the contents warm simulating estrogen type qualities in the body. So never leave plastic drinking bottles in the sun.

If you go for filtered water make sure to taste test different types by the water that comes out as some people are sensitive to charcoal filters etc.

Distilled water apparently has two issues against it. The deminerlized state may leach minerals from the body and possibly get carried out. Some research is proving that this does not happen but you can add mineral drops to the water to be safe. The other thing is that distilled water will absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and become acidic which may harm the body if drunk often.

Personally.. the town I live in only uses chlorine so I boil the water adding this to a small amount of cold tap water so the pint glass doesn't break.
Cheers

Answer 3

I really don't know if it is any better, but we did pick some up after the black out
in August a few years ago, remember? We don't drink the tap water in our condo. We go downstairs to a special tap that bypasses the water softener. I had a glass of it & it sat for a while. I noticed that it had a 'dirty' taste. I opened a bottle & it didn't have that dirt taste. So I think that the bottled water is better. Maybe there's something more I should know about bottled water but I don't. All I can say is that there is a noticeable difference in taste between the tap and bottled water. I've gotten smarter. When I get water from the thermos I drink it right away and whatever is in it doesn't have a chance to settle. I should add that at one time our small community was the only one that didn't
have chlorine in it. The water was amazingly clear, clean and good tasting.
It came from an artesian well. Then the government poked their noses into it
and now our water is as gross as it can be. Heavy chlorine among other
things. Don't know if this helps, and I know I kind of ran on about it, but I needed to explain why I feel the way I do.

Answer 4

As people mentioned, the question is too generic to give an exact answer. Municipal water is treated and monitored according to much stricter standards. A typical bottled water is also a tap water, just filtered.

I am a water specialist, and we've asked in the past to do independent tests on several bottled water brands. So far, we found 2 that are consistently better than tap water - Evian and Fiji.

Typically, #1 problem in tap water is chlorine. Water treatment companies have to add it to prevent bacteria growth. Luckily, it is one of the easiest contaminant to remove. Regardless of whether you deside to drink bottled water, I would recommend some sort of chlorine removal filter in your house, and I'd treat both drinking water and shower water (chlorine is absorbed through skin).

Typically, a bottled water plant will treat the water. Oftentimes it goes through a Reverse Osmosis which removes most of the minerals, and then through a re-mineralization media that will add some back to water, and improve taste. In that case, the water will be limited in minerals, but as someone mentioned above, your body absorbs most of it from food, especially from fruits.

IMHO faucet water, that went through your own filtration system is much healthier; and you are guaranteed to know what you drink - unless you go with very expensive water brands.

Answer 5

Bottled water has the advantage of being chlorine free. Many municipalities use chlorine to disinfect water before it is sent through the pipes to your home. Chlorine is good because it keeps your water free from water borne illness, but it may be bad because of by-products of the disinfection, especially tri-halo methane. Tri-halo methane is a carcinogen. Now here is the bad part - if the water bottler is using chlorine to disinfect the water and not using a filter to remove tri-halo methanes, then you will also have them in bottled water. Most bottlers avoid this by disinfecting with ozone which does not produce disinfection by-products.

As far as minerals are concerned, I asked my doctor about them. He told me that our bodies don't do a very good job of absorbing water minerals because they are in a salt form (i.e. calcium carbonate). Our bodies do a much better job of absorbing minerals in food because they are attached to proteins already, something he calls chealated minerals. There are also supplements that are chealated and apparently better, so I take those.

Answer 6

According to pamphlets I have read, U.S. tap water is generally as healthy or sometimes healthier than bottled H2O. Some tap water may have an off taste, this can be reduced by chilling the water in the fridge. Local tap water often has to be sampled up to 100 times. As for minerals in water, it is your personal preference. For example I seen a seltzer spring water brand that claims it has the same calcium in a liter, as a glass (8 oz.) of milk.

Answer 7

I woulkd say that bottled water is healthier, mainly because it has been treated a lot more than what comes out of your faucet. But, to avoid spending tons on bottled water and get the same filtration you may want to look into a filter, such as Brita or PUR. I myself really can't taste a difference between the bottled stuff and the stuff that comes out of my faucet.

Answer 8

The way I look at it is whichever tastes better, you will be more apt to drink, so go with that one cause our bodies do need it.

There are spring waters vs distilled waters. I believe spring waters stay more natural.

I too have heard of different minerals being in city water, but, contaniments can make the water not be as good tasting too if it's well water.

Answer 9

I think city water is really bad, especially in California the water really stinks if you're drinking it from the tap. If you are worried you aren't getting minerals drink water that has electrolytes added, such as Smart Water it's bottled water.

Answer 10

if you buy water that has added minerals than your answer is yes. bottled water is reversed osmosis. with r o water i takes out 99% of everything. but on the flip side tap water has chlorine and fluoride and many other chemicals in it. it is not that good for you so which is the lesser of two evils that is the real question?