Our water, like much of our food, is poisonous. Though at low enough levels that it can take years or decades before the chronic health problems begin to show up.
The CDC recently found in a study that ~80% of people have glyphosate in their urine.
Yes, but my current understanding is that these minerals are in very miniscule amount, like 1% RDA a cup. You are able to remineralize after RO, automatically as part of the system, if you would like. I don’t, because I already supplement magnesium and calcium levels aren’t a typical concern.
I think the trade off is well worth it to ensure there’s no lead, plastic, hormones, or hexavalent chromium at all.
Cost is around ~$300 initial, $50/yr filters, and maybe $5/yr increased water usage.
What water do you drink? A lot of bottled water comes from tax supported municipal water sources through water rights loopholes, so you could be paying more just to drink similar water.
Unfortunately, I feel like this comment encapsulates the current state of the western world in a nutshell:
Let’s build a new complex system around bottling plastic, delivery trucks, with competing brands for sale at 10x the price instead of publicly maintained aqueducts and pipes that have been used successfully since Roman times, and advocating for rigorous standards and fixing issues at the source.
Bottling water doesn’t scale and has significantly more waste (C02 from trucking diesel exhaust and plastic)
The fact that they refuse to get certified / conduct any independent rigorous testing (like in NSF/ANSI certification) should have clued you in.
"We also cut open a pair of Black Berkey filters to see how they are constructed and to look for evidence that, as Berkey marketing claims, they contain “at least” six different filtering elements. We found that though the Berkey filters are larger and denser than filters from Brita and 3M Filtrete, they appear to share their filtration mechanisms: activated charcoal impregnated with an ion-exchange resin."
I've used one for a while and it's amazing. You can taste the difference. You can put water with food coloring/dye through the filter and it will come out clear and delicious. Brita pales in comparison.
Granted, I was not aware of the certification stuff and I suppose that could mean some of their claims are misleading, but I've been very happy with their product.
One possible issue is that flouride has antibacterial properties and changes the microbiology of the mouth. This has some obvious good effects (fewer cavities) but might have other unknown side effects.
The CDC recently found in a study that ~80% of people have glyphosate in their urine.