Hydrating effects of different types of drinking water?

[flots am]

Any insights to contribute?

I'd be careful of taking scientific or medical advice from "waterbenefitshealth.com" or the other one.

Water is water. If the molecules are "different", then it's not water anymore.

flots.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Is even the statement "most bottled water is distilled water" true?

I have seen bottled water plants, they pump from a clean source and filter. Sometimes from a spring with a marketing name, sometimes they just drill a well. They generally do not distill. Beside the cost, it does not taste as good, a few salts and minerals are what you taste and the total absence is not desired. Distilled water (which happens to also be available in a bottle) is great for your iron, chemical processes, etc.. is a small segment of the industry.

 

[lowviz]

...//... He said that only mineral water hydrates the body properly. ...//... Any insights to contribute?

Yes. The only big surprise is that ultrapure water is extremely corrosive. Investigation of Stainless Steel Corrosion in Ultrahigh-Purity Water and Steam Systems by Surface Analytical Techniques - Springer (I had to deal with this in my past job)

Add any small amount of minerals and it becomes water. Just plain water.

Ask the DMT exactly where the water is absorbed in one's body. Tell him to try high magnesium mineral water. The more minerals, the better right?

 

[boulderjohn]

In the world of athletics it is well known that plain water (whether tap or bottled) is not nearly as effective in preventing dehydration as a drink that contains electrolytes. We have our athletes start with the fruit juice of their choice (although one that contains some magnesium and potassium are preferable) and then dilute with water and add salt in whatever amounts produce a drink that suits their taste.

The appealing taste promotes higher consumption, and this combination provides natural sugars for energy as well as the electrolytes that assure better hydration than plain water alone.

Back when I was a coach, I took a graduate level college course in nutrition for athletes. We read a study done by a prominent scientist. The study was funded by Gatorade. The goal of the study was to find out what worked best for hydration (etc.) for an athlete during competition. Of course, Gatorade had been making claims that it did the best job, and it wanted scientific corroboration.

The study concluded that plain water worked best.

I would question where the world of athletics you know gets its information.

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
The DMT said that we should be careful what water we drink here since most bottled water is distilled water rather than mineral water. He said that only mineral water hydrates the body properly.
..snip..

My first reaction was that this sounded like an urban myth.
So I did a little research with Google and I was quite surprised just how many opinions are out there, many by apparently qualified people who say they are writing from clinical experience.

One example:
THE WONDERS OF WATER

So I'll be doing a some more reading on this.

 

[lowviz]

miketsp,

Most water is FILTERED water, not distilled. It takes a lot of energy to boil water, filtering (RO) is cheap...

 

[TSandM]

"The information in this article is based entirely on clinical experience." That brings up the saying that, "The plural of anecdote is not data."

The information there about caffeine dehydrating is false. At least one paper examining this has previously been linked in threads discussing the topic, and I'm too lazy to search for it right now.

As far as I can tell, outside of the wacky fringes of health food nuttery, the other place you can get really bad information about the health effects of food and drink is in the athletic world.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

.....As far as I can tell, outside of the wacky fringes of health food nuttery, the other place you can get really bad information about the health effects of food and drink is in the athletic world.

The chiropracters office tends to be another source of misinformation. Last time I went to one for a sore back they tried to sell me on the value of a high colonic cleansing to rid my body of toxins that was creating all my problems. I said no thanks and walked out of the office with my butt cheeks clenched tight.

 

[Quero]

I've sent an email to the DMT asking for citations. I'll let you know if he produces any.

In reply to flots, I just picked the first link I came to that had an easily quotable summary, and it happened to be the Water Benefits one. I'm not buying into anything, just exploring viewpoints. It's nothing more than a fairly typical example of what I saw in online claims.

In RE distillation, there is a lot of distillation here on my island. We don't have any rivers, and many wells are brackish (I don't have a well, for example, I have to pipe in water, because at the water table the water is brackish). What water we do have here is rain runoff that collects in the old tin mining ponds during the monsoon season. We have water issues here, and there is a fair amount of distillation for locally bottled water.

I personally dislike electrolyte drinks of all types, whether they're prepared ones, homemade ones, or ones created by pouring powder into a bottle of water. Yuck. If I had to rely on those for rehydration rather than water, I'm sure I'd drink far less fluid.

Now for bottled water marketed throughout the Kingdom, there are sources for some (up in the northern highlands where Minéré, a Nestle product, is bottled), and some, like the one I buy, undergoes a different process--the label on the water I usually buy says it's ionized and filtered, for example. But the DMT pointed at my water and said very clearly that it was one of the less desirable ones, that the body does get some degree of hydration from that water, but not as much as with mineral water like Minéré. I figured there would be people in the know here who could either debunk or support this guy's statements.

 

[cbm32]

My own experience is limited to coaching high school and college athletes, as well as discussing all of the issues pertaining to such with a great number of fellow high school and college coaches.

However, my oldest son was a National Champion College athlete and five time All-American. He has since been certified as a personal trainer by about every organization out there doing such certifications and also completed his Masters Degree in Sports exercise science with a heavy dose of courses in nutrition for athletes.

If you can come up with something specific about a mixture of fruit juice, water and salt, that you object to, I would love to hear just what your objections would be. Until I hear any and find some kind of authoritative voice that backs your objections, I will be happy to keep recommending what I did.

Oh and anecdotally, we have seen thousands of athletes use this simple formula for hydration without having any problems with dehydration in climates from hot humid Michigan summers to year around in Southern California.