Seawater

Dubai is a desert city, with no fresh water sources, desalinated sea water is used for bottling and municipal supply. But, does desalinated water have a negative effect on health as some people suspect?

 

Desalinated Sea Water

Sea Water that has been desalinated requires additional post-treatment before it is ready for distribution and consumption. 

What to do with its Acidic nature?

There are already some minerals being added to desalinated water.

Conditioning is needed to add back alkalinity with some minerals like magnesium and calcium (remineralization), often by blending with a different treated water source (e.g., imported water), to reduce the corrosive nature of the product water on downstream storage and distribution systems.

 

The desalination plants add calcium before the water is distributed to the national water carriers, because desalinated water is slightly acidic and corrosive to water pipes over time. Calcium helps combat the acidity, and is relatively inexpensive to add. Calcium, as a mineral, is also beneficial to humans and plants.

Remineralization also improves the stability and compatibility of desalinated water with blending water but could be harmful if used beyond the prescribed limits.

Desalinated seawater has none of the minerals naturally found in ground water, minerals that humans require for a healthy growth and development, especially magnesium.

It is also necessary to ensure an adequate level of residual chlorine disinfectant to provide lasting public health protection from waterborne pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) like viruses that might have passed through the membranes or biofilm-associated bacteria that can colonize the drinking water distribution system.

Magnesium is an essential mineral for human growth and development, which is involved in more than 300 biological reactions in the body. Primarily, magnesium affects muscles, especially cardiac muscles, improving people’s ability to survive a heart attack. Magnesium also affects nerve function, energy production, protein production, and the synthesis of DNA and RNA.

People who are lacking in magnesium rarely feel side effects and will suffer heart attacks at the same rate as people with normal levels of the mineral. But studies show that their survival rate from heart attacks is lower.

Magnesium shortages can also lead to osteoporosis and bone mass issues, and higher blood pressure, as well as a decrease in cognitive ability, fatigue, and increased aggression. Scientists have studied the connection between magnesium, zinc and cooper deficiencies and ADHD in children, but the studies are not large enough to be conclusive.

People who eat a balanced diet, with plenty of green leafy vegetables and nuts, can generally get most of their magnesium from food.

Doctors Recommend 320 to 360 mg/day of magnesium for women and 410 to 420 mg/day for men. Popping a daily single multivitamin, which usually has around 50 mg of magnesium, can easily cover any deficit in your diet to obtain the recommended level of magnesium per day.

Natural Mineral Water

Top Bottled Water Brands: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Top bottled water brands

 Some of the top bottled water brands in 2022 could be hiding something. Whether it be bad consumer practices or poor quality water, here’s what you need to know.

Have you ever purchased bottled water and, upon opening it, felt it tasted like, well, something you shouldn’t have had to pay good money to drink? Maybe next time you should spring for one of the top bottled water brands instead?

You thought you were getting top-rated water when you probably would have done better just to drink water from your kitchen sink.

Wait, though. What if the water you drank were one of the top bottled water brands?

expired bottled water

In this article, we’ll help you navigate the complex and sometimes deceptive world of bottled water so that, hopefully, you’ll be a wiser consumer

Is Bottled Water Worth It?

The quick answer: usually. maybe. If it’s the right brand, yes.

 

When it comes to bottled water, brand names can be deceptive, especially those that are well known. In some cases, much of bottled water’s taste comes from the plastic bottle and isn’t very pleasant.

In other cases, you might find out that the source of your bottled water is a municipal water supply somewhere (one prominent brand uses New York City water as its source). Why pay for that?

If you must drink bottled water, make sure it’s the best bottled water you can get. You might need to do a little research on this topic first, and this article is a place to start.

We’ll give you information about selecting bottled drinking water. We’ll also recommend some brands we like. Yes, some bottled water brands do taste good, have virtually no contaminants, and probably are worth paying for.

fresh bottled water

What to Know When Selecting Bottled Water

Sometimes, you’re simply handed a bottle of water as an event freebie, or it comes with a packaged meal. If you’re in a store looking for bottled water, though, you have some choices.

The following are questions (with answers) to consider when making your bottled water selection.

Good bottles of water

During the desalination process, excess salt is removed from seawater and chlorine is added to kill bacteria. Since chlorine is an oxidizer, it penetrates the hair’s outer protective cuticle layer, and damages the underlying structure, making the hair dull, dry and brittle. This weakens the hair so much that it breaks off easily during the styling process. This excessive hair breakage is directly due to the desalinated water used when washing the hair.

How to avoid desalinated water damage to the hair?

Desalinated water creates a challenging situation for hair health, but it is altogether preventable by incorporating the following measures:

 

  1. Use a good filter in your shower, which has the ability to remove most of the chlorine from
    the desalinated water.