As most of us already know, the term alkaline water is referring to the pH of the water. Alkaline is a pH of over 7. So if the water is 7.5, you can say it’s alkaline water. If it’s 8.5 it’s alkaline water. If it’s 9.5, it’s alkaline water. So it’s just a term referring to the pH of the water.
PH actually stands for the potential for hydrogen. It determines a certain quantity, referred to as hydrogen ions in the water. A lot of hydrogen ions = an acid pH. Few hydrogen ions or none = an alkaline pH.
As an example, a popular Cola, having a pH of 2.5 is around 10,000 times more acidic than neutral water, and needs more than 30 glasses of neutral (pH 7) water to counteract.
Every system in the human body is designed to support the normal blood pH of 7.365. Unhealthy foods and drinks, dehydration, pollution, and stress all negatively affect the pH of our body and that is why it’s so important to counteract the acidifying nature of our modern lives.
High alkaline water has the ability to neutralise stomach acid. But only temporarily. During the neutralisation of stomach acid, your body will recover by replenishing the acid in your stomach and allowing your body to produce an equal amount of bicarbonate buffer (alkaline buffer) into your bloodstream.
Nowadays, many people are convinced that high alkaline water is sufficient to neutralise the acid, but it’s not that simple.
The only thing that actually neutralises acid is alkalinity, not the water being alkaline. Alkaline water does not mean that it has substantial alkalinity. There must be alkaline minerals in the water in order to produce alkalinity.
If someone is on a water supply that is marginal in the amount of alkaline mineral content, such as most tap water, just increasing the pH doesn’t mean that the water will have a high alkalinity.
People have been mislead into thinking that a high pH is guaranteeing the neutralisation of the acid in their bodies, but in fact, it’s not doing much at all!
Only the presence of enough alkaline minerals (such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, zinc etc.) that can be used as buffers in the body will give you the desired health benefits of alkaline drinking water.
So be aware: Alkaline water is NOT the same as water with alkalinity!
When drinking filtered water, make sure the water has been re-mineralised to maximise your health benefits.
