i have seen that before, I have a friend who bought a $3000 machine to make his water alkaline. Funny thing is lemon juice and coconut water can give you better benefits. I'm a big advocate of lemons, garlic and ginger for your health. Also commonsense, if you drink alkaline water and then use too much acidic food then what's the point ? They both go to the same place ! A lot of the junk people eat is acidic like fried food !
Yen: Thank you very much. I appreciate your response and trust your expertise. I'm normally a bit skeptical about claims for health benefits of touted products, but it's funny (now) how I fell for the hype for alkaline water when it was presented to me by friends. I'll definitely stop drinking pH modified water. ------ R29K: Yes, the machine my friend has cost around that amount also. What you say makes sense- it all ends up in the same place (stomach) and probably just throws the body out of balance with what it needs for proper digestion. Ironically, one of the friends touting alkaline water was also touting the benefits of apple cider vinegar, which I'm sure is very acidic. The two products (alkaline water and ACV) are probably just neutralizing each other! lol
Apple Cider vinegar is supposedly good for your digestion, but it can eat the enamel from your teeth. Remember: It's acetic acid.
MJ: Described as acetic acid, it definitely sounds like something to be wary of. I guess ACV is supposed to be diluted when consumed, but it still probably takes a toll on teeth over time. Coffee is another thing supposedly bad for teeth, but it's one thing I'm not going to give up.
The point is that it's reasonable to fight the cause not the effect. And it's also not very reasonable to fight an unknown variable by guessing. Reasonable is to have the variable (excess of acids by nutrition) well controlled. Therefore people need to know which foods have much acids and how human body creates buffer capacity. Some remarks to consider (randomly as they come off my thoughts). -Acids can also be created by digestion process (biochemical/chemical reactions). An example later: Alcohol -Coca cola's acid concentration is 10 times greater than any vinegar's. (Sugar masks acid concerning taste). Cola is more of a poison than anything we wanted to have removed from the water. It’s got a lot of sugar as well. -Hydrochloric acid is a strong acid (pKa value). As long as there is hydrochloric acid present any acid coming from food remains as acid (no neutralisation). The rule: " The stronger acid displaces the weaker acid from their salts." That means: Drinking alkaline water is always an impact on the stomach acid. It does not affect any acids coming from food as long as there is hydrochloric acid present! -Coming from stomach to bowels the natural pH value changes drastically to slightly alkaline either way. It's the job of the duodenum. -Most biochemical processes do only work at a very specific and narrow pH range. Therefore we have buffer systems. A buffer system is a combination of salts and acids or bases that can keep the pH value constant when encountering 'attacks' from acids or bases. If disturbed until beyond its capacity you encounter problems. Minerals (salts) are essential for buffer systems. The natural pH range of blood is 7.35 to 7.45. Beyond this range you are feeling sick already. It’s an operative range of 0.1 only! Example alcohol. Why do people get 'sick' when they drink too much? Besides of the intoxicating action of alcohol itself it gets oxidized. Firstly to Acetaldehyde. Most of the Acetaldehyde goes away by breath. (Let me check your breath whether you are drunken or not, lol). But most of the Alcohol gets oxidized further..to the mentioned acetic acid. The more you drink the more is created. The body has to keep the blood pH in that range and tries to buffer. Therefore it comes up with minerals (salts)... once exhausted the body tries to get rid of them. The more you pee the more you lose. Then the time comes where they are all exhausted and the blood pH decreases out of range. The result is what we call hangover next day. Headache, stomach problems, tremor. You have now to get minerals back step by step that you can recover slowly. (Soup, fish, anything with minerals). Tip: If you go party and want to drink. Make some breaks from time to time and drink half a litre of a good mineral water (with good I mean Calcium and Magnesium together around the 500 mg range per litre) during the party... at least 3 times. Your body will thank you for that next day. Very short: Minerals are by far more important than to fiddle with the pH values of the water. The stomach is used to be acid, the bowels slightly alkaline. That is natural.
@Yen: Coca-Cola has Phosphoric acid in it. That's why it's a great household cleaner. It also eats paint off of cars.
Right. My grandma said it's good to drink coke and eat pretzel sticks and rolls when you have serious diarrhoea. That is quite clever. The Phosporic acid together with the alkaline solutions used to make lye pretzles and the like create Phosphates and Hydrogenphosphates for the bowels to stabilize their pH. Phosphoric acid is a medium strong acid, but stronger than acetic acid. Phosphates can buffer well, though. Therefore the lye products. Coke can be useful when you are exhausted and your sugar level is too low. This can happen when suffering from serious diarrhoea as well and the food does not stay the needed time to give you energy. Another good remedy is a litre of mineral water with just one tea bag of black tea, 100 mL of orange juice, a tea spoon of salt and a spoon of sugar. I sometimes drink coke when tracking. But only there where sugar supplements can be useful. Bananas together with good mineral water can do the same.
I receive a City of Huntington Beach Drinking Water Quality report every year & I update my spreadsheet w/ the chemicals/ minerals in the new report to compare what I'm using now. Mostly I look @ the: Radiologicals Alpha Radiation (pCi/L) Beta Radiation (pCi/L) Uranium (pCi/L) Inorganic Chemicals – Tested in 2014 Aluminum (ppm) Arsenic (ppb) Barium (ppm) Fluoride (ppm) naturally-occurring Fluoride (ppm) treatment-related Nitrate as NO3 (ppm) Nitrate and Nitrite as N (ppm) --- our water comes from: Local Groundwater and Metropolitan Water District Treated Surface Water. For drinking mostly I rely on natural bottled drinking water that comes from a spring in the Sierras (they claim).
I researched a bit. Here in Germany we have 600 different kinds of waters to buy! I knew we've got a lot of springs but that huge amount did surprise myself. On each bottle there is printed at least a brief analyses of major contents.... There is also water from big manufacturers such as Bonaqua (coca cola) or some from Nestlé. I do not buy those, though.
A lot of the bottled water is very acidic sometimes it's better to use the tap water than drink that.
I should have posted if I buy .... At home I drink 90% tap water. Well it depends on the added carbon dioxide to have it bubbling...it's a very weak acid, though. Carbon dioxide buffers the water itself to a slightly acidic pH value. Mineral waters containing much minerals can be slightly alkaline. pH7.0-7.5 Normally they don't take up much 'natural' acids. If you should have water which is very acidic you should research for the reason....
Nothing wrong with Cuba Libre. And I have to say it is really easy-going next day. Must be the lemons, lol. I totally agree, especially when it's a Zacapa XO. Its bottle alone lets come up the idea never to mix it.
Well, there's rum and then there's rum... The one I am mixing is the Captain Morgan Spiced or Bacardi Oakheart, with less alcohol but more... spices... Huge glass, a whole lemon, some Malibu, for extra coconut flavour and - if you can get a girl to sip it with you - puuuurfect... since by the end of it, she's yours...
Yeah and my pocket will be hers.......and I have to disagree drunk girls are pesky..especially when you have to drive them to somewhere and you yourself cannot drink some alcohol. If you can watch them with distance it can be funny, yes. Btw I have just ordered a bottle of Riise Non Plus Ultra Rum. I never tried it but some say it beats the Zacapa XO. Sharing one with a girl who knows which rum can be drunken purely......sweeet, chocolate, nuts, raisins flavor hot summer night..... beach....jap much better.