Some Thoughts on Water

One of the things that my cardiologist told me when I left the hospital is to limit my fluids to 2 liters or less a day.    I get most of my fluids from drinking water.  You would think that drinking water would be safe from sodium but that's not the case in some cases. 

We have well water and right out of the tap, it tastes very metallic.  So, we got a water softener for the whole house and the water tastes great.  But, to make that water taste great,  the softener filters the water through salt.  I started to do some research and found some surprises. 

I learned that the amount of sodium in the water is proportional to the initial hardness of the water.    According to the WQA (Water Quality Association), for every grain of hardness there will be 30mg of sodium in a gallon after it has been softened.  The average hardness of well water is about 15 grains.  In an 8oz glass of 15 grain softened water there is 28.12 mg of sodium.


So, for those of us who have to count every grain of sodium, 28 mg per 8 ounces of water adds up.  So, I  decided to go with  bottled water.   So, I bought a case of Nestle's Pure Life water.  Lo and behold,  when I got it home and looked at the label, there was sodium in that water as well.  It seems that if you buy "purified" water, it's no better than softened tap water.

So, with purified water out, I checked out pure spring water.    I got Zephyr Hills spring water and was very happy to see that there is no sodium in it.  I've checked out several other brands and as long as it says 100% spring water,  I'm pretty sure you are safe from sodium.  

I know it may seem like I'm nit picking but for those of us who have to limit sodium to at most 1000 mg, and some even less, every mg counts and the unnecessary sodium in water makes less food we can eat for meals.  

Also, I'm not getting political, but when public figures like the first lady come out and makes a blanket statement like she did that everyone needs to drink more water,  it is very irresponsible.  Not everyone can or should drink lots of water and there may be someone out there with CHF who takes her suggestion because they look up to her and it puts them in danger.   It was an irresponsible and callous statement that should be either qualified or rescinded.