“Water” you drinking?
Looking for a simple way to improve your family's health? Making sure the water you drink is clean is a small measure that has a big impact on health.
Despite the necessity of water and its plentiful health benefits, did you know that water can be a source of disease? It's widely accepted that there are many illnesses that can be contracted through drinking water including giardia, E. coli, cryptosporidiosis, norovirus, shigella, and cholera.
However, did you know that water can also contain such things as heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, and pharmaceutical drugs? Gross, right?! The water you drink from the tap can be lurking with substances that can have a chronic impact on many aspects of your health.
Even if you drink treated water there can still be levels of contaminants that you don’t want. A great resource to check your water quality is to visit the EWG Tap Water Database. You can put in your zip code to find out what pollutants are hanging out in your glass. This is a report for my water source from Meridian, Idaho.
But beyond just knowing what's in your water, let’s talk about what you can do to improve the quality of the water you drink.
How do you get clean, natural water?
There are two ways to go about improving your water: filtration or purification. What's the difference? It's actually a matter of size. Filtration systems remove bacteria and larger sized material but do not filter out smaller things like heavy metals, pesticides, or viruses. Purifiers have an increased ability to remove many more contaminants from your water, including heavy metals and viruses. So when it comes to making your water the cleanest and safest, you should opt for purifying capabilities.
Now that we’ve talked about specifications, let's talk about options. Truthfully there are really only two comparable options of purifiers.
Reversis Osmosis
A very common option is reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis (RO) is the process of stripping water of everything in it by passing it through a special membrane that only allows H2O molecules through. It is extremely effective at removing contaminants from the water but there are a couple of downsides. In order to purify the water there has to be enough pressure to push the water through the membrane, and as a result, some wastewater is created. Most RO systems right now only recover about 45-50% of the water they use! Not a good thing when we are trying to conserve such a precious resource. Additionally, RO strips everything from the water, including essential minerals. As a result, RO water must pass through a remineralization phase. This remineralization phase requires a mineral cartridge which has to be replaced every so often adding to the overall cost of the system. Prices for RO systems can range from $150-$7,500, depending on if you chose a point-of-use or a whole home system.
Berkey Water Purifciation
The second option is to use an gravity-fed, ultra high purification system. This is the option that my family and I use at home as well as in my office. It's called the Berkey Water Purification System. If you’ve been to my office you might have seen it. Berkey Water Purification systems are my personal choice for several reasons. First, when I was in medical school we wanted to invest in something that we could take with us when we eventually moved. As a countertop system Berkey was a perfect solution. The setup is very simple and when you want to take it down the whole system nests together in compact portable way. It’s so easy we’ve even taken it with us when we travel so we can always have fresh, clean water. Second, we wanted to have something that we could use in times of natural disaster or compromised water. The Berkey system requires no electricity or working parts, just the chambers and filters. It gives our family peace of mind knowing we have an emergency water system we enjoy using. Third, we wanted something that removed everything from water that we didn’t want but kept the important minerals. Berkey, again, answered that call. Their purification process is so effective that they are willing to pay for quality third party testing. All of the results from their performance tests are available for free on their website. Lastly, we were looking for something that would last a long time. We didn’t want to be having to replace filters every 6 months. Berkey filters are good for 3,000 gallons! That means they will typically last around 4-5 years.
How does Berkey accomplish of all this you might ask?
Berkey Water purification uses four important physical principles to accomplish purified water: microfiltration, absorption, adsorption, and increased contact time. Microfiltration is the process of using specifically designed media to filter out as many large contaminants as possible. Absorption of things like heavy metals is accomplished by charged media to attract the metal ions and bind them up. Adsorption is the process of creating an ionic barrier and is used to trap sub-micron viruses. Finally, by using a convoluted filter media the water stays in contact with the filter media allowing the previous process maximal time to perform their functions.
Ready to Invest in your Berkey System?
Berkey has several difference sizes depending on your families needs. Check out their water needs calculator to see which system works best for you. Prices range from $345-$600 depending on the size and number of filters you want. So make the choice today to invest in your families health and well being!
