Spring water or filtered water?

[dale]

Hi all. Everything I've read about macrobiotics says you should drink spring water. A macrobiotic counselor (that has performed pH tests) told me that filtered tap water has a more balanced pH level (less acidic) than spring water. Is one any better for you than the other, or is it a "wash"? Many thanks.

Dale

[dkornels]

Since I don't have an artesian well in my back yard, I have opted for water filters.

[furrbrain]

I've considered filters and was wondering if buying spring water at the supermarket compares cost wize. Water filters must have cartridges to replace and/or other maintainance that's needed.

[Bruce Paine]

Back in 1976, after living a year in the Boston macrobiotic community, I found myself living in Chapel Hill, outside in a tent without any macrobiotic support so I went back to S.A.D. and after six moths got very sick because I started eating a lot of donuts.

Lucily, my cousin who was traveling in Europe, left me his pressure cooker and I started eating a sauteed onion, carrot, cabbage, wakame, hatcho miso soup (remember that this was midwinter and nighttimes outside dropped down to 20 below zero!), brown rice and beans, using the local water from a back yard spigot.

That rebirth has carried me to this very day and though I was using chlorinated water (and organic vegetables) I was able to go from extreme yin where I felt like I was going to die, to very yang where I felt I could lift up the front end of a car with my bare hands.

The point being that we don't have to use pure water to live a healthy life, it just helps, that's all!

Since that time I have used well water, bottled spring water, filtered tap water, all kinds of pure water and twenty years ago, I bought a solid block carbon filter from a mlm company thinking it was the only option available to me besides a silver impregnated granulated activated charcoal filter being sold by another mlm company.

Many macrobiotic people bought the filter that I still use but after I bought it for almost 400 dollars, I discovered that there were many water filters of all kind besides the counter or under counter carbon filters!

You got carafe, faucet, countertop, under counter, shower, whole house, travel, camping, spa/pool and gardening filters!

You have granulated activated charcoal (loose, GAC), solid block carbon, silver impregnated GAC, redox, KDF (copper-zinc), reverse osmosis, ceramic, ultraviolet, ozone, electric and solar powered distillers for media.

Because I support Simply Natural run by my good friend Gary Miller who I've known for ten years, in this environment I only promote the filters that he is selling which are under the counter and counter top CuZn (KDF, copper zinc) gac filters which will provide excellent pure water for a year or more, either as a permanent or refillable (cartridge) filter and are affordable to the average consumer!

The other kind of filter that Natural Simple is selling is the Wellness Water Filter which I consider to be the best and the best tasting water coming from a water filter that money can buy!!

If you are presently poor, as so many people are but you would like to experience some luxury for a little while, you could buy the refillable cartridge Wellness Carafe Filter which will give you 50 gallons or more of exceptional healthy and delicious water in a gravity filter that you will keep in your refrigerator.

If you are doing pretty good and you want a good investment, the counter top or under the sink Wellness Water Filters are good investments for exceptional health and fantastically delicious water!

At macroCOOK, I am introducing persons to the wider world of water filter devices and media so that interested people can learn about and if they wish make a decision on what they want based on a more complete knowledge of available water purification technology!

If you want a good water filter as soon as possible Naturally Simple has a good selection to choose from but if you want to take your time and see what's out there, then either the information that I'm providing elsewhere (but please don't expect to find all the information that I can provide already there because it all takes time to write it down and since no one is paying me for this information my paid work comes first!) or the information that you can gather, yourself (on search engines like Google) might serve you well.

It's all up to you!

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[neon]

Bruce, thank you very much for your opinions, but I am not sure I understand your conclusion about the water sources. You started this post with:
The point being that we don't have to use pure water to live a healthy life, it just helps, that's all!
But then you continue with a talk about all kind of filters.

What's your general opinion about the water we drink, please?
Is it the one, that it doesn't matter so much and we can drink the tap water daily without no big harm on the overall macrobiotic diet effect?

[Bruce Paine]

My point, neon, is that we don't have to use pure water to live a good healthy life! It just helps, it feels and tastes good!

My primary reason for doing macrobiotics is that I feel good doing it, not that I'm afraid that I'm going to die earlier, and often be suffering from eating S.A.D., though that is a concern, it just is not my primary concern.

Let's live a happy life, not one full of fear and dread of sickness!

Get a filter if we want, and use it as often as we can, but not go crazy over getting the perfect water filter and having to only use it to get our water!

Does that make any sense to you?

Pure water is a preference, not an absolute!

If you believe that everything must always be perfect, macrobiotically pure or something, you are trapped, not free!

Macrobiotics is about freedom!

Thank you, very much!

Bruce Paine

[neon]

I understand your point and learning from you very much.. thank you too Bruce :-)

[Tanuki]

Consider the environmental impacts, too. The spring water industry is controlled by big co's like Coca Cola, which deplete ground water. In Australia, Coca Cola is able to buy spring water at a fraction of the cost that farmers have to pay. They do similar things in India. Shipping spring water around the globe takes obscene amounts of energy.

My user name is sweet tea and the computer is not letting me sign it. I'm a newbie.

This post was a good topic. I found the dialogue amusing. I grasped what you said when stating water is water and using good organic food will raise your level. Then providing information to proceed. Thank you.