Mineral, tap, alkaline or acidic water: taking one of these every day puts you at risk

“One of the most important minerals is sodium. The recommended rate of sodium is up to 2 g per day, said E. Cikanavičiūtė.

– A liter of our classic mineral waters in Lithuania contains 1.7 g of sodium, so after drinking a liter of water, we almost satisfy all the daily needs of this mineral. Because cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions are associated with excess sodium in terms of our diet, we must be vigilant. Tap water is usually equivalent to low mineral water, which is what we generally recommend on a daily basis. “

Summer has arrived. Hopefully it is good weather, heat. Many people will practice outdoor sports, will move, will miss the fresh air and sports after quarantine. You will sweat a lot, you will drink a lot of water. Where in this case it is possible to slip, this time in the section “With a specialist, without a tail”, we spoke with the nutritionist Evelina Cikanavičiūtė, doctor at the Santara clinics. Family doctor Valery Morozov speaks at the show.

Very often, patients complain that they do not drink when they drink running water: they only need to add lemon, tea or something else, such as minerals or kvas, and then they feel drunk. In this case, do people lack water, or perhaps you go out, for example?

In general, drinking water is divided into mineral, table, spring and tap water. Each of these options can be carbonated or not. Sometimes people are surprised that tap water can be sold to us as carbonated water. Which carbonated is tastier, there are such data, and some of your experience can confirm. Scientists are examining why such a phenomenon exists.

There are some assumptions that carbonated water is actually tastier. Carbon dioxide combined with water forms carbon dioxide and gives it a more specific flavor. Carbonated water is often mineral water; again you feel a different taste, it also has a smell. All of this creates a tastier water sensation.

Another unexpected element of taste is that the carbon dioxide in our mouth and throat irritates pain receptors. It turns out that slight irritation is pleasant to us. The party could be spicy food. When we eat spicy food, we cannot say that it is very tasty, but we feel some kind of sensation that gives us pleasure.

What mild masochism?

Similary. And there is another reason perhaps carbonated water is tastier and revitalizing: carbonated water seems colder.

The bubbles burst and some process occurs on the tongue. Do they not travel further into the intestine, explode there, cause bloating, heartburn, do they all blow back or go down?

They travel. But if a person, after drinking carbonated water, feels good, is healthy, he still satisfies the need for liquids, so carbonated water could be used instead of plain water. But there are definitely certain situations that you mentioned: bloating, heartburn, increased acidity, irritable bowel syndrome, usually sparkling water consumption is not recommended. In all cases, one must assess for himself how he feels after drinking that water.

If it’s delicious and those bubbles don’t interfere, go ahead. But if something goes wrong, you better limit it. As is usually the case in medicine.

Unambiguous.

Let’s talk about mineral water. Once upon a time, mineral water was even used for therapeutic purposes. Some water was given at low heartburn, another at high; with one water melted some stones in the kidneys, with other water, different; It was intended for the prevention of oral diseases: periodontitis, gingivitis, rinsing. Even now, there are taps that are recommended for rinsing your mouth out with water if you have any gum disease or cavities that are often spread, at least that’s the custom. Why is mineral water not now spoken of as curative water?

And hunger is no longer a method of treatment, although in the past it was certainly used extensively to treat disease.

Liberation is in fashion again.

It has a bit of a revival, but the famine is not what it was.

And bleeding is no longer a method of treatment.

Yeahlaughs) Mineral water is one of the old treatments, but in my opinion, it was because there were no other treatments. In modern medicine, mineral water treatment flourished the most in the 19th and 20th centuries. in the early 20th century, when spa services began to expand, leading to mineral exploration. Whether inside or out, maybe you should enjoy it, but it’s not a method of treatment in modern science-based medicine.

How beautiful can the tradition of rinsing your mouth with mineral water be, but should this not be considered a method of treatment?

Probably yes.

I remember, in my youth, mineral water was divided into alkaline and acidic; If you had indigestion, you were told to take one or the other. Does that division still exist?

In a chemical sense, that division remains, but nutritionists probably don’t attach much importance to that division. In general, as far as I can see, non-carbonated water is dominated by alkaline water, while carbonated water is characterized by an acidic medium, since carbon dioxide creates a pH of less than 7.

Now, many Lithuanian citizens acidify or alkalize their bodies, it is so. Some understand this at the pH level, others dig a little deeper into nitrogen metabolism. But if I suffer from greater acidity and consume more acidic mineral water because it tastes good to me, will it worsen my health? Do I need to choose a nasty alkaline?

If we are talking about the acidity that we physically feel, in such cases we recommend avoiding carbonated mineral water, but not differentiating if that mineral pH is 7 or less. Especially since the pH of stomach acids is much lower, it is more acidic than the pH of an acidic mineral.

Another division of mineral water is according to the amount of minerals, the so-called salinity. There are several myths, for example, that you should not drink a lot of salty water, others say that you should drink isotonic, which corresponds to our microelements, others explain that the body knows what it lacks: if you want to drink salty or sweeter water, choose. How is it here? Can we multiply that salinity?

Let’s first talk about the claim that the body knows what we are missing. It seems to me that we ourselves want to know more about what the body may lack and justify our choices, not only in terms of water, but in some cases, in terms of food. For unequivocal daily use, we never recommend choosing high or even medium mineralized water, because a person is at risk of multiplying certain minerals, and probably one of the most important here is sodium, it is recommended up to 2 g per day.

A liter of our classic mineral waters in Lithuania contains 1.7 g of sodium, so after drinking a liter of that water, we almost satisfy all the daily need for sodium. Because cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions are associated with excess sodium in terms of our diet, we must be vigilant. Tap water generally corresponds to low mineralized water; This is what we generally recommend for daily use.

However, the prevailing opinion is that if you exercise very hard and lose fluids, then with a non-isotonic solution you risk losing too quickly or, on the contrary, getting too many minerals. Isn’t it the case that people who actively spend a lot of time or sweat a lot at work still have to choose isotonic solutions?

In that case, I think at least sometimes you should do a blood electrolyte test, check what the situation is or if the body is recovering and recommend a drink or maybe even mineral supplements to meet the need.

People are often afraid of drinking saline water due to excess other minerals. Is it possible to multiply minerals by drinking highly mineralized water?

There are very few studies of this type, it is difficult to find these data, so we intuitively recommend not consuming water with a high mineral content every day, except in exceptional cases: if a person tends to sweat, in hot weather or when exercising; then the minerals are removed with more sweat than usual.

Watch the full conversation between family doctor V. Morozov and dietitian E. Cikanavičiūtė on the program “Hello! With Dr. V. Morozov. “