The writer’s health experience with water, the death of 4 Leopard Toads, and deceptive information made public by media, motivates this brief study! Capetonians in particular may relate to press reports citing Cape Town’s drinking water as ranking among the best in the world. Whilst true in a sense comparing Cape water quality with other cities of the world, the reality remains city water is not as good as media may claim. Many drink spring and mineral waters believing these to be healthier. Distilled water, the healthiest water of all, is avoided by many due to having the ability to remove what we have been led to believe are “trace elements, and minerals required by the body”. This, is fallacy! No one tests water to determine what their drinking water contains!
Nature’s most aggressive solvent, best describes pure water. Having a chemical composition of two atoms of hydrogen joined with one atom of oxygen, pure water is able to dissolve inorganic matter such as heavy metals, and rock! There are a few substances water cannot dissolve; glass, well fired pottery, stainless steel, and human tissue. Water we know is essential to life, and comprises sixty five percent of the human body. Without water the body cannot function to transport nutrients, or cleanse itself of waste and toxins. Without water, death occurs soon after three days!
Water purity is measured in the quantity of dissolved solids water contains. This is known as the TDS, (Total Dissolved Solids). The TDS of water varies greatly from place to place. The TDS value depends on the distance, and terrain the water has flowed over from the catchment area to the reservoir. The type of pipe used to deliver water to the point of use is also a factor. The purer the water, the less it pollutes our body, and the more efficient our body becomes to transport nutrients, and expel toxins and waste.
The purest water on earth has been distilled, and has a TDS value of zero. This is unsaturated, “virgin” water! Water is distilled either by nature, or by using a water distiller. Water is distilled by heating it to boiling point, and then piping the steam through a cooling coil causing the steam to condense and revert to water. All impurities remain in the distiller which needs periodic cleaning of accumulated sediment. Purification by Reverse Osmosis is the closest we may get to distilled water. Both these waters, distilled, and reverse osmosis water, may be termed pure water, as all impurities have been removed. Himalayan snow is perfectly pure water, which having condensed from water vapour into tiny water droplets before freezing, has evaporated from off the water surfaces of Earth. The water vapour cools to form tiny droplets which come together to form snow or rain. Rain is nature’s distilled water, and if not falling through the polluted atmosphere of a city, rain starts as pure distilled water, and combines with Aqueous Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to form a weak Carbonic Acid. (H2CO3)
Conversely the sea is possibly the closest we get to saturated water on Earth. Saturation means the maximum possible TDS value for water has been reached. In layman’s terms, the water cannot dissolve anything anymore, as it is carrying all the dissolved solid content it can carry. It is a simple experiment, however most revealing to put sugar into a glass of water until the sugar is seen to remain on the bottom of the glass. If the sugar does not dissolve, then the glass of water is said to have become saturated, as it cannot hold any more sugar in suspension. This water will not transport nutrients, nor will it cleanse the body by removing heavy metals and inorganic minerals. In fact, the body organs, kidneys and liver, need to work extra hard to deal with what can only be termed polluted water! When we drink mineral, spring, or borehole water, depending on the TDS value, we can overwork our body organs, and what the organs cannot cope with, will remain in the body to form kidney stones, gall stones, and blocked blood vessels!
We may learn from nature to notice the distinct difference between saturated and unsaturated water in our bodies. The sharp rocks at the coast are subjected to salt saturated water, whilst the rounded rocks of a mountain river are subjected to unsaturated rainwater. This simple observation speaks volumes supporting the case for drinking pure distilled water if only to cleanse our bodies of inorganic minerals and toxic heavy metals! Drinking distilled water firstly prevents pollution of the body, and secondly facilitates efficient cleansing of our body by removing unwanted matter ingested daily from our polluted world! Another example is “Monkey Rock”. Monkey rock is found in the mountains, and has rounded edges with little rounded hollows which hold small quantities of rainwater. Analysed, this rainwater will be found to be a weak solution of Carbonic Acid with a Ph of 5.6. The distilled rain water has combined with Aqueous Carbon Dioxide in the upper atmosphere before falling as rain. This weak Carbonic Acid is chemically eroding the rock as it has done in the mountain rivers over the centuries. When drinking unpolluted rain water, we drink a mild solution of Carbonic Acid which assists to cleanse our bodies of accumulating inorganic minerals!
The danger of drinking polluted water instead of pure distilled water, is in so doing we lay ourselves open to all the ailments and diseases associated with aging! Drinking semi-saturated, polluted water, gradually closes the arterial system of our body to result in Alzheimer’s disease, and Arthritis. These facts are well researched, and excellent books are available, yet, the media will report misleading information leading to illness!
Municipal tap water contains fluoride, soda ash, aluminum sulphate, and chlorine. Chlorine is used to kill bacteria in our swimming pools, and drinking water! We then drink the dead bacteria, with the poison that killed the bacteria, and wonder why we get sick? The writer’s experience was just this, and doctors were not able to diagnose a cause of illness! Fortuitous discovery tap water was the cause, led the writer into the mountains to collect water, and his health turned in one week!
The onset of illness due to polluted water is extremely gradual. In the writer’s case it took 16 years of daily tap water intake to manifest in chronic bodily fatigue. His friend, who only drank mineral water, had her gall bladder removed, and developed Arthritis! The Romans got lead poisoning from lead piping, and died in their late fifties! The apostle Paul instructed Timothy not to drink water, but to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake. 1 Timothy 5:23. And the 4 Leopard Toads? Tragically, they died almost instantly in 2020, when the writer topped up their pond with Cape Town tap water!
Lester Oliver Thomas Flock © 2020