Fluoride Patent

[SilverJeep]

Get a Berkey!

Berkey® water filters are far superior over all of these options. Berkey removes all harmful materials and chemicals, including fluoride, without filtering out positive minerals. In other words, Berkey® filters keep in the good and eliminate the bad.

And that’s the case in any environment. Whether in your home or on a remote desert island, Berkey’s portable water purifiers guarantee the cleanest drinking water. They successfully purify treated water as well as untreated raw water, from sources such as lakes, rivers and stagnant ponds. Even water supplies in foreign countries can be easily made pure.

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

Get a Berkey!

Berkey® water filters are far superior over all of these options. Berkey removes all harmful materials and chemicals, including fluoride, without filtering out positive minerals. In other words, Berkey® filters keep in the good and eliminate the bad.

And that’s the case in any environment. Whether in your home or on a remote desert island, Berkey’s portable water purifiers guarantee the cleanest drinking water. They successfully purify treated water as well as untreated raw water, from sources such as lakes, rivers and stagnant ponds. Even water supplies in foreign countries can be easily made pure.

Outside of copying and pasting marketing spiel from their website, is there any evidence of their claims? Here for example is a page where they compare themselves to RO and distilled water:

From: _http://www.berkeywater.com/FAQs/10g_RO_Dist.html

With respect to the healthfulness of the water, most health experts, that are up to date on current research, are no longer recommending drinking RO or distilled water on a long-term basis because these methods strip out all of the beneficial minerals from the water making the water an acidic "hypotonic" solution. A chemist will tell you that any time a hypotonic (de-mineralized) solution comes into contact with a "Hypertonic" (Mineralized) solution, the minerals within the hypertonic solution will transfer out of hypertonic solution and into the hypotonic solution until equilibrium is achieved. What this means is simply that when one drinks hypotonic water, the minerals in the blood and lymphatic system, which are hypertonic, transfer into the hypotonic RO or Distilled water that is consumed and the minerals are flushed out of the body upon urination.

In an effort to re-mineralize, the blood and lymphatic systems then begin to scavenge for minerals from other parts of the body, such as bones and other organs, and this process repeats itself every time de-mineralized hypotonic water is re-consumed. Several studies suggest that people who drink de-mineralized water (hypotonic) over a long period of time tend to be more prone to degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis.

I'm not quite so sure this is true, I think this is the typical propaganda from water filter and water bottle companies - that pure water will leach minerals out of your body. But is there evidence of these claims or is it just an idea that sounds plausible but doesn't really "hold water"? Here is an alternative possibility, and although it's a water steamer company, they are mentioning their research sources, unlike Berkey.

From: _http://www.steamdistiller.com/distil.htm

Does distilled water leach minerals from our bodies? No, in fact, just the opposite has been found to occur in cellular research studies. It is a mistaken belief that drinking pure distilled water reduces valuable minerals from living human tissues.

ORGANIC MINERALS VS. INORGANIC MINERALS

There are two types of minerals, organic and inorganic. Human physiology has a biological affinity for organic minerals. Most minerals for body functions are absorbed from dietary plant foods. A growing plant converts the inorganic minerals from the soils to a useful organic mineral. When an organic mineral (from a plant food) enters the stomach it attaches itself to a specific protein-molecule(a process called chelation) in order to be absorbed, and then it gains access to the tissue sites where it is needed. Once a plant mineral is absorbed within the body, it is utilized as a coenzyme for composing body fluids, forming blood and bone cells, and the maintaining of healthy nerve transmission.(Balch & Balch 1990)

Without a healthy organic mineral balance inside and outside the cells of muscle, blood, and bone substructures, the body will began to spasm, twitch and cramp, eventually deteriorating to a full "rigor complex", and/or complete failure. Minerals can be likened to the key to your car: it is a small component, but nevertheless an essential one. And a small amount of inorganic minerals are needed(like sodium), but food is still the best source.

INORGANIC MINERALS FROM TAPWATER ARE "BAD NEWS".

Tap water presents a variety of inorganic minerals which our body has difficulty absorbing. Their presence is suspect in a wide array of degenerative diseases, such as hardening of the arteries, arthritis, kidney stones, gall stones, glaucoma, cataracts, hearing loss, emphysema, diabetes, and obesity. The minerals available, especially in "hard" tapwater, are poorly absorbed, or rejected by cellular tissue sites, and, if not evacuated, their presence may cause arterial obstruction, and internal damage.(Dennison 1993, Muehling 1994, Banik 1989)

ORGANIC MINERALS ARE PREFERRED

It is no wonder that the body prefers the richest source of minerals, from organic foods, instead of the hard-to-absorb minerals in tap water. Even if human tissue suddenly developed the ability to absorb inorganic minerals from tap water, it would take an enormous amount of tapwater to supply the bare minimal mineral quantities for proper life functions. If(for example) the ample inorganic mineral content of the tap water in Reno, Nevada were modified so that it would convert the daily Calcium requirement(RDA) from its inorganic calcium solutes, one would have to drink 7.4 gallons of their tap water.

DISTILLED WATER ACTUALLY ENHANCES MINERAL ABSORPTION RATES

Yes, and this is correllated to the ability of hard water to conduct electricity. Distilled Water will not conduct electricity(even when 2 parts per million inorganic minerals or less are present). Water with 5 parts inorganic content per million parts water(or more) will conduct electricity, completing a simple circuit and lighting a tester bulb. The higher the inorganic content is in a per million count, the less effectively water transmits organic minerals to tissue sites. Bottled water, tapwater, reverse-osmosis filtered water, and carbon-block filtered water(when tested) will conduct electricity, substantiating that these are not the best carriers for mineral-transport and mineral-absorption(Muehling 1994). Tapwater in the USA has been shown to contain 19 "inorganic metals of concern"(1994 Safe Water Drinking Act), for which maximum contaminant levels have been set.(Tone 1994) Most American tapwater tested falls between the ranges of 350 parts per million to over 1000 parts per million total contaminants.(Colgan 1993)

REPEAT THE QUESTION PLEASE...

Does drinking distilled water leach minerals from the body? No, quite the opposite. If inorganic minerals (and other substances like chlorine, heavy metals, bacteria, etc.) are removed from tapwater, by converting it into pure distilled water, the result is improved absorption of all nutrients, including minerals, and improved elimination of wastes at the cellular level.

REFERENCES

Muehling EC, "Pure Water Now: Its Time For Action," 2cd Ed., Pure Water Inc., Lincoln, Neb., 1994:1-42.

Dennison C, "Why I Drink Distilled Water", Reprint Form 6300, Pure Water Inc., Lincoln, Neb.,1993.

Tone J, "Your Drinking Water-How Good Is It?", National Testing Laboratories Inc., Cleveland, Ohio,1994:21.

Banik AE, "The Choice Is Clear," ACRES USA, Metaire, Louisiana, 1989:37.

Balch JF, Balch PA, PRESCRIPTION FOR NUTRITIONAL HEALING, Avery Publishing Co., Garden City, NY, 1990:17.

Colgan M, OPTIMUM SPORTS NUTRITION, Advanced Research Press, New York, NY, 1993:23-24.

Here is more info:

_http://lohas.tribe.net/thread/efb261f5-9138-4a96-bc43-eb579c0bcbf0
_http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/blog/?p=1170
_http://www.purewatersystems.com/faq.php

At the very least this should prompt more research, but I haven't seen evidence that distilled water leaches organic minerals from within your cells, which is what it would have to do for it to be stealing the minerals your body is actually using. Absorbing inorganic minerals already discarded by your body is not the same thing.