Why Does My Water Bottle Contain More Than just Water?

HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Hi all,

So I bought one of those 32 pack of water bottles a week ago when I was house sitting a friends place, only to discover they contain more than just water. They contained:

1) Calcium Chloride
2) Sodium Bicarbonate
3) Magnesium Sulfate

Fast forward to yesterday and another friend on the other side of the country is throwing a party and asks me to pick up water, so I buy another 35 pack, however this time from a different company. It too listed Calcium Chloride and Sodium Bicarbonate, and but not the third. I figured I'd ask the community rather than search for tons of conflicting information online and get a consensus as to what people think regarding the issue (if any, I truly am uneducated on this), and more so get the convo going on water itself.

Personally, (again without my having any knowledge on the matter) I would guess these three add-ons to water may not do harm here or there but what if I'm literally drinking 8 of these bottles a day, for weeks and months straight (not impossible to imagine).
 
Dissolved chemicals in the water - nothing to worry about. They will vary according to the location.
 
If you want just pure water, H2O, then get distilled water. Distilled water doesn't contain anything but water.
 
Basically water that is bottled has usually come from a spring, and each company will own/have use of certain springs and depending on the ground rock and what it is made of depends on what has leached into the water.

Most spring water is totally harmless and has to regularly proven to be otherwise they wouldn't sell it. Some companies actually add things to the water to either enhance taste (not often tough) or help with a gimmick - eg vitamin supplements.

Other types of bottled water are distilled and purified

Distilled is water that has had all chemicals removed and is as close to pure H2O as you can get and is usually used in labs etc.

Purified water on the other hand is a different it is usually mains tap water that goes through a highly sophisticated purification process then add chemicals like calcium carbonate etc for taste.

Here in the UK sales of Dasani - Coca-cola's purified water was taken off the shelves after a large outcry that water that would cost 0.03 pence per litre was being sold for 95 pence per 500 ml.

So what should you get, well, I'd personally use tap water - I'm lucky at home to have good quality tap water and a soft water area, at work our water is foul so I used to buy mineral (spring) water but more recently I've bought a bobble bottle with it's own in-built charcoal filter so the tap water now tastes fine, and I would never buy purified water.
 
FWIW, those chemicals are already in tap water. Along with others, many of which occur naturally.

So if you were literally drinking 8 bottles a day, you'd be consuming the same minerals that people who drink tap water consume. Fewer, actually, because tap water has more dissolved minerals.


If you're wondering why the minerals are added, it's for taste. Drink some distilled water and you might notice a difference. I did.

Oh, and Sodium Bicarbonate is baking soda. You can look them all up on Wikipedia.
 
Ingster said:
Basically water that is bottled has usually come from a spring,
Click to expand...

That's the exception rather than the rule. Most bottle water comes from a municipal source. That's right, you're drinking purified city water, not that fancy-smancy spring water. Read the label to see where your bottled water comes from.
 
Nothing to worry about.

Depending on the brand (you didn't state which one) those could be naturally occurring electrolytes or electrolytes added for flavor.
 
maflynn said:
And its also not as good for you as normal spring water. Your body needs some of those dissolved components.
Click to expand...

I've heard that, but just to play devil's advocate, what if you take a multivitamin everyday as well?

mobilehaathi said:
And tastes awful!
Click to expand...

I actually only had distilled water the 3 weeks I was in the Philippines earlier this year. At least, that's what the water bottles that I bought said. To be honest, I didn't notice it to taste any different that regular bottled water.
 
Ingster said:
Basically water that is bottled has usually come from a spring, and each company will own/have use of certain springs and depending on the ground rock and what it is made of depends on what has leached into the water.
Click to expand...

Usually that spring is some city's tap water, if they were really getting the water from some mountain spring like a lot of them like to imply then that spring would have to be huge. Most springs aren't that big.
 
mrkramer said:
Usually that spring is some city's tap water, if they were really getting the water from some mountain spring like a lot of them like to imply then that spring would have to be huge. Most springs aren't that big.
Click to expand...

One thing that can be said with certainty about the mountainous region known as Appalachia is that "it drains really well", so there's an abundance of mountain springs throughout the region that supply water to homes, farms, and industry.

About 1 mile from my house, there's a very small mountain spring, that normally produces around 4,000 gallons of water daily, during the months of March through August.

There's also a commercial spring water company in my region that bottles and sells 2.5-million gallons of water per year, from a mountain spring on a ridge of the Eastern Continental Divide called Peters Mountain, that employees a staff of ~14 people.
 
I just noticed there's sodium bicarbonate on my frozen chicken as well.

Can't all this add up in my body and be bad in the long run?

Or am I freaking out still? :cool:
 
HappyDude20 said:
I just noticed there's sodium bicarbonate on my frozen chicken as well.

Can't all this add up in my body and be bad in the long run?

Or am I freaking out still? :cool:
Click to expand...

Dude, it's baking soda. Unless you're spooning many many many grams of this into your tummy, you'll be fine.
 
HappyDude20 said:
I just noticed there's sodium bicarbonate on my frozen chicken as well.

Can't all this add up in my body and be bad in the long run?

Or am I freaking out still? :cool:
Click to expand...

Are you on a restricted-sodium diet? That's the only reason I can think of.

What have you read about sodium bicarbonate? Or are you not reading about the actual stuff, and just looking for it on food labels?

Here's the link again:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate
 
We always go to a natural source and fill our own bottles there. It is free, without chemicals and it is some kind of tradition here. The government even put benches around the source for anyone who is waiting their turn to fill bottles. :)
 
HappyDude20 said:
I just noticed there's sodium bicarbonate on my frozen chicken as well.

Can't all this add up in my body and be bad in the long run?

Or am I freaking out still? :cool:
Click to expand...

Your freaking out still. Stop worrying so much!

People worry about "chemicals" far too much. Check out whats in an egg for example.

food-chemistry-ingredients-organic-all-natural-fruits-eggs-are-not-what-youd-expect.w654.jpg
 
HappyDude20 said:
I just noticed there's sodium bicarbonate on my frozen chicken as well.

Can't all this add up in my body and be bad in the long run?

Or am I freaking out still? :cool:
Click to expand...

Ahh... the door opens, perhaps just a crack.

No... sodium bicarbonate won't hurt you. Watch out for too much sodium chloride though.... ;)

But .... do you have triclosan in your soap? Antiperspirant? Toothpaste? That stuff you should read up on...

Or - is your water bottle made with BPA (Bisphenol A)? That stuff will make your hormones a bit wonky if it builds up in your body...

It is good to be aware... but you also need to be educated. And watch out for those who want to just peddle you stuff based on fear.
 
snberk103 said:
Ahh... the door opens, perhaps just a crack.

No... sodium bicarbonate won't hurt you. Watch out for too much sodium chloride though.... ;)

But .... do you have triclosan in your soap? Antiperspirant? Toothpaste? That stuff you should read up on...

Or - is your water bottle made with BPA (Bisphenol A)? That stuff will make your hormones a bit wonky if it builds up in your body...

It is good to be aware... but you also need to be educated. And watch out for those who want to just peddle you stuff based on fear.
Click to expand...

Well done for feeding this guys anxiety even more.

If there were any proper evidence for antiperspirant, toothpaste or any of those things doing you harm when used as recommended then the FDA would have removed them.

Eat a varied diet with plenty of variety and not too much sugar, then just relax and trust the system.
 
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Kissaragi said:
Well done for feeding this guys anxiety even more.
Click to expand...
Yeah... I kinda have a warped sense of humour that way.
Kissaragi said:
If there were any proper evidence for antiperspirant, toothpaste or any of those things doing you harm when used as recommended then the FDA would have removed them.
Click to expand...
There is evidence - and not they wouldn't necessarily. And it's not the product itself that is harmful, it's the unnecessary antibiotic included in the products that is helping to create drug resistant strains of nasty germs that are actually harmful (as opposed to the benign ones that we normally carry around). And other countries have banned BPA has being harmful to their population, and often been sued by the US under trade protection treaties. Wouldn't want to harm the profits of a multi-national corporation just keep a little bit of a chemical that mimics reproduction hormones out of the food supply, would we?

“[Chapter 11] is an attempt to prevent environmental, labour and other kinds of protective legislation from being used, effectively, as a non-tariff [trade] barrier,” said UVic political science professor James Lawson. “If an environmental [or health] regulation is introduced in such a way that a company that has made a major fixed investment in that jurisdiction will lose potential profits . . . that jurisdiction becomes liable directly to that company for that loss of profit.”
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Link to the article
Kissaragi said:
Eat a varied diet with plenty of variety and not too much sugar, then just relax and trust the system.
Click to expand...

Yes. Eat a varied diet. Preferably local. Trust but verify the system.
 
HappyDude20 said:
Hi all,

So I bought one of those 32 pack of water bottles a week ago when I was house sitting a friends place, only to discover they contain more than just water. They contained:

1) Calcium Chloride
2) Sodium Bicarbonate
3) Magnesium Sulfate

Fast forward to yesterday and another friend on the other side of the country is throwing a party and asks me to pick up water, so I buy another 35 pack, however this time from a different company. It too listed Calcium Chloride and Sodium Bicarbonate, and but not the third. I figured I'd ask the community rather than search for tons of conflicting information online and get a consensus as to what people think regarding the issue (if any, I truly am uneducated on this), and more so get the convo going on water itself.

Personally, (again without my having any knowledge on the matter) I would guess these three add-ons to water may not do harm here or there but what if I'm literally drinking 8 of these bottles a day, for weeks and months straight (not impossible to imagine).
Click to expand...


That's easy, it's municipal water according to the NBC article Is your bottled water coming from a faucet?.
 
After this thread, I think you need something stronger than water.

Have a few shots of Jager and call it a day.
 
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