Is Bottled Water Worth Your Money? | Talking Point | Full Episode

foreign s are expected to drink over 97 million liters of water from this now that's enough to fill up close to 100 swimming pools like this we're expected to spend 10 million Singapore dollars more on bottled water this year compared to last year but why the thirst for all this when we can get tap water almost for free in this episode of talking point I want to find out if we should be spending on bottled water there are just so many different types of water each with their own so-called benefits distilled water for example has all its impurities removed while mineral water contains traces of minerals like calcium magnesium and potassium all of which are said to be good for blood circulation now spring water and mineral water claims to have a rich source of these minerals as it is naturally derived and alkaline water meanwhile claims to restore the pH balance of your body but there's also a price difference distilled water can cost between 55 and 75 cents per 600 mL bottle but once a bottle of water is labeled as spring water or Artisan it has a big price jump for slightly less water you pay as much as 2.50 Singapore dollars a bottle but this will Renown mineral water sommiler believes its water worth spending on remember water he's a firm believer of spring water [Music] I would always go for spring water because that is water where electrolytes and minerals already dissolve because let's face it what is actually hydration hydration is not just the intake of water hydration the combination of water and electrolytes because your water cannot go into your cell without electrolytes so you need electrolytes actually to really hydrate yourself so I would not drink distilled water because there's no electrolytes whatsoever in there I've got examples here tell me what you think about these this one claims to be Vapor distilled water and it has electrolytes for taste so they're using tap water they're pouring it up they're collecting the steam so it's like distilling and then they're adding back some electrolytes but in very small amounts just for the taste reasons so don't buy bottled water for the electrolyte level when it says electrolytes in it that means these Waters barely have any electrolytes actually added in your opinion is it still water a waste of money so distilled water they're boiling it up it's tap water and that's all what it is do it at home save your money get yourself a filter when the tap water qualities are not to your liking and you're good to go Martin would pay for spring water because it has more electrolytes or essential minerals than purified or distilled water [Music] and it seems Singapore consumers feel the same way the different types mean knee covers spring mineral distilled pure drinking water wow yeah [Music] on my grocery store Redmond so a 30 Jump in bottle water sales including spring and mineral water demand for the water in terms of minerals spring have also went up together okay and what we have also seen is that our folks believe that the mineral Waters give them a lot more nutritious benefits and do customers have a preference over the type of bottled water if you look at our range on line there's a lot of reviews a lot of customers give feedback that they believe mineral water especially spring water has a lot of good nutritious value yeah we have a private label range from France that they believe provides them with like nutritious value that is different versus tap water also taste some mentioned that they prefer the sweet and the freshness and the clean Taste of the mineral water some mentioned that they are happy in case that the product does not have any slimy or funny taste taste isn't water just well water my fellow talking point holes have been taught to dress up because we have been invited for I guess a fancy event fancy wow okay hey Sam hello hello brought you guys to this beautiful place yeah to drink something very special something very important the most important beverage in your life water oh I was expecting some like wine you know I thought these were a lot of palette cleansers Sam is Singapore's very own certified water sommelier he holds master classes in water tasting so I'll pass you guys uh one set of scoreboard each so you just keep it very simple today you are drinking nine different kinds of water okay so each water is labeled a number so you just taste this water and then you give it a grate you know as in from one to ten one to ten ten being like 10 beans excellent one being like horrible okay one being I I don't like the taste I hate it maybe we start off from the top left hand corner so that's number 30 36 number 36. this one smells there's a scent to it [Music] very flat sorry 47 you feel so so far do you think that they are all the same not the same no there is a level of pleasantness to some versus others like I don't know how to explain that pleasantness but it's like you you feel much more calm drinking that water yeah so the next one is 53. this has some kind of a taste in it yeah that's exactly this one's dangerous I think I know this brand no I don't like 49. 99 good job 49. [Music] this one has like a taste right yeah like when you go swimming what you put chlorine in there which do you think is the tap water number 33. really 33 yeah I was thinking 49. 49 I put 80. one of you got it right oh ah the last one see when she had that reaction just now about the coloring taste in it yes our type water has chlorine inside so therefore it Dash hint of that taste kind of taste which is your favorite my favorite highest score I gave 89. 89 is actually a purified water but it is re-mineralized or as in they take the water take out the minerals and then they put it back yes what about you I put 49 and 33 as my top okay because they both tasted really fresh 49 was my worst so 49 is actually a purified oxygenated water all right well my favorite was 21. it's a very popular natural spring water brand oh natural man it's so 21 if you compare with the rest it does have a certain body to it a certain smoothness it's like full [Music] we all pick different favorites in terms of taste but none of us pick the priciest number 53. 