Does boiling water make it safe? Is filtered water less nutritious? Isn't our Melbourne water the best in the world? Is bottled spring water always pure?
Truth: Boiling tap water makes no discernable difference in the quality of your tap water. In fact, you are likely to be worse off than before.
In days long gone by, the only threat drinking water posed was the presence of micro-organisms. In those times, it would indeed have been appropriate to boil water, and this would certainly have destroyed these dangerous germs, making the water much safer to drink.
Today however, the situation is completely different. Our water is constantly treated with chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride. The end result of this process is that the vast majority of all micro-organisms have already perished. Our problem, therefore, are the added potentially carcinogenic chemicals, as well as heavy metals picked up from corroding pipes. Boiling tap water further exacerbates the situation, as it causes pure water to be evaporated, while leaving behind dissolved solids such as heavy metals. As pure water has been lost, the heavy metals are now even more concentrated than before.
Truth: Daily consumption of reasonable amounts of pure water helps to keep your body healthy; it most certainly does not cause mineral deficiencies.
First of all, the mineral content of tap water is trivial to the point where there is almost no nutrition value at all. Nothing of benefit to your health is lost in the filtration process. At any rate, drinking water is not even the source of your nutrition: 99.9% of essential minerals are obtained from your food.
Pure water cannot simply flush out the nutrients already in use by your body systems. Our kidney and liver are the vital organs which selectively decide what our body needs, as well as what it does not. You can be assured that essential nutrients will continue to be utilized by our body, and will not be removed by pure water. Our body's metabolism is highly sophisticated and complex; it should not be underestimated!
Truth: Although the quality of tap water varies greatly between countries and even cities, tap water is always tap water; they all contain similar, potentially dangerous contaminants, albeit in varying degrees.
It is true that Melbourne's water catchment areas are actually quite pristine by world standards. We also have soft water here. However, it becomes exposed to the unfortunates of our natural environment: various animals and their dead bodies and droppings, insects, toxic blue-green algae, bacteria, viruses and so on.
Consequently, chemicals such as chlorine are necessarily added to sanitize our water. Our catchment water journeys through hundreds of kilometres of aged aqueducts, tunnels and pipes constructed from various materials such as concrete, iron, steel, copper and galvanized, picking them up on the way.
Thus, water quality steadily deteriorates in transit to your tap; what you drink from your tap is not the same clear water that resides in our catchments. Instead, parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium; chemicals like chlorine, THM's and fluoride; metals like copper and lead (picked up from corroding pipes and plumbing) - all posing considerable health threats - may very well be present in your drinking water. However, an appropriate filter system can effectively remove all these contaminants, protecting your wellbeing.
Truth: Drinking untested spring water can pose a risk to your health, as its safety has not been verified. Some people give their undying trust to all varieties of spring water, not knowing that there is no representative spring water, and that they are all very different. Depending on its geological status and environment from which it was obtained, spring water may contain higher levels of micro-organisms, nitrates, numerous pollutants of human, animal, environmental and industrial origin, metals, radioactive material and so on. Drinking untested, unidentified spring water is like driving with your eyes closed. You have only one body, one life, and it is just not worth the risk when a solution is at hand.