Minerals in Drinking Water
Organic Minerals Versus Inorganic Minerals
Our bodies need minerals. Understand the difference between organic minerals that our bodies can assimilate and inorganic minerals in our drinking water.
We are used to the taste of minerals in our water. Bottled water companies realize this and add minerals back into the water just for taste – not for health benefits.
The minerals in tap water and bottled spring or mineral water are inorganic minerals, a form that our body cannot use. If you cook scrambled eggs in an iron skillet and the iron flakes off into the eggs, is that okay? No, of course not. It’s not the right kind of iron. Inorganic minerals can build up in our bodies and become toxic.
According to Dr. Norman Walker, over a 70-year lifespan, a person will be drinking about 200 to 300 pounds of rock that our body cannot use if it is not R/O (reverse osmosis) water. Most will be eliminated, but some stays in the body, causing gallstones, kidney stones, and hardening and blockages in the arteries. Many hospitals ask patients admitted for gallstones if they drink tap water.
Our bodies need organic minerals that plants have transformed from the inorganic minerals in the soil into a negatively charged ionic or electrical form. We need to eat the plant, or eat the animal that ate the plant to get the form of minerals that our bodies can assimilate.
In a fairly comprehensive article entitled, “Not All Minerals Are Created Equal,” Dr. Steven E. Whiting, PhD. states that several factors affect mineral absorption and uptake. Dr. Whiting asserts that “pH, electromagnetic circuitry, particle size and source contribute to the final ability of the body to derive benefit from the minerals ingested.”
The issue is not one of liquid minerals or colloidal minerals, but whether or not the minerals are organic.
Dr. Whiting discusses in detail the biochemistry of mineral absorption in the human intestines in “Colloidal Minerals: Facts and Myths” (1997, Institute of Nutritional Science).
What you can do
A water softener in your home can be a positive step to removing heavy metals and inorganic minerals from your drinking water. Yes, the water softener should be hooked up to both the hot and the cold water lines in your home. If you are really concerned about ingesting a minute amount of salt in your water (about the same amount as a slice of white bread in a whole gallon of water), you can buy R/O (reverse osmosis) bottled water or a reverse osmosis filter, or you can give yourself permission to get used to the taste of softened water knowing that it is much better for your health than ingesting inorganic minerals and heavy metals. An R/O filter will remove the salt and other contaminants in the water – whether it is well water or city water.
