Bottled alkaline water is a drinking water with a pH balanced to the alkaline scale. Read on to know more about its benefits.
Most of us rely on normal tap water for drinking purpose. Though, most of us are particular about disinfecting it and removing visible dirt from it, very few of us actually bother to check its pH balance.
Disinfecting and filtering water does not ensure that the water we drink is safe for our health. Balancing the pH of the water is equally important. Bottled alkaline water is the water commercially available for drinking purpose with a pre-adjusted pH level.
Why Bottled Alkaline Water
Human body contains about 70% of water, while blood comprises 94% of water. This clearly underlines the importance of water in our body. Imagine, what would happen to our body's functions if this water is polluted or has an incorrectly balanced pH! Most of the foods that we eat, tend to produce acidic waste materials.
Moreover, external factors such as stress, lifestyle etc., also contribute to elevate the acidity in our body. As a result, the blood that circulates throughout the body carries acidic substances and deposits them in kidneys, lymph etc.
This can be extremely detrimental to our general health, as acidic environment provides a hotbed for the growth of various types of bacteria and other microorganisms. Thus, it is important to neutralize the effect of acids in the body.
This can be achieved by drinking water that has a perfect pH balance or pH that is inclined to the alkaline scale. Alkaline water restores the body's pH balance to its natural state.
How Bottled Alkaline Water is Manufactured
Rainwater in its purest form is considered to be neutral with a pH of 7. Distilled water is pretty much closer to rainwater but slightly more alkaline. There are various methods of alkalizing water with distillers, ionizers and reverse osmosis process. Each of these techniques produce alkaline water in varying degrees of alkalinity.
Distiller comprises two components, boiler and condenser. The boiler boils the tap water above the boiling point, so that it evaporates, leaving behind all the impurities in the boiler. The steam is then collected in the condenser to retrieve the water.
Ionization of water is yet another process, in which water is electrically enhanced to achieve optimum alkalinity. In this process, water is subjected to positive and negative electrodes in a water ionizer, so that water gets separated into alkaline and acidic portions.
This process produces about 70% alkaline water, which can be used for drinking purpose. While, the 30% acidic water is used for other purposes.
Reverse osmosis is basically a technique that uses a thin semi-permeable membrane, to remove particulate pollutants. However, water obtained by this process is only slightly alkaline than the tap water. Hence, ionization is by far the most popular method of mass producing bottled alkaline ionized water.
Intake of Bottled Alkalized Water
The pH of bottled alkalized water would mostly depend upon the manufacturing brand. However, buy water with a pH anywhere between 8 to 9 to gain optimum benefits. Recommended daily water intake of alkalized water is about 3 liters for maximum benefits.
One strange thing about alkalized water is that it increases your thirst and urges you to drink more water. Thus, it reduces food cravings, that are mostly due to body's need for more water.
Thus, bottled alkaline water is a great way of ensuring the optimum utilization of fluids in the body. However, its high price prevents it from reaching the masses. Measures are being taken to reduce its price so that even common people can avail its benefits.