Is bottled water healthier than tap water?

[blueblitzkrieg]

I went to the doc yesterday and she told me I need to cut down my caffeine and drink more water. Anyway, I was talking to a friend today and she said I should drink bottled water because it's healtheir. I've always been content with drinking tap water - should I switch? Or is she full of baloneY?

[Dookus]

1. it all depends on

the brand of bottled water and the quality of your local water. Some bottled water is pretty pure, some is just glorified tap water. Some tap water is crap, some is great.

[blueblitzkrieg]

5. How do you know what the quality of your tap water is?

Mine seems fairly tasty compared to tap water I've had in other states.

[Osamasux]

2. I use a Brita filter. It works great.

A lot less hassle and a lot cheaper.

[LynneSin]

3. Bush is in the White House and you want to drink tap water?

Enjoy the arsenic and mercury

[blueblitzkrieg]

6. AHHH

:o

[LynneSin]

8. I drink only bottled water and that's with a filter on my tap

I use the filter for cooking & cat water, but I still refuse to drink it. Fortunately they have one of the Deer Park water jug fountains and I drink most of my water at work and then usually fill up a bottle to take home from time to time

[Quixote1818]

4. It might ad ten minutes to your life if you drink it all the time

[Guaranteed]

7. Two things-

To begin with, the regulations on tap water are actually much more restrictive than those on store-bought water.

Secondly, I've always thought that, in many ways, tap water is actually good for you because of the minerals that it carries. Of course, some metals (lead, others) are bad for you, but, again, those are heavily regulated. And metals like zinc, iron, copper, are actually important for your diet.

I go with tap. You know, we drank "natural" water for a long time, before we bottled it...

[Paul Hood]

9. Leave it to your taste.

If your tap water tastes okay, stay with that. I use a Brita water filter because the water here tastes kinda weird without it.

[morningglory]

10. If you live in New Orleans, the bottom of the loooooong Miss River

sewer, the tap water looks as well as tastes bad. Some places have good tasting water, that I have drank gladly, only very rural and coming out of the aquifer from my own pump. No chlorine needed. But I do not want to drink anything that has chlorine added. Just my 2cents...

[unblock]

11. tap is safer and healthier

there are many more regulations covering tap water than there are bottled water. bottled water is engineered for flavor, tap water is engineered for health.

oh, and, bottled water isn't fluoridated, though you're hopefully getting enough of that from your toothpaste.

[radwriter0555]

13. We don't need flouride.

It's a cancer causing agent, besides. There has never been a real study done proving it helps anyone's teeth.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

20. Research fluoride.

Not all tap water is fluoridated. It causes cancer. I only drink bottled water, but I stick to better brands. No Poland Springs, Dasani, etc. for me.

I also do not use fluoridated toothpaste.

[radwriter0555]

12. Hey, if you like chlorine and flouride, drink all the tap water you can

handle.

I personally don't ingest cancer causing substances if I can easily avoid it.

[Liberal In Texas]

14. We have a water distiller, been using it for years...

...and tap water now tastes like crap.

You can get one for under a hundred bucks (a proper steam distiller) and it will last forever.

Distilled water is odorless, colorless, tasteless. Coffee and other beverages taste better too. All of our ice is made with distilled water.

[SmileyBoy]

15. I only drink rain water and pure grain alcohol.

I'll never let the Communist conspiracy of flouridation of tap water rob us of our precious bodily fluids.

[DemGa]

16. I use a carbon filter on my tap, a PUR , helps with taste

I'd like it if water systems would try to make water as pure as possible and not ad stuff like..

"Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from the manufacture of aluminum and phosphate fertilizer, is a common ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, anesthetics, hypnotics, psychiatric drugs, and military nerve gas. Historically it has been quite expensive to properly dispose of, until some aluminum industries with an overabundance of the stuff sold the public on the terrifically insane but highly profitable idea of buying it at a 20,000% markup, injecting it into our water supplies, and then DRINKING it".

http://tuberose.com/Fluoride.html

[blueblitzkrieg]

17. After reading this thread I'm more confused than before.

So many differing opinions. I'm leaning towards going with a filter..

[Liberal In Texas]

18. Just remember that filters don't take the chemicals out. n/t

[cags]

19. I once got a letter from my water company warning about cancer.

No kidding

They had to send this out because the levels of a certain chemical they put in the water were too high.

but they said not to worry, it would take many years of drinking the water for anything to happen. They also said it would take almost a year to get the levels back to non-cancer causing levels.

Needless to say, DON'T DRINK THE TAP WATER!

You never know what they do to it

[unblock]

21. THAT'S s the real difference between tap and bottled

tap water, they TELL you if there's a problem.

bottled water, they settle privately with the family of the victim for an undisclosed amount.