I’ve made my choice of carbon water filters (previous water faucet filters article) and I now have my grubby little hands on my own water faucet filter from Mercola. I’ve been using it for almost a week now and am really happy with the filter.
If you’ve been into health and fitness for any length of time, you know the importance of drinking a lot of water and it only makes sense to use the best quality water you can afford. Where I live in Calgary Alberta, that means using carbon water filters that will remove fluoride, chlorine and DBP’s. I’ll explain more about them later.
The problem now days is that so many people just take things at face value. They trust…
“Why would I need to look at carbon water filters when water comes straight from the tap, made pure by the city, and is the best water for me.” Absolutely false and full of well…. crap. In Calgary like a lot (but not all) cities, they add both chlorine and fluoride to the water.
Increasing the amount of high quality drinking water is one the most important and effective changes you can make to improving all aspects of your health. When your body wants to get rid of toxins from food preservatives, enviromental chemical pollutants or simply a night of partying… it does through several pathways and using the washroom is one of them.
The problem is that when you flush the human body, you can’t flush it with more toxins expecting to clean out the ones you have in you.
So bottled water is a viable choice instead of having to look at carbon water filters then right? Kind of I suppose. But besides the environmental aspect of all those empty bottles you should remember that up to 40% of bottled water is actually just tap water from another location that may or may not be treated or filtered.
Take a look at your bottled water next time and except for certain brands, you’ll see fluoride on there. Why pay for unfiltered water in a plastic bottle that has fluoride in it?
At this point you’re thinking, “Nice Ray, you’re pushing carbon water filters…” Yes I am. Here is me installing and talking about the filter.
I’ve been doing this a long time and have found it very hard to push products at people to simple increase my income. So I don’t. I could not stand behind fat burner pills. I don’t believe in weight gainers. I don’t suggest very many supplements, some. BUT I have to say that when it comes to fitness and health, high quality natural food and pure clean drinking water will take you further than any of the other crap out there.
A 4-year study released by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found 1/3 of the water bottles tested contained synthetic organic chemicals and bacteria.
The typical plastic used for bottled water is polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – this material potentially leaches antimony and other toxic chemicals into your water.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates public water supplies, but has no authority over bottled water.
For example, there are not any specific requirements regarding proximity of bottled water sources to industrial facilities or waste dumps. And there’s no official procedure in place for shutting down bottled water sources if they become contaminated.
I did not know these things until I started looking into carbon water filters. I just wanted to cut down on the amount of bottles I was throwing out and still get clean water without chlorine, DBP’s and fluoride.
I almost forgot to explain those…
DBP’s are disinfection byproducts. In short disinfection byproducts are one of the most toxic elements in the water supply and we didn’t even know about them until relatively recently.
For fluoride, just do a google search of “fluoride in drinking water” and see what pops up. It’s a case of specific groups telling people it makes their teeth healthier (I believe that the cities believe this to be the truth… I hope) so that companies could get rid of industrial byproduct poisons. If that seems a little far fetched, then why do Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, France, and the Netherlands ban fluoride from their drinking water?
Carbon water filters can remove fluoride that accumulates in your bones, causing them to be brittle and easily fractured and inactivates some of your enzyme systems. Fluoride in your drinking water also disrupts your immune system, causing it to attack normal working tissues in your body, accelerates your aging process and causes cellular and genetic damage.
Chlorine is a toxic chemical that attacks organic matter. So yes, it does a great job of killing off harmful things that could be in our water. The problem is that almost all water supplies have dissolved organic matter in the water that is a result of leaves and twigs that float into the water. This is where the problem starts as chlorine interacts with these organic materials to produce disinfection byproducts more commonly referred to as DBPs.
From The Dr. Mercola Site:
The two primary DBP categories called trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAA5s).
These DBPs have been linked to potential…
Damaging effects to your cardiovascular system
Harmful impacts to your respiratory system
Unhealthy functioning of your renal system
Disruptions to your central nervous system
Weakening of your immune system
So, what can you do to ensure healthy drinking water for you and your family?
After looking around for a long time into several options, I have chosen to filter my water at home with a high quality carbon water filter. Note though that most all carbon based filters do not remove fluoride. As a matter of fact, most carbon water filters are contaminated with Aluminum.
On top of that, most carbon water filters do not do a good job of taking out the DBPs either. That is, unless it filters the water slowly.
So why am I advocating carbon water filters? Because the one I use has a Copper-zinc + carbon + fluoride removal filter system.
It combines high quality coconut shell carbon for best performance and long life.
Efficiently removes fluoride (via special media in first housing), chlorine, inorganic and organic contaminants.
Maximizes DBP removal when filtration rate slowed to 1 gallons/minute or less.
Creates bacteriostatic environment to prevent bacteria from thriving in the overall system
Installs easily in minutes to your sink faucet – no plumber needed. Unless you’re like me and decide to tighten the existing faucet head to get it off instead of loosening it….
Delivers the lowest cost over the long term and the best value for you and your family in challenging economic times.
So if this carbon water filter is so great… what is the down side? Glad you asked…
Initial cost typically higher than standard carbon system
Needs separate fluoride filtration cartridge – you can see in the video there are two housings.
If you live in Canada, you will have to pay an additional $18 in taxes when the Canada Post guy comes to your door.
Lastly, I am basing some of my opinions on research from the data collected by Dr. Mercola who has been studying this topic for over ten years in addition to several other journals and reports that I have come across. I say this only to make clear that the carbon water filter with an additional copper-zinc filter that I am using is the one that the Mercola company sells.
If you are interested in looking into this further for your family, here is where you can order the carbon water filter or simply learn more.
I hope this helps.