The unique properties of mineral-free, crystal clear water actually renders our body PH readings meaningless.

It is a complete misconception that alkaline water is the key to perfect health, even though claims about the benefits and advantages of alkaline water are not supported by reliable evidence. Clever salespeople and marketers rely on people’s personal testimonies and pseudo-scientific studies to promote alkaline water as a powerful antioxidant that can prevent or even reverse many diseases such as cancer and arthritis, give excess energy, correct metabolism and reduce the aging process of our body. There is absolutely no scientific proof that any of these claims are true.

In the water war, alkaline water advocates not only promote the benefits of alkaline water but sometimes oppose the use of reverse osmosis. They even believe that drinking reverse osmosis water is bad because the water can become slightly acidic. The truth is that the unique properties of mineral-free water actually make the PH measurement meaningless for our bodies. Deionized water, rainwater, and water from some springs also have the same properties that make it acidic as well.

PH explained and why it matters.

To better understand how our body is completely indifferent to this controversy, it is essential to understand how it works and what PH is. The PH level is a quantitative measurement of the hydrogen ions that represent the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Acidic solution has more free hydrogen ions and alkaline solution has less hydrogen ions. Any substance that lowers the PH is considered acidic and any substance that raises the PH is considered alkaline. Buffers are substances that allow water to resist changing PH when an acidic or alkaline substance is added to it.

PH readings range from 0 to 14. Neutral PH is 7. PH less than 7 is acidic and PH greater than 7 is alkaline. The pH scale is logarithmic so for every one unit change in PH, there is a tenfold change in ion concentration. This means that a solution with a pH of 3 is ten times more acidic than a solution with a pH of 4 and a hundred times more acidic than a solution with a pH of 5.

The effects on the PH scale of reverse osmosis water.

Ultra-pure and filtered water from reverse osmosis has a neutral PH, meaning it has a PH of 7. Since there are no dissolved solids (TDS) in the water, there is nothing that can affect the PH, either making it more acidic or more alkaline. Reverse osmosis water is so pure and at the same time sensitive that the slightest addition of any substance changes its PH directly. Even a small amount of carbon dioxide from the air can lower its PH to number 6 on the PH scale. For the same reason, even a small amount of an alkaline substance such as baking soda will raise the PH level of a reverse osmosis water to levels above 7. In contrast, mineral water needs much more acidic or alkaline substances to affect the its PH levels. The difference lies in the presence of these buffers that make the water more robust to these changes.

Therefore, when you drink slightly acidic reverse osmosis water, it immediately combines with the acidic enzymes found in our saliva that aid in digestion, and seconds later with highly acidic enzymes and gastric juices found in our stomach, without affecting our PH in any way. way. In short, the highly sensitive reverse osmosis water immediately adapts to our body rather than the opposite, that is, our body adapting to the water we just drank. The very strong hydrochloric acid in our stomach that has a PH of 1 is 100,000 times more acidic than the slightly acidic reverse osmosis water we drink. This makes the PH level of reverse osmosis completely irrelevant.

Reasons not to drink alkaline water

According to Dr. Bob Arnot, M.D., who is a well-known author and nutritionist, in a recent article in Men’s Health magazine, “Say No to Alkaline Water! It’s a Scam! Your body is designed to adjust to the optimum for the same PH level no matter what you consume . For example, once alkaline water enters your stomach, your body simply “throws out” more acid to neutralize it.

Since the stomach is designed to be acidic, it has to produce more acid every time you drink alkaline water to balance the dissolution of gastric juices. In a healthy gut, continuous and long-term consumption of alkaline water can cause an abnormality