Is Mineral water really helpful?

Mineral water with real meaning is very good for health. Nowadays in the name of mineral water there are many things came but not real one as they are only R.O purified ordinary water. If we go to Alagarkoil, Madurai, Courtallam near Tenkasi of Tamilnadu we can get real mineral water as the water came from hill top brushed through herbal plants. In Courtallam we can have directly bath in the falls water after applying oil over full head and body. There is no symptom of oil in the body and head as if we have applied soapnut powder or soap.

Mineral Water is the product coming from natural underground reservoirs and springs. It contains essential minerals including Calcium, Magnesium and Sodium. Therefore drinking mineral water may offer some health benefits
Mineral water is bottled directly at the source and contain higher amounts of essential mineral than tap water. The source of water affects its mineral composition and flavours.
In this context, I would discuss a few health benifits of consuming the mineral water-
1) It may promote the bone health - Because of higher addition of Calcium, it would suit our body nurturing the bone and as such consuming Calcium enriched water is benificial particularly the senior citizens when there is depletion of Calcium content.
2) It can reduce our Blood - pressure to some extent -
The combined effect of Calcium and Magnesium can have benificial effects in relation to our blood pressure. These minerals act positively on our blood vessels and heart thus reducing both systolic and distolic pressure.
3) Thinning effect of the blood is accompanied by the Magnesium and as such there is uninterrupted blood flow in the heart and in that way, it eases the heart function.
4) Removes Constipation- Excess addition of Magnesium in the mineral water helps in the removal of stool from the intenstine without producing any undue strain in the system.
5) Calcium, Magnesium and other minerals in such water will strengthen the system for those deficient in such minerals. Magnesium promotes sleep as such it may be helpful for such people having deficiency of such minerals.
The only drawback noticeable in consuming the mineral water is the weakening of tooth enamel because of its high acid content.

We all know that drinking water is essential for healthy living and drinking pure and natural water is very important. Water helps in maintaining healthy skin, looks young, keeps every organ function properly, keeps us hydrated and energetic but also provides vital nutrients that our body requires for proper functioning. When we think about drinking water, the first thing that comes to our mind is the purity of the water as we all are aware of pollutions and water contaminants that water reservoirs have in them. We get normal water through taps in cities and through borewell, well, lake or river in villages. When we are not at home, we prefer buying bottled water called as mineral water or by any other names that the bottled water company advertise as but what is the guarantee that they are safe and rich in mineral than the tap water that we get free is a question. Many of us have filters, water purifiers, and even RO units in society to remove dirt and other impurities from water.

Mineral water: As the name suggests, mineral water contains natural minerals like including magnesium, calcium, bicarbonate, sodium, sulfate, chloride, and fluoride, when packed in factories, and as per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the bottled mineral water should not have less the 250 ppm (parts per million) of total dissolved minerals naturally without adding it while bottling it and toxic substances like arsenic must be removed while processing. As mineral waters are packed directly from the source from where the water comes, the types and amounts of minerals may vary accordingly. Some of the benefits of mineral water are:
- It contains magnesium which helps in regulating blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and nerve function.
- Lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.
- It helps in promoting blood circulation and regulates heartbeat.
- It promotes bone strength as it contains calcium.
- It prevents constipation and improves the digestive system.

Tap water: Tap water at home is received through the underground pipe as per the Safe Drinking Water Act standards of the state or country. The water from a natural source is collected and treated in treatment plants to remove debris, unwanted residues by injecting chemicals. Tap water also contains minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium but as these are transported through pipes, there are chances or getting contaminated from other sources like leakage, pipe rust, etc.

Mineral water is good for health. But the water that is being sold is not mineral water. It is RO water which is nothing but without any minerals in it. So actually it is demineralised water. This water contains no minerals. Simple water without any active ingredients in it. Actually, after demineralising the water you can add the mineral ingredients in it as required.
The underground water what we get normally contains many minerals. By knowing the total dissolved solids in the water, one can decide whether the water is useful for drinking. Such waters in which you have sufficient TDS, you can directly drink it simply filtering the water. No need to have any treatment.
RO is required only to the waters where you have fluoride content more than required. If there is no fluoride content in the water you need not do the treatment. Only to eliminate suspended solids you can filter and use.

Normal water purifiers would filter and clean the water and remove most of the impurities from it and make it drinkable. They use special filter elements for it. On the other hand the RO water purifiers are based on the reverse osmosis principles and clean the water so much that it loses its all the good minerals also and we are deprived of those helpful elements for our body. The mineral water being sold in the market is generally packed after adding some required beneficial minerals and checking its concentration in it so that it is as good as the natural water. I remember, in our village we had a spring water source which gave continuous water round the year and its taste was very good and it was filtered by the rocks around it. It had that special taste because of the natural minerals in it. It was in fact very sweet water as salt content was very less. Today we do not have access to such natural and clean water and we have to depend on the water filters either the usual ones or the RO type.

The water supplied by the local municipal boards and other agencies is also treated by some plants and filters but there are many points where there is a high chance of contamination and it might contain the harmful bacteria and other harmful elements which are not good for our health so drinking the tap water directly without filtering is not advisable.

The weakness of people who want to be health-conscious and want to have good health through healthy drinking water are preferring the mineral water. I feel that real mineral water would be hard to drink and tastes good. In fact, the Tata brand packaged mineral water available in small sachets is the real mineral water. But over the passage of time, the water business has taken ugly turns and the gullible business persons are taking the people for a ride by supplying the inferior quality drinking water in the name of RO process which is actually taking out the minerals from the real drinking water. So you must purchase only branded mineral water and do not go for the local mineral water supplied in cans at cheaper rates.