While all pregnant women know clean drinking water is important as part of a regular diet, what kind of filtered water is the most suitable during pregnancy? After all, there are different processes by which water is filtered, producing water products carrying distinguishing labels like mineral water, purified water and distilled water. What not all pregnant women know, is which of these water types is the most beneficial; or at the least, the safest kind to drink while pregnant, as an alternative to unfiltered tap water?
Most doctors recommend mineral water as more suitable than purified and distilled water. Yet health experts warn that bottled drinking water specifically labeled as mineral water should not be used to replace ordinary filtered water.As it is, mineral water has high sodium salt content, which could cause inflammation if consumed regularly while in a child-bearing stage.
Differentiating Purified and Distilled Water from Mineral Water
Purified Water
There are different procedures in use to purify water as the method required depends on the source of the water being purified. Some examples of purification processes used in removing pollutants, chemicals and all kinds of adulterants, include reverse osmosis, carbon filtration, distillation and deionization. However, these processes remove not only microbial contaminants and harmful pollutants but also the minerals like sodium and sulfur that give water its fresh crisp flavor.
Distilled Water
Distilled water simply refers to water that has been purified through distillation processes. It involves vaporizing the liquid to suspend, isolate and separate minute solid particles and other contaminants; and thereafter condensing the vapor to bring back the water to its liquid form. However, the process also removes the minerals that give the water its flavor, while some minute particles could still get trapped in water vapor.
Mineral Water
Mineral water is called as such because unlike purified and distilled waters, it has retained the minerals that give the liquid the freshness flavor. Actually, the fresh flavor of the mineral water depends on the abundance of minerals present in the source of the water, e.g. ground water, surface water (lakes, rivers, seas etc.) or natural spring. The latter of course is the most important source of water because of the abundance of its mineral content and the lesser need for the liquid to undergo intense processes of purification.
Why Do Most Consumers Drink Store-Bought Bottled Water?
In the US and other countries, water is supplied to households by way of piped-in water systems. is regarded as clean because it has been purified by biological (sedimentation) or chemical (chlorination or flocculation) processes/ However, since the supply could still be contaminated while stored in reservoir or while passing through water pipes, many have found reason to consider it unsafe to drink water straight from the tap.
While the easiest solution is to drink bottled drinking water instead, it’s no longer a cost effective remedy. Bottled drinking water has become expensive through the years. The next best and most practical alternative is to install a water filter in one’s home, of which the water filter pitcher is the most economical measure.
While there are other types of home water filter to choose from, top of the line brand, Clearly filtered, recommends the water filter pitcher as the most suitable for smaller households. The company gives assurance that its proprietary filtration technology can remove more than 220 of the known most harmful impurities detected in piped in supply that households access as tap water.