53 is a natural mineral water that's very high in Mineral okay so very strong calcium sulfate you get a very bitter drying kind of like taste to it 53 it's horrible Fresh Kiss 53 which is a mineral water from France [Music] would set you back at least seven Singapore dollars for a one liter bottle you can't buy it off the shelves Sam privately Imports it for water tasting can sometimes the water actually be good for me definitely yeah natural mineral Waters they contain natural minerals and they are essential minerals that your body needs so there's calcium inside that's magnesium inside bicarbonate the sulfates yeah so they contain things that are good for you and that's really where the health benefit of of water is spring and mineral water appears to be the superheroes of bottled water but if they cost a pretty penny I want to know what I will also be putting purify or distilled water to the chests so I'm bringing nine types of bottled water to a lab a mix of drinking water alkaline water and spring water I've included some of the most popular brands in Singapore I'm also adding tap water into the mix as a control [Music] I've sent nine types of bottled water from a variety of Brands to a lab to see if I can trust what's on their label while I wait for the results on what's in the water I want to Deep dive into one particular type of water that claims to have a pretty remarkable health benefits I'm talking about alkaline water is good for your health guys and it helps to actually balance off our pH in our body and helps with cellular hydration because it helps my digestive tract it helps me um it helps me feel better so when I do a quick Google search on alkaline water it actually says here that it has a higher pH level than plain tap water is that a good thing [Music] to explain this to me Kwok chenco has set up a little experiment he's an engineer who's written a book about water quality in Singapore ah hello hey Chan hey hello Steve this is apple juice now we have tap water here so this is the alkaline water yes this is bleach over here baking soda oh even darker kochen is showing me which of these liquids has the most alkalinity this is a bit more blue yes that's a bit more green yes what does it mean so the bluish basically means it's alkaline is above ph7 so it's a higher pH for water than better well according to wh over Health Organization there is no drinking water guideline for acidity alkalinity and pH so in other words it is not a health concern according to who and well whether the water is acidic or alkaline per se there is no Health implication there are some claims that you drink alkaline water is good for your body what do you make of such health things a lot of times you do not know how alkaline water works as health benefits most of the studies regarding alkaline water are conducted on very small populations of patients and to me it is not as rigorous a scientific study as I thought it could be that raises my skepticism of alkaline water our stomach is basically acidic so imagine you're doing your alkaline water it goes in your stomach your alkaline water is going to turn acidic too so how is it supposed to comfort its health benefits to the rest of your body when it's no longer alkaline would you say then that by alkaline water is actually just a waste of money I would leave it up to the individual if he feels that he has a better feeling after drinking the alkaline water sure go ahead but other than that for me I will hold on to my money first Chen doesn't believe in the hype surrounding alkaline water is it really just another marketing gimmick I'm going to the source El Kali which markets itself as a natural alkaline spring water is a local brand here in Singapore just over a liter of this water can set you back about three Singapore dollars that's five times more expensive than distilled bottled water so I have to ask you about your alkaline water where does it come from our natural alkaline water comes from hongshan in Taiwan okay it's bottled at the sauce so the rain falls through this unique formation of rocks and then the Rocks gives the water its mineral properties as well as the alkalinity of it so I noticed here it also says pH 8.8 why is that okay so pH 8.8 other than looking very nice okay 8.8 actually is a good alkalinity for our body from pH 8 to 8.8 So within this range it's actually helpful for ASLA so this is sort of the ideal range alkaline water should be correct why do you think it's helpful for us why don't you take a sip sure our body is actually at a neutral of about seven but the because of the food that we eat meat fish processed food even rice is actually slightly acidic so what we do is we drink Alkali water with a higher pH which makes it Alkali to neutralize this acid in our body because if our body is too acidic for a long period of time you have a problem like maybe cancer related or liver problem or heart problems so I spoke to someone who is saying the acid in our stomach it can become quite acidic and even if I drink such alkaline water it will become acidic eventually so once you respond to that no so the key to this is to drink it in the morning it's better absorbed if an empty stomach some would say there aren't enough rigorous studies out there to support these claims what would you say to that yes there's not enough research on alkaline water but I think we can all agree that the water is good for us it hydrates us and furthermore Alkali water properties is such that the molecules are smaller and then it can be absorbed by our body faster and more efficient yep so it helps us to hydrate our body faster and I think that's the basic of water in any case if it does more it's great there isn't enough evidence at least for now to back up Health claims for alkaline water but could our bottle spring and mineral water actually contain minerals that could be good for us which of these has the most minerals and I discovered something else in our bottle water that I didn't expect [Music] I've seen samples of bottled water to a lab to be tested for their mineral contact foreign [Music] has grouped the water into two broad categories under the purified water category is