Water Filters: What you should know before you buy

Recently I was talking with Dr. Marny from Healthy Green Goods in Evanston, IL about water filters. I heard that reverse osmosis was the only way to get certain chemicals out of drinking water and was thinking about buying one. I'm glad we talked first, because she changed my mind.

Here is what you should know about drinking water from Reverse Osmosis water filters:

Both reverse osmosis and distillation take everything out of the water, including the minerals your body needs for good health. What that means is your body has to find minerals elsewhere to balance that water and it will "steal" those minerals from various body tissues (calcium from bones, magnesium from muscle, etc.) in order to balance the mineral content of your blood.

Water naturally has minerals in it. These minerals aren't replaced by your diet, they are minerals your body depends on from the water you drink, the water we've been drinking forever.

There are all kinds of reasons reverse osmosis isn't the best option for clean drinking water. But I'm not a doctor so to learn more please click here and read what Dr. Marny has to say.

Here is to clean water and your health!

5 Things to Know About the Water you are Drinking

Clean, safe freshwater is vital to our lives. Here are five things you should know about the water you are drinking:

1. At least 315 contaminants have been found in tap water throughout the United States. According to the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org), at least half of these are not regulated and are legal in any amount.

2. Hexavalent Chromium, the toxic chemical made famous in the Erin Brockovich movie, has been found in the water systems of 31 cities in the United States.

3. Is Bottled Water free from contaminants? No. An average of 8 contaminants were found in 10 major bottled water brands, with up to 38 contaminants found overall. Unlike water utilities, bottled water companies are not required to report the results of contaminant tests. Four brands were contaminated with bacteria. Two brands were indistinguishable from tap water.

4. As much as 45% of bottled water comes from municipal water, but it costs you 119 times more than getting it from your tap.

5. You can have clean, safe drinking water right now, from your home, and take it with you in your BPA free water bottle! If you wait for your municipality to clean up, it can take months or even years to establish a filtration system that reduces Hexavalent Chromium. But you can get your own residential filter. Try a reverse osmosis system - you can also find more from Pure Earth.

Water is essential. Safe water is a must. You can have it. You can also join up with ewg.org to help uncover the chemicals in our lives and get Congress to do something about it!

Originally posted on www.greenwala.com Alexandra Gnoske is an Environmental Expert, Green Business Owner, and Author/Illustrator of "Loui Saves the Earth."