Photo of water bottles

Think Before You Drink…Fiji Water

I am not a fan of plastic bottled water as a rule for several reasons:
1) Cost
2) There are no purity standards
3) Plastic leaches into the water and contributes to the severe hormonal imbalances found in a majority of Americans
4) The enviromental impact of bottling and shipping water all over the world
5) It is one of the major contributors (plastic bags being the other) to the plastic waste problem that the world is facing along with the Eastern Garbage Patch that is already the size of Texas found in the Pacific Ocean

Now I have one more to add after reading this article on the irreparable damage that the Fiji Water Company is doing to the island of Fiji, the people and the environment.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/24/tale-of-fiji-water-too-familiar-sounds-like-industrial-colonial/

A good way to make sure that you and your family have clean, environmentally responsible drinking water is distillation. You can find countertop distillers on Amazon.com or Gaiam.com. They require a investment of $200-$400 which is easily made back with avoiding plastic bottled water.
Distillaton removes

  • Bacteria, viruses & other microorganisms
  • Fluoride, sodium, nitrates and other soluable inorganic salts
  • Organic chemicals like pesticides, PCBs, THMs
  • Radionuclides
  • Heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, etc.
  • Soluable minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, etc.

What distillation does not remove are gases and volatile organic compounds but this is easily remedied by incorporating a carbon filter which most countertop distillers have.
It is important to note that most distillation does require electricity so a easy way to minimize your electric bill is to run it over night. Using glass or stainless steel bottles to store the distilled water in the refrigerator allows for busy families to grab and go.

The controversy that is brought up over distilled water is that is devoid of minerals…which is true but the claim that ingesting distilled water will leach minerals out of the body is false. Once distilled water hits our stomach it mixes with our stomach juices and immediately loses its leaching abilities.

An easy solution to make your distilled water into absorbable mineral water…a few grains of brown rice in your water bottle!

 

If we are going to claim to be “GREEN”, we have start speaking with our money and skipping the bottled water, especially Fiji Water, is a good start.