The Best pH for Drinking Water
Are you looking for the best pH for drinking water to optimize your health? You’re in the right place! Having a balanced pH level in water is essential for your overall health and wellbeing.
Let’s start with the basics: pH is a measure of the acidity and alkalinity of a substance. A lower pH reading means that the substance is more acidic, while a higher pH reading indicates that the substance is more alkaline. A pH of 7 is considered neutral.
Why would you want to know the pH level of your water? It’s important to know, as the pH level of your water can have an impact not only its taste, but its physiological influence on your body. Here’s what you need to know about the pH of water and how you can make sure your water is clean and safe.
The best pH for Drinking Water
The ideal pH for drinking water is between 7.0 and 8.0. Water with a pH level outside of this range can cause health issues, including digestive problems and mineral deficiencies.
Our blood pH maintains a delicate balance around 7.3 to 7.4 pH. When you drink water it starts showing up in the blood stream within 5 minutes. The pH of the water you drink will affect your body, and your blood will always be working to return to homeostasis.
Water pH Levels
People often want to know what normal water pH is supposed to be, but as with everything these days, the answer is a bit more complicated. Water can have a higher or lower pH level, depending on the drinking water quality including the minerals and contaminants it contains. Here are some of the common pH ranges for different types of water ranging from most acidic to most alkaline.
Tap Water pH
Tap water has an average pH of 4.3 to 5.3, but this can be higher or lower depending on the contaminants it contains. Despite tap water containing minerals, they are not bioavailable due to the amount of pollution in the water. If you’re looking for a good tap water pH, you will find it in water that has been filtered to remove some of the contaminants so it is no longer acidic water.
Purified Water pH (Distilled and Reverse Osmosis)
On the other hand, purified water pH level depends on the type of purification. Distilled and reverse osmosis water have a lower pH due to their lack of minerals. Distilled water has a pH of 5.4 to 5.8, and reverse osmosis water usually has a pH around 6-6.5. While reverse osmosis doesn’t filter quite as much as distilled, it still removes almost all contaminants and minerals.
Spring Water pH
Spring water tends to have a higher pH making it alkaline, as it contains naturally occurring minerals. Most spring water in the United States has a pH between 7 and 8. Alkaline water is found in nature because the naturally occurring minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium raise the pH.
Ionized Water pH
Water filtered through a water ionizer, such as Kangen, can have the highest pH. Ionized water can have a pH up to 8.5. More on that in a minute.
How to Increase pH of Water: Minerals!
Minerals in water are protective, as they help reduce the absorption of metals and chemicals into your body. This is because minerals and metals compete for some of the same binders and transporters in the small intestine, where they are absorbed.
Whether you get your water from a well or a municipal tap system, filtering your water and structuring it can help increase the bioavailability of minerals in your water, which in turn will help raise the pH.
On another note, carbon dioxide in the air can lower the pH of your water. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that your water is clean and free from contaminants.
Water with a higher level of dissolved solids competes directly with carbonic acid which affects the chemistry of the water, and therefore it does not lower the water pH like it would with water devoid of total dissolved solids (reverse osmosis and distilled water).
Scientific evidence shows that minerals from water are not inert and are bioavailable! Working on balancing minerals is something we always take into account when working on a personalized nutrition plan, and your quality of water feeds into that!
Alkaline Water
Alkaline water has become a popular topic of conversation lately, but is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Let’s separate the facts from the fiction and provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision.
What is alakaline water?
Like we said alkaline water (pH over 7) occurs naturally in spring water due to minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
Ionizing machines use a process called electrolysis to artificially increase the pH of the water. Electrolysis essentially electrocutes the water, splitting hydrogen atoms which then raises the pH of the water. This bypasses the need for alkalizing minerals through the process of changing the molecular structure using electricity.
Benefits of alkaline water
So the question is: is alkaline water good for you? The idea behind alkaline drinking water, is that by consuming water with a higher pH, we can help reduce acidity in the body and increase the amount of available hydrogen, and therefore reap the associated health benefits.
