Apparently there is a new trend out there called "raw water". You pay a bundle to buy water that is bottled straight from a stream or spring with no filtration or treatment. It promises to be 'clean', 'healthy' or otherwise full of things your body needs. Apparently one source even says it has special probiotics that you can only get from water but that are taken out when water is treated.
Please do not try this!! It is absolutely not safe to drink water without treating it. There is no location where the water would be safe to drink. It could have a great number of bacteria or parasites or other disease causing microbes that could harm you. It could also have a great number of chemicals in it, acquired from farm runoff, pesticides or fertilizers from golf course runoff, factory emissions, heavy metals that leached into groundwater from the soil, and so many other things. It is truly an unsafe thing to ingest.
How do I know so much? First, my grandmother lived in a small city that occupied 1 mile on the top of a large hill. It was called Mt. Healthy because the residents were the only healthy people during a large cholera epidemic. Learning about the history was part of the family history.
Then I married a man who did water quality testing for the EPA. His company tested what factories were releasing into rivers to see if it met EPA regulations. They also did the same sort of testing for wastewater treatment plants and large factory farms. He was horrified when I told him that some company was selling "Raw Water" and what it was.
There are a great number of charities that are dedicated to bringing water filtration systems and methods to third world countries. To think that someone is trying to bring unfiltered water to the naive among us and they are selling it as a health food just makes me very angry. Especially as I am sure that "Raw Water" costs a small fortune compared to the cost of the actual water in the bottle.
Please do not try this!! It is absolutely not safe to drink water without treating it. There is no location where the water would be safe to drink. It could have a great number of bacteria or parasites or other disease causing microbes that could harm you. It could also have a great number of chemicals in it, acquired from farm runoff, pesticides or fertilizers from golf course runoff, factory emissions, heavy metals that leached into groundwater from the soil, and so many other things. It is truly an unsafe thing to ingest.
How do I know so much? First, my grandmother lived in a small city that occupied 1 mile on the top of a large hill. It was called Mt. Healthy because the residents were the only healthy people during a large cholera epidemic. Learning about the history was part of the family history.
Then I married a man who did water quality testing for the EPA. His company tested what factories were releasing into rivers to see if it met EPA regulations. They also did the same sort of testing for wastewater treatment plants and large factory farms. He was horrified when I told him that some company was selling "Raw Water" and what it was.
There are a great number of charities that are dedicated to bringing water filtration systems and methods to third world countries. To think that someone is trying to bring unfiltered water to the naive among us and they are selling it as a health food just makes me very angry. Especially as I am sure that "Raw Water" costs a small fortune compared to the cost of the actual water in the bottle.