Acidic water

by Mary Sauer
(Saugerties, NY)

We bought a full house water softener because our water is very hard as well as very acidic.

However, I have heard it is not good to drink softened water, so we bought an under sink filter Aquasana) to filter the drinking water which does NOT go through the softener.

The problem is that it will not alter the ph, only filter contaminants. What can we do about this?

ANSWER:

It is unusual to have very hard water (with normally means it has a high mineral content) and have it be acidic.

To answer your question, it kind of depends on what is in your water and whether your water is from a well or a municipal water system.

Normally, municipal water is purified and then treated with chemicals such as chlorine and/or fluoride, which increases the acidity of the water.

However, lye is also often added to the municipal water to raise the pH slightly and make it more alkaline because acidic water can corrode the water pipes!

(Unfortunately, the water authorities don't seem to care too much what the lye does to our bodies if we drink straight tap water that is unfiltered.)

Anyway, the point is that tap water normally has a neutral pH of about 7.0 for this reason—because of the added lye.

So, if your tap water is acidic, then chances are your local water treatment plant is not adding lye.

It is most helpful to get a free water quality report annually and find out what they do and do not add to your water.

So if someone has a good quality drinking filter, such as an Aquasana water system, most of the contaminants, including the lye, are removed from the water.

However, removing the lye will often make the water slightly acidic again if the source water does not contain enough of the alkaline minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, or sodium.

If your source water is from a well, you do not have to deal with the problem of water treatment chemicals. And thus, I suspect you do not have a well because if well water is hard, it is most likely mineral rich and would therefore not be acidic.

Since the Aquasana system does not remove natural occurring minerals in water, your water will contain some minerals, which is healthier than the de-mineralized water produced by reverse osmosis systems and distillers.

If your drinking water is still acidic after filtration (removal of organic contaminants and some chemicals), most likely is just low in minerals.

Thus, I think the healthiest way to improve the alkalinity of your filtered drinking water (regardless of whether your source water is from a well or tap) is to simply add liquid ionic minerals to your drinking water or to take ionic minerals in a glass of water at least once a day.

OR you can replenish some of the trace minerals with a high quality natural salt, such as Himalayan crystal salt or Celtic sea salt, both of which contain over 80 trace minerals in a balanced form that is beneficial to the body.

I do NOT recommend most of the alkaline water tabs and solutions that are advertised to improve alkalinity of water. If you look at what’s in them, in most cases it is sodium hydroxide, or LYE.

Check out this definition of sodium hydroxide from Wikipedia:

“Sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, or lye, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula NaOH. It is a white solid and highly caustic metallic base and alkali salt which is available in pellets, flakes, granules, and as prepared solutions at a number of different concentrations.”

You can read more about the ionic minerals I recommend toward the bottom of my page about reverse osmosis water (which is very acidic).

You can learn more about the importance of natural, mineral-rich salt in your water here.

I hope this helps a little!


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