sample one tap water [Music] sample two pure distilled water sample three drinking water samples five and eight both alkaline water and Sample nine a vapor distilled water with electrolytes [Music] these are bottled waters that claim to have impurities removed so the lab is checking to find out how pure they are distilled water claims to have all the impurities removed did that test show that yes based on the results you can see the total concentration has been relatively reduced to 0.5 or I would say less than 1 PPM the lowest levels in Sample two and three it has removed all the impurities including the good and bad minerals the other category is mineral water samples 4 and 10 are said to be sourced from volcanic rocks sample six spring water from the French Alps and Sample seven sourced from water bearing rocks in Norway for this category I'm finding out how much minerals they really have and which bottle has the most minerals example number six and Sample number 10 has the highest Trace elements we can see that it's coming from calcium silicar and also Vanadium so 6 and 10 which are both spring water yes right from natural sources have the most minerals because it actually leaks out from the natural sources like minerals rocks and also the richness of the soil I noticed also for calcium tap water and Sample 10 actually have almost the same results well it's surprised to shows that you're about 17 PPM so the drinking water actually contributes to some significant level of calcium yeah it's even more than the sample for mineral water the one from the volcanoes now when it comes to silica sample 4 and 10 had the highest traces well silica is actually uh is the oxide form of silicon and is actually present in the nature so this dissolved silica is beneficial to Earth where it actually helps to increase the bone density and also to help in connective tissues the results show that mineral water sourced from nature such as volcanoes or swings contain the most minerals these also happen to be the ones which are in the most expensive range [Music] but what does all this really mean do I really need all of these minerals I'm bringing these lab results to a doctor this one uh sample number six shows that it has the highest traces of calcium does that mean more calcium is better okay so the amounts of calcium in water actually quite small and usually you want around 1000 milligrams of calcium a day for anything so put that into context the amount of calcium in the water even in the one that has supposedly the highest concentration of calcium is actually really quite small it seems like the spring water those from natural sources have the highest traces of minerals and at the end of the day is that significant the amounts we're talking about are too low again to have a direct impact on your health what about distilled water here in samples two and three they say it's been stripped of all impurities does it make it better it doesn't really make a huge difference so looking at these numbers then across the board does it actually make any difference what kind of water we choose in the grand scheme of things no but if you pose the question as to what drink is healthier you know mineral water over distilled water yes there's a marginal marginal benefit but when you say marginally better nothing clinically appreciably better the amount of minerals in bottled water may be too small to move the needle when it comes to health benefits but there's something else the lab found in some of our bottled water samples well 6 out of 10 shows the the presence of microplastics oh wow look at this sample nine actually has the highest levels of microplastic So based on the results we identified the presence of pet polyethylene and also polypropylene this might come for the constituents of the bottle and also the cap of the material so when there's already contacts or either when we open up the containers or the bottles it might actually Leach out or either due to certain aberration fine microplastic might actually enter to the water microplastics are small pieces of plastic material usually less than five millimeters in size while Research into microplastics is still new these chemicals have been linked to a variety of health problems including reproductive harm organ problems and developmental delays in children so should I then be concerned drinking any water that has microplastic in it well if it's so fine and small it have the ability to penetrate through into our system but there is limited data to prove this there's more research and also assessment to be carried out okay so you're saying it may be harmful but we just don't know for sure yet exactly sample 9 is Smart Water a vapor distilled water with electrolytes it was found to have 11 microplastic particles per liter sample in comparison the other bottles which were found to have microplastics had a range of between 1 and 4. I wrote to both smart water and the Singapore food agency or SFA SFA sensor safety standards for both food and water SFA said it has done its own research on microplastics in bottled water and so far the results show no cause of concern in added it will continue to monitor the levels of microplastics and food and work with research Partners to better understand the health risks Coca-Cola which owns the SmartWater brand says they abide by the World Health organization's guidelines for drinking water quality and adds that they stand by the safety of their products so is bottled water worth the money when it comes to our health it actually really doesn't make much difference whether you get mineral water source from nature or purified drinking water but if you want to save a bit of money you can actually go with purified drinking water which typically costs less as for me though I want to save both money and the environment so I'm perfectly happy drinking tap water and using my own bottle too [Music]

Channel: CNA Insider

Views: 94,730

Keywords: CNA Insider, CNA Documentary, Current Affairs, Singapore, bottled water, still water, alkaline water, spring water, distilled water, water, water test, mineral water

Id: opneN-Mgl-s

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 14 2022