I have a confession to make.
There was a time when, if you had asked me, 'Is mineral water healthy?' I would have laughed.
Rain water, natural mineral water, H2O, purified water ...
I thought water was just that.
Water.
As long as it was clean, it was all the same to me.
It would quench my thirst or stave off a headache if I had not had a coffee or a cup of tea for a while.
I thought the wealthy who drank bottled water were right up there with the pop stars who had bottles of special water in their hotel rooms and backstage.
Ludicrous, ostentatious and unnecessary! Well, then I moved with my family to a developing country and I had to rewrite my theories of water.
Because I quickly learned through some bad experiences that not only was some water very unclean, but good quality water actually contains natural minerals that we absolutely must have to be healthy and well.
Talk about a climb down.
(Or should I say climb up?) Today the question, 'Is mineral water healthy?' gets a firm, 'Yes!' and, if you're slow to leave, a lecture on natural mineral water (H2O).
You know the thing that turned me around? It's simple.
Our water comes from deep underground where it has been in contact with the rocks far down in the earth's crust.
That contact, in those extreme conditions, dissolves minerals from the rocks and when the water eventually rises up again into the systems we use for drinking water those minerals are available to us.
And we must have them, because our bodies absolutely depend on these natural minerals to function properly.
Without them we are sickly.
This is nature's way of feeding us the essential minerals we required for daily life.
This is how we get carbonates, phosphates and the many other inorganic trace elements such as magnesium which is used as the body's stress reducer and a strengthener of the immune system.
Chloride is another one.
It helps digestion by maintaining and regulating the acids in our stomachs.
Another important mineral in the water is sulfate which strengthens bones and teeth.
Iron is another one.
It moves oxygen around the body.
Then there's calcium, that's vital in strengthening teeth and giving mass to bones.
You get these natural, nutritious minerals from quality food and good drinking water.
So you need to check with your local public water provider to see if their water has minerals.
Although municipal councils take a lot of care with water, they don't always do a very good job because they are busy, under-staffed, and federal government water purity regulations are lax.
(For instance, these regulations only demand officials check for 75 of the more than 2000 cancer-causing chemicals that have been officially recorded in US public water supplies.
) Another, even more alarming problem with city water supplies, is that many (if not most) public water authorities in this country use industrial-sized, reverse osmosis water filters to treat tap water.
These systems might be fine in the Middle East and on submarines where they are excellent for turning salt water into fresh.
But they should never have been installed in advanced cities, because they remove all the minerals in the water they filter.
That means if you drink the water you will not get the essential, natural minerals your body needs from it! Many parents act to make sure their children drink pure, mineral-rich water from the tap by installing home water purification systems.
This is a good idea, I think.
I've done it in my own home, more than once.
There are several basic types of purification systems.
However some of them will remove the minerals from your local water before you drink.
So, when you shop for one, make sure you read the fine print and consider only those that deliver natural mineral water H2O.
Is mineral water healthy? You bet! Find a system that lets you drink it.