I tried this in the store the other day. I rather like the taste of this water, it reminds me of the water we drink back home in Seattle. But what about the pH?
Can anyone give me some information about this water and if it’s a good thing, a bad thing, or good only in moderation?
I’ve had a pretty nasty upset stomach the past couple weeks and after a trip or two to the doctor, I am feeling better. I found that drinking this water didn’t irritate my stomach like some other brands.
Anything higher is more basic (like bleach) and anything lower is more acidic (like battery acid).
The scale is logarithmic, so a pH of 8 is 10x more basic than water, a pH is 100x more basic. Although I’m not quite sure how u can be 100x more of anything than neutral (like multiplying by zero).
Anyway, my guess is that because the water is mildly basic, it will go some way to neutralizing stomach acid as an acid and a base will react to form a salt and water.
Tycoon: neutral water has 10e-7 moles of OH- ions, and a corresponding 10e-7 moles of H+ ions, per litre of water, because a small amount of water spontaneously dissociates into those charged components. equal amounts of each are neutral. ph8 has ten times as many OH- ions, and ten times fewer H+ ions. H+ ions are the acid species, so pH 8 is ten times less acid than neutral. etc. the pH is the negative logarithm of the H+ ion concentration in moles (ie it is just using the exponent to make things simpler).
and back to the main topic: most water we get from the tap, etc, is acidic, as CO2 dissolving into it renders it acidic, and other ions that complicate the acid-base neutrality are present from other water sources, so we can get too much acid in our diet. this is compounded by eating too much meat, for example. basic water can neutralise some of this, easing some of the stress on our kidneys, which are the main acid-base regulators in the body (controlling it by the amount of bicarbonate we excrete in urine). the lungs also help by regulating the amount of CO2 we blow off, thus balancing the amount of bicarbonate in the bloodstream. if you’re interested further, google the Henderson-Hasselbach equation… if you can follow chemistry.
basic water can relieve upset stomachs from over acidity, but are generally not necessary as the lungs and kidneys are normally a far more powerful regulator of acidity than dietary controls. drinking enough normal water without regard to the pH is more than adequate for most people, and basic water is a bit of a gimmick.
[quote=“arion”] … So it sounds like there’s no downside to drinking this water… good to know.
…
[/quote]
Uhm … my thinking about your statement is that it’s wrong … if the water lowers your stomach PH than digesting food might be a small problem when drinking it when taking in food … but that’s just my brain thinking, I’m not a scientist or chemistry pro.
if you drink it with food it will make it harder to digest your food, and may make your stomach upset momentarily worse (as the stomach will sense the loss of acidity and overcmpensate by creating More hydrochloric acid). your stomach needs to ba about pH 3 to digest food properly.
after eating (like several hours later, when your stomach is empty again) then the pH 9 water may help to reduce stomach acidity and this may be useful to you if your stomach is overacid at times when it is not needed. there are many different ways for your stomach to be affected, and i am not going to diagnose yours here. see a doctor and ak them for their advice.
So I checked my hometown’s (Everett, Washington, USA, home of the 747…) water quality report. The average pH of the tap water is 8.6 with the “detected range” going from 7.6 to 9.4. That’s why this water tastes a bit like home. Hmm…
We have a machine at home which we can set to produce variable degrees of alkaline or acidic water if necessary. tw.youtube.com/watch?v=t8PBufEjRzo
Kangen water is just one of the many water purification machines on the market at this time that produces alkaline water and is no better or worse than other brands.
We use the brand National which also goes by Panasonic if it comes from Japan. It is important to know however than the machines are calibrated to work with the local water supply, so National is better working in Taiwan as Panasonic is calibrated for Japan.
By the way the ph of the water from these machines is not the equivalent of adding alkaline substances such as salt. Salt is a chemically alkaline substance whereas these machines produce alkaline as a state of charge, which is completely different.
I have read various articles on this type of water and it seems to be increasingly popular. Some of the said benefits of the water is that it helps to break down tightly knit cells, thus making digestion easier and more effective (it even boosts the flavor of tea made with it), because of this added benefit studies seem to show that it can even improve growth rates amongst fish stocks and longevity. I’m still not completely sold on this however and I think its always wise to be a little skeptical until this has proven itself over time. I would rather experiment with this however than continue to use the water coming straight out of my tap.
The bottled water version as I used to often drink before purchasing a machine to produce it at home may be in theory just as healthy, but it comes in a plastic bottle which is most commonly chilled. The known release of toxins from most plastic bottles, especially when chilled are carcinogenic and may cause cancer and do cause cancer over time. Never keep these plastic bottles and continue to use them for drinking purposes in a bid to save the environment. They are designed to break down over time
Always try to store water in glass or stainless steel containers. Having said that, I don’t always follow this advice, as it isn’t always practical or possible.
Sula -
Good information. Thanks. We have some friends that use these National machines and seem very happy with them.
Might get one ourselves for the home.
