Imagine you’ve just
been given a choice: You have to drink from one
of two containers. One container is a cup from
your own kitchen, and it contains a product that
has passed strict state, federal and local
guidelines for cleanliness and quality. Oh, and
it’s free. The second container comes from a
manufacturing plant somewhere, and its
contents—while seemingly identical to your first
choice—have not been subjected to the same
strict national and local standards. It costs
approximately four times more than gasoline.
These products both look and taste nearly
identical.
Which do you choose?
If you chose beverage A, congratulations: You
just saved yourself a whole lot of money, and,
perhaps, even contaminants, too. But if you
picked beverage B, then you’ll be spending
hundreds of unnecessary dollars on bottled water
this year. Sure, bottled water is convenient,
trendy, and may well be just as pure as what
comes out of your tap. But it’s hardly a smart
investment for your pocketbook, your body or our
planet.
Eat This, Not That! decided to take a closer
look at what’s behind the pristine images and
elegant-sounding names printed on those bottles.
You may actually be drinking tap water.
Case in point: Dasani, a Coca-Cola product.
Despite its exotic-sounding name, Dasani is
simply purified tap water that’s had minerals
added back in. For example, if your Dasani water
was bottled at the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in
Philadelphia, you’re drinking Philly tap water.
But it’s not the only brand of water that relies
on city pipes to provide its product. About 25
percent of all bottled water is taken from
municipal water sources, including Pepsi’s
Aquafina.
Bottled water isn’t always pure.
Scan the labels of the leading brands and you
see variations on the words “pure” and “natural”
and “pristine” over and over again. And when a
Cornell University marketing class studied
consumer perceptions of bottled water, they
found that people thought it was cleaner, with
less bacteria. But that may not actually be
true. For example, in a 4-year review that
included the testing of 1,000 bottles of water,
the Natural Resources Defense Council—one the
country’s most ardent environmental
crusaders—found that “about 22 percent of the
brands we tested contained, in at least one
sample, chemical contaminants at levels above
strict state health limits.”
It’s not clear where the plastic
container ends and the drink begins.
Turns out, when certain plastics are heated at a
high temperature, chemicals from the plastics
may leach into container’s contents. So there’s
been a flurry of speculation recently as to
whether the amounts of these chemicals are
actually harmful, and whether this is even a
concern when it comes to water bottles—which
aren’t likely to be placed in boiling water or
even a microwave. While the jury is still out on
realistic health ramifications, it seems that,
yes, small amounts of chemicals from PET water
bottles such as antimony—a semi-metal that’s
thought to be toxic in large doses—can
accumulate the longer bottled water is stored in
a hot environment. Which, of course, is probably
a good reason to avoid storing bottled water in
your garage for six months—or better yet, to
just reach for tap instead.
Our country’s high demand for oil isn’t
just due to long commutes.
Most water bottles are composed of a plastic
called polyethylene terepthalate (PET). Now, to
make PET, you need crude oil. Specifically, 17
million barrels of oil are used in the
production of PET water bottles ever year,
estimate University of Louisville scientists. No
wonder the per ounce cost of bottled water
rivals that of gasoline. What’s more, 86 percent
of 30 billion PET water bottles sold annually
are tossed in the trash, instead of being
recycled, according to data from the Container
Recycling Institute. That’s a lot of waste—waste
that will outlive you, your children, and your
children’s children. You see, PET bottles take
400 to 1000 years to degrade. Which begs the
question: If our current rate of consumption
continues, where will we put all of this
discarded plastic?
To learn the truth about diet soda, energy
drinks and discover the best no-diet weight loss
solutions on the planet, check out all of the
eye-popping lists at eatthis.com. Also, sign up
for your
FREE Eat This Not That! newsletter and stay
informed about the best choices for you and your
family.
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