Health claims of alkaline water include better hydration, countering effects of acidic foods, supporting cleansing in the body and longevity.
While these benefits of alkaline water sound really nice (and some studies have shown benefits), the answer is more nuanced. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t that straightforward. If a person is acidic, there is probably an underlying reason for that. It could be due to their diet or other health issues.
Is alkaline water bad for you?
No, saying it’s bad for you is a little extreme. However, if you’re already suffering from acidosis, drinking alkaline water isn’t going to solve it, unless you also go after the root cause of why the acidosis is present.
If you are acidic, that usually also means you are mineral deficient, in which case we would want to check your mineral status with an HTMA or specialized taste testing.
Furthermore, drinking ionized water as your only source of water can cause digestive issues by disrupting the natural stomach pH, stomach acid, and enzymes.
Can you drink alkaline water every day?
As we noted above, most spring water in the United States has a pH between 7 and 8 – much lower than the 8.5 pH of highly alkaline water. When drinking alkaline water all the time, the body has to work much harder to bring the pH down in blood levels.
It’s important to note that many ionizing machines don’t filter the water, meaning you’ll be consuming whatever contaminants the tap water contains. If you’re looking for a mineral boost, you’re better off drinking mineral-rich spring water than artificially ionized water.
Hydrogen Water
Hydrogen-rich water definitely has its benefits for those who are severely dehydrated. For those interested in increasing hydrogen, your best bet is consulting with your functional medicine doctor or nutritional therapy practitioner about using a short-term molecular hydrogen supplement.
We are always happy to consult with you about whether supplementation is best for your current situation.
Bottled Water pH Levels
You can do a search online to look for your favorite bottled waters’ ph levels. Most of the testing comes from various companies, but there are also a myriad of Youtube videos checking pH level of water brands.
Note there is actually quite high variability with the exact pH numbers depending on who is testing, but the overall designation of acidic vs alkaline will remain. Here are just a few examples. You’ll see that those brands that are filtering the water and not adding minerals back in are quite acidic.
- Aquafina: 5.5
- Dasani: 6.3
- Pure Life 6.4
- Voss 6.4
- Poland Spring: 7
- Smart Water 7.1
- Evian 7.33- 8.5
- Volvic: 7.5
- Flow 7.61
- Mountain Valley 7.6
- Fiji: 8
- Essentia: 8
Water pH and Alkalinity In Sum
Understanding the pH of your water can help you make sure that it is clean and safe for consumption. The pH of tap water will usually be lowest, the pH of distilled water will be a bit higher, the pH of pure water like revese osmosis will be higher still. High pH water includes spring water and alkaline water.
You can lookup allowed levels of contaminants according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and use the Environmental Working Group website to find water quality reports for your municipal water systems.
You can filter and structure your water to increase the bioavailability of minerals, which will help raise the pH and protect your body from contaminants. Knowing the pH of your water can help you make sure that it’s clean and safe for you and your family.
The most important thing to remember is that drinking balanced pH water is essential for optimal health. When looking for the best pH for drinking water choose a source that is within the ideal range of 7.0-8.0 for maximum benefit.
As always, the information in this article does not provide medical advice. So you should do your own research for additional information and decide with your practitioner on the best water for you!
References:
Nakao, A., Toyoda, Y., Sharma, P., Evans, M., & Guthrie, N. (2010). Effectiveness of hydrogen rich water on antioxidant status of subjects with potential metabolic syndrome-an open label pilot study. Journal of clinical biochemistry and nutrition, 46(2), 140–149. https://doi.org/10.3164/jcbn.09-100
Bacciottini, L., Tanini, A., Falchetti, A., Masi, L., Franceschelli, F., Pampaloni, B., Giorgi, G., & Brandi, M. L. (2004). Calcium bioavailability from a calcium-rich mineral water, with some observations on method. Journal of clinical gastroenterology, 38(9), 761–766. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mcg.0000139031.46192.7e
Heil D. P. (2010). Acid-base balance and hydration status following consumption of mineral-based alkaline bottled water. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 7, 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-7-29
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4782672/Bottled-water-acidic-erode-tooth-enamel.html
