How Pure is Your Favourite Bottled Water?

Especially when we are overseas, we tend to buy bottled water as drinking from overseas' water tap may not as clean as Singapore's. However, there is a wide variety for us to choose from and sometimes you just resort to buy the cheapest bottled water due to budget or go for your favourite brand like Evian. So are you making the right choice? here are the steps to teach you how!

Step 1: Find out where it comes from
Many brands of bottled water contain municipal water that has simply been purified in the plant. If no location is provided, a bottled water labeled with "spring water" may actually come from tap water that contain minerals to improve the taste. You should look for "Bottled at the source". Water comes from a protected ground water source is less likely to have contaminants such as disease-causing microbes. However, if the label does not identify the water's source, it should at least provide contact information so that you can track down that information.

Step 2: Find out how the water is treated
There are some ways of treating water:
a. Distillation: Process where water is boiled and then condensed back to water. It removes salt, metal, minerals and other organic compounds
b. Micron filtration: Water is filtered through screens with various-sized microscopic holes. It can eliminate most chemical contaminants and microbes
c. Reverse osmosis: It uses membrane with microscopic openings that allow water to pass through but not larger compounds. It also utilize electrical charges to reject harmful chemicals
d. Ozonation: Exposes water to ozone, which kills most microbes
e. UV exposure: Kills most microbes, however the success varies how long the water is exposed to UV light

From all these methods, distillation, micron filtration and reverse osmosis have proven to be effective against the most common waterborne diseases!
However, think twice if you want to choose these bottled water with these following methods: filtration, carbon filtration, particle filtration, ozonation. These methods have not been proven to be effective against the waterborne disease!

Step 3: Check the nutrient content on the label
Ideally, water should be high in magnesium (at least 90 mg/liter) and calcium, but low in sodium (less than 10 mg/liter)

Step 4: Avoid bottled water sweetened with High fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners
Their empty calories can contribute significantly to your energy intake!

So, always check the food label and don't be fooled!

Happy Drinking Water!