It is a general misunderstanding that other drinks can replace water. Diuretic drinks like coffee and tea will cause large quantity of water loss and will therefore increase the demand for replenishment of water. The importance of water to human body can never be replaced by other drinks. Water can supplement inadequate assimilation of minerals (usual quantity of Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, etc.) and other minor ingredients (rare elements in food such as metasilicate, strontium, selenium, etc.) from food. Water is also a lubricant in human body forming protective membranes among organs to protect their operations. Following the increase in age, people use to take in various kinds of supplements to combat sub-health status. But, under the situation of inadequate understanding of one’s own body status and control of in-take dosage of supplements, it is not uncommon to have excessive dosage of supplement thus increasing the pressure on liver and kidney. During a sickness, the higher the percentage of water content in body, the faster is the rate of metabolism, the number of antibody combating virus will be increased. This is also the reason why sick people need to drink more water. The effect of drinking healthy water for balancing the acidity in human body is even more direct and effective than taking in health supplements.
Many people know that controlling diet and doing exercise are the key to cutting weight. Large amount of sports turns body fat to smaller fat granules through vibration. Substantial quantity of water is required to help excrete excessive fat out of human body. Or, the fatty layers will still wrap up the heart and form fatty liver. Since water is so important to health, what about the quality of water we usually drink?
In general, bottled water means filtered water, distilled water and mineral water packaged in bottles. It has been proven by experience that distilled water is in general acidic and is therefore unfavorable to weak kidneys. Although it is generally believed that bottled water is safer than tap water, it is in fact only due to the loose supervision in the China market that manufacturers are not required disclosing the source of water, the distillation method and heavy metal content. Since 2008, there are numerous incidents happened concerning famous brands in the Mainland. Moreover, among over 1500 manufacturers in Mainland China, the majority of them are local enterprisesand counterfeits of famous brands create a lot of doubts for product safety. Even in Hong Kong, there are often queries raised by consumers for the production processes of bottled water. In general, reliability is only given to the ethics of individual brands. On the other hand, plasticizers used in bottles will release heavy metal when stored under unfavorable condition (direct sunlight exposure) for long. If the water dispensers in offices are not regularly cleaned thoroughly, secondary pollution will encouragebreeding of bacteria leading to serious health threats to the users. Even bottled water is more convenient than tap water, no matter viewing from which perspective, fresh drinking water is still the right choice for “healthy water”.
For Tap water, it is generally accepted that the quality of tap water in Hong Kong is relatively reliable. However, according to the research of “Investigation on the Quality of Domestic Drinking Water for Hong Kong People” done by the University of Hong Kong in February 2010, it has been reflected that 64% of the domestic tap water has different quality problems (mainly concerning impurity content) and the situation is worth-concerning. Currently, about 70% to 80% of the domestic water in Hong Kong is supplied by Water Treatment Plants with water coming from Dongjian River. Little amount of chlorine still exists in domestic tap water after treatment and it is recommended that the water should only be used for drinking after boiling.
In this regard, installation of domestic water filter or ionized alkaline water generator has become more and more popular in Hong Kong in recent years so as to ensure the obtainment of “safe water” and “healthy water” for the families. Nevertheless, according the aforesaid research, 72% of the interviewees have the misunderstanding that all bacteria and impurities can be filtered by water filters. The fact is that according to the research conducted by the Centers for Disease and Prevention of the US, water filters have little effect on filtering filterable viruses (colon bacillus and salmonella) and have no effect on enterovirus, hepatitis A virus and rotavirus. In February 2015, the Hong Kong Consumers’ Council had conducted a research on 62 water filter products and found that most filters using active carbon would be easily susceptible to breeding of bacteria after using for a certain period of time. It was therefore emphasized that the replacement period of active carbon filters (normally one to six months) should be closely monitored and the filtered water should better be drunk after boiling. Attention was drawn to the fact that most water filters did not have smart system to monitor the quantity of water being filtered so as to give alarm for the replacement of filter or even to stop the filtering function once the filtered quantity is in excessive of the working life of the filters. Once the working life of filter is expired, secondary pollution, which will make the filtered water more acidic than the original tap water, should be seriously addressed by the users of ordinary water filters.
