The Bottled Water Myth: Americans Need To Know This
The Truth About Bottled Water
Americans slug down bottled water like it's some kind of super liqiud. It's trendy, it's fashionalble, it's hip, but what we fail to realize is that it's also stupid! With carbonated soda taking a hammering as of late because of the negative health problems all the sugar loaded liquids can cause. And diabetes becoming a huge concern with folks young and old. Sales of Coke and Pepsi are begining to take a big hit.
Unfortunately it's not the water faucet that people are turning to instead. Rather they are flocking to store shelves to grab case after case of those shiny bottles full of crystal clear goodness. Natures finest nectar. Pure, natural spring water complete with a feel good, all-natural label that insists the contents in true panacea.
The bottled water companies are making an absolute killing. Raking in cash selling something that almost every American can get for free in the his or hers own kitchen!
Through years of clever marketing the bottled water companies have brainwashed us gullible Americans into thinking that the tap water is an evil concoction of unregulated filth spewing from our unsanitary faucets like bile from an angry dragon. And the bottled variety has come along like a super hero and saved us all!
The sad part is most people not only believe this but seem to believe it to the point that the thought of drinking "well water" or "city water" is totally uncool and unacceptable. And while local water quality regulations grow more stringent with rules on new construction irrigation systems and other safeguards, the bottled water companies cruise along generally unregulated.
The Cold Hard Facts On Bottled Water
Some fact on bottled water:
1) Regulations on bottled water are less stringent than the regulations on common tap water. It's a fact! The water that comes out of your faucet is proven to be safer and of better quality than many varieties of bottled water. In fact, even though the fancy labels tell you that bottled water is squeezed fresh from pristine glaciers, thawed ice bergs and polar goodness, the cold hard truth is that bottled water is just tap water! That's right! Picture it in your head. The big conveyer belt moving the plastic bottles down the line. The label machine slaps the tree huggy label on it to make it appear all natural and nice, and the next station blasts it full of tap water derived from the exact same source running the sink in the factory lunch room and the bubbler next to the bathrooms.
Sad but true. We are paying a premium for tap water.
2) When you slurp down a bottled water all the mystery chemicals that were in the plastic bottle during it's manufacture go down your gullet as well. BPA anyone? How about some toxins created as the plastic bottled cooled in the mold? Yummy!
3) Plastic bottles stay plastic bottles for a long long long long long time. We are drowning ourselves in plastic bottles as a result of our addiction to bottled tap water. It's sickening. Landfills are becoming filled to the brim with these empty bottles.
4) Residential water supplies are highly regulated. The water source used to fill your particular brand of bottled water, who regulates that? Where is it from? What are the conditions like in the plant where it's bottled? When you turn on the faucet in your home you can watch the water fill your glass. You know exactly where it came from. Not the case with bottled mystery water.
5) Making it is a waste of energy. Just like ethanol, when you factor in all the energy that is wasted creating the containers, labeling them, filling them, transporting them to stores etc. It's a HUGE waste of resources. Green? Environmentally friendly? NOT!
So the moral of the story is: Feel bad about drinking bottled water! It contains zero health benefits to you vs traditional tap water. In fact it contains more health risks than standard tap water. It's bad for the environment and it's just plain stupid!
If the thought of drinking from your faucet still freaks you out consider one of those in-line filters that attaches to the end of the faucet and filters the water before it hits your glass. Whole home filters are another option. They can be installed in the water main to filter water before it is pumped through your water pipes. So in regards to bottled watter let's bottle it all-together!!
