How business, doctors and journalists prey on your food anxieties I

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STAYING HEALTHY
7i '
Snob water
Most "designer" water has about the same minerals
<strong>and</strong> purity as San Antonio tap water .
By R Lee Sullivan
Do roC Rt'T bottled water?
Can you state plainly sshv
you think this is a good
investment?
Don't feel abashed if
rour anssrers, respectively,
are }'es <strong>and</strong> no . It's a fair bet
that most of the Americans
who spent S3 billion last
year on bottled water
would have to ansscer in the
same contradictonway .
There are tsvo reasons
people pay extra for botded
water : The}• pav either for
what's in it (minerals) or for
what's not in it (contaminants)
. Europeans tend to
fall in the first group, Americans
in the second .. <strong>and</strong>
some people, no doubt, are moticated
by both factors .
Here are the facts, which nra~surprise
both Europeans <strong>and</strong> Americans :
Bottled water isn't much purer than
tap water in big cities, <strong>and</strong> fesv br<strong>and</strong>s
of bottled water offer a significant
amount of minerals (see table) .
Purin' first . American tap \tatcr is
the cleanest in the world .
~'Vhen was the last timeanvone
Vou know had diolera'r
The Centers for Disease
Control & Presnnrion says
that in most vears • .`e wcr
than 10,000 people report
getting sick from drinking
tap water in the U .S . There
could be millions of unreported
cases, but most of
the illnesses are no u'orse
than diarrhea . Repeated
health violadons occur
mainlv in small aamr scstems
without adequate filtration
<strong>and</strong> chlorination
that sen'e fewer than
20,000 people .
Bottfing A^esia br<strong>and</strong> vwater in San Antonio
Comes from the same aquifer as the city's tap water .
Getting soaked
Btrt even' nou<strong>and</strong> thcn diere's a
problem in a big-citr stilater supnlsr <strong>and</strong>
it makes big h eadlines . Cnptosporidium
parasites crept into the ~kIflsvaukee
water stssm nso vear .s ago,
causing400,000 cases uf diarrhea <strong>and</strong>
nausea <strong>and</strong> perhaps 100 deaths, the
latter among people with ~reakened
immune sestems-namels•, cancer
Bottled Calcium Magnesium Gntap Calcium Magnesium
Apollinaris 9's 34% Chicago 4% 3%
Crystal Geyser I . Ol 3
Evian 8 5 Cetrm[ 3 2
La Croix 5 n iuustcn 4 1
Mendocino 38 30 LasAngein 4 4
Perrier S 1 New Ycrk . 4
San Pellegrino 23 14 San qmcnio 8 4
Volvic i 2 3an Diego 9 6
Soorces, FDAr cnty wafer departwents : batt)ed wate, compames,
Some bottled waters contain significant doses of calcium <strong>and</strong>
magnesium . Some don't. Depending on where you live, you could
do as well drinking tap water . Amounts are percentages
of the FDA's recommended daily Intake for adults, per liter .
<strong>and</strong> AtUS patients . It could happen
again, in some other cin . The parr
site's asts are nor esil% killed by
chlorine, so prevention is largely a
mattu-of keeping animal feces out of
the «'ater supplq-
Do the possibilities of this kind of
infetion ~sorn,you? Boiling rour
ter tbr one minutc will deal u'ith that
danger . Another thing to consider is
that,«hile cn•ptosporidium isn't likely
to sho~xup in underground springs
<strong>and</strong> wells, current safetv
regulations don't m<strong>and</strong>ate
that bottled water companles
filter for the parasite,
either . Indeed, the iklihvaukee
water ststem met all
state <strong>and</strong> federal st<strong>and</strong>ards
at the time of the outbreak .
In a June report the Centers
for Disease Control
concluded, "For the vast
majority of Americans,
al,ptosporidium does nor
pose a grave danger ."
Okae, but suppose ~-ou
think like a European <strong>and</strong>
drink the bottled stuff for
the minerals? "Another
dav . :vtotherchancetofeel
healdiv," promises the
E\ian slogan . San Pellegrino
distributes a booklet that eztols
a litany of benetits : bicarbonates control
acidin' in gastric juices <strong>and</strong> blood ;
calcium is essential for sound bones ;
magnesium produces energy ; <strong>and</strong> ponissium
helps maintain proper cicctrolrte
balance .
There's sonic truth to all this . But
bc mindfid that San Pellegrino is
something of an exception
in having noticeable levels
of minerals . For example,
you'd have to drink 34 gallons
of Perrier to get the
400 milligrams of magnesium
the FDA recommends
we get each day. As for
potassium, mineral waters
simplv don't hace enough
to makc any dif}erence, sacs
nutritionist Claudia Plaisted
nf Duke IIni,ersity's
Stednian Nutrition Center .
Ifcou reallv have a calcium
or magnesium deticiencc,
there are better wars to
deal rvidi it, such as eating
spinach <strong>and</strong> yogurt . 11111111
192
Forbcs a August 14, 1995
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http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/agf97d00/pdf