We all know drinking water is crucial to a living organism’s life. The drinking water should be healthy and free from disease-causing microorganisms.
Every cell in a body requires water to survive, so we cannot compromise the water quality. Before moving ahead, have you ever thought that if you make some changes in your daily life, your life automatically gets healthy?
According to Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the water should be healthy and prosperous in essential nutrients and minerals. But when the water is processed through several forms, like a filtration system, few of them snatch away the vital minerals.
Therefore, research the options before buying or investing in specific equipment.
If the water quality is good, people will not fall ill more often, and their immune systems will be robust and prepared to fight the disease or foreign particles.
To do the same, in this article, we will discuss alkaline water vs purified water with different benefits and disadvantages. We will discuss the water forms and compare them in a detailed manner.
What is Alkaline Water?
You might have come across the other three essential words, acid, base, and alkaline. Here, the alkalinity refers to the same. During the academic years, these terms were used in the chemistry subject, which signifies the pH level of any substance.
The pH of any sense is measured on a scale ranging from 0 to 14, and that’s how we decide if a substance is acidic, basic, or alkaline. For example, if any substance has a pH of 2, it is very acidic, while if a substance has a pH level of 12, it is called very basic.
The average drinking water pH is 7, while the alkaline water pH is between 8 to 9. Apart from the pH, oxidation-reduction potential or ORP also plays a vital role in measuring the alkalinity of water.
Alkaline water has a damaging ORB, which means it has more antioxidants. This is the main reason most people consider alkaline water healthy, but it is still a controversial topic in the scientific community.
According to health professionals, there is no significant research on this topic, so it is hard to say if alkaline water is healthy for people. We have listed a few studies that have a substantial contribution to claiming the benefit of alkaline water down below:
Pepsin is an enzyme in the digestive system of the human body. This enzyme causes Acid Reflux, which gets deactivated by Alkaline water (ph=8.8).
Another study showed a considerable difference in the blood’s viscosity. The researchers noticed that a person’s blood flow (whole blood viscosity) was much more efficient than an individual’s regular intake.
The Benefits of Alkaline Water are Listed Down Below
- Colon cleansing properties
- Weight loss
- Cancer resistance
- Skin health
- Hydration
- Detoxifying properties
- Reduces bone loss
- Improves metabolism
- Promotes healthy digestion
- Regulate the blood pressure
- Supports muscle function
Alkaline water has many benefits, but it does not mean that this does not have any disadvantages to human health. It is believed that it accelerates the production of Hydrochloric Acid to regulate the pH level of the stomach.
Thus, water generally makes several physiological changes in the body to achieve hemostasis. However, few drawbacks have come to light because of the restricted research in this field.
Suppose you want to consume alkaline water; several bottled water brands are readily available on the market. The American Food and Drug Administration wholly regulated the standards of alkaline water or guidelines.
They have mentioned the number of nutrients that must be added to make the water alkaline to benefit humans in preventing chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer.
What is Purified Water?
Purified water can be defined as water that has been processed or filtered. The filtration or purification process is generally done to remove the disease-causing organisms, chemicals, or other contaminants from the water. Almost all households use this method to purify drinking water nowadays.
The purified water can easily be prepared using tap water, groundwater, or other sources. The purification process has several types; for example, a few pieces of equipment use multiple membranes to filter the water.
The most common equipment is a Reverse Osmosis process. It uses a semipermeable membrane to allow a few molecules to pass through them and prevent the passage of other contaminants in the water.
This results in sterilized and clean water that is safe to drink and doesn’t have any disease-causing microorganisms or pollutants. The multivariant water filtration system is also used in water tanks.
The Other Treatment Options are Listed Down Below
- The flocculation and coagulation method is used to purify the water. The water is mixed with the positively charged chemicals, which attract the negatively charged particles. Thus, providing contaminant-free water.
- Chemical disinfectants (like chlorine) are added to kill viruses and bacteria.
- The filtration process is another method where numerous elements like gravel, charcoal, or sand are used to remove contaminants like viruses, chemicals, bacteria, and dust.
There are a Few Disadvantages of Consuming Purified Water. A Few of Them are Listed Below
- The system’s equipment used for water purification must be adequately maintained and require periodic maintenance.
- The water purification system is ineffective as it does not remove some aspects like chemicals or pesticides more effectively.
- The water purification system and the maintenance cost is very costly processes. The system requires electricity to function, which makes it much more expensive.
- If you buy purified water in bottles, it’s not environmentally friendly and, again, expensive.
The Advantages of Consuming Purified Water are Listed Down Below
- The purified water is free from contaminants like bacteria and pesticides. These are very important to remove before consuming the water because they weaken the immune system and lead to chronic diseases.
- The municipality department usually adds chlorine to enhance the water quality and kill the disease-causing bacteria, but it is harmful to humans when consumed in huge quantities.
- The purification or filtration equipment, like the Reverse Osmosis process, removes the chlorine from the water, enhancing the taste and decreasing chlorine consumption.
- When the filtration process is done in the home, it removes the excess chlorine from the water and improves the water’s taste and texture.
Alkaline Water Vs Purified Water
The above sections provide very detailed information about alkaline and purified water. In this section, we will discuss the differences among them. We have also mentioned the advantages and disadvantages of consuming both water types and hope that it might have helped you somehow.
1. The Purpose
The alkaline water’s primary work is to neutralize stomach acidity and prevent certain diseases and illnesses. It highly impacts the pH level, while the purified water’s main task is to remove the impurities and contaminants from the water.
The contaminants can be industrial pollutants, chemicals, or disease-causing microorganisms that have a high possibility of weakening our immune system.
2. The Additional Benefits
Several companies manufacture alkaline water. Most of them add this to make the water much more beneficial for human consumption. These minerals improve a person’s health and enhance the taste of water.
On the other hand, most purification processes remove the minerals and nutrients from the water and extract all the required components. This not only impacts the physical health but also highly impacts the dental health of an individual.
3. The Environment
Bottled water is not an environment-friendly option. Whenever you think of buying water, you opt for brands that will sell their products in plastic bottles. Thus making it highly toxic to the environment.
Several types of research have also shown a very high rate of microplastics in the human body after consuming food products in plastic. Microplastic is not a big issue, but researchers firmly believe that food items shouldn’t be sold on plastic covers or bottles.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best option?
Before concluding, you should always consider the actual situation with your water supply. The best option relies on your problem. If you believe the only problem is pH, you can always choose alkaline water over purified water. Still, if there’s anything wrong with the water’s quality (having chemicals and disease-causing microorganisms), you should opt for purified water.
What is the cheapest way of getting purified water?
It is useless to rely entirely on plastic bottles to consume purified water. Instead of daily buying water bottles, you can invest in a purification system like reverse osmosis equipment. Though you will also have to invest in the electricity and the maintenance cost, this is the best and the cheapest option. Besides the expense, plastic bottles also have microplastic problems, which accumulate in your body and cause chronic diseases.
Is there any relationship between an alkaline diet and alkaline water?
Yes, there is a relation between the alkaline diet and alkaline water because the majority of dietician believe that alkaline food help in maintaining the pH level of the body, and so does alkaline water. It also helps to prevent the human body from getting impacted by cancer, arthritis, or inflammation.
Conclusion
To wrap up, there is not much difference between alkaline water vs purified water types because they have different functions.
The alkaline water highly impacts the pH level of the stomach and the blood viscosity, while filtered or purified water frees the water from disease-causing microorganisms and pollutants.
They both are related to water quality and how it is beneficial or not for human health, but they both serve different purposes.
We hope this information has helped you to decide! If you don’t want to invest in alkaline water as it does not serve many purposes, then you can easily squeeze a lemon into the water to make it alkaline and improve the body’s digestive system.
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