Posted on 01/04/2018 6:12:37 PM PST by SJackson
In case you haven’t noticed, Silicon Valley is obsessed with health, or at least the appearance of health. You can see evidence of it just about everywhere, including internet-connected juicers and new medical “breakthroughs,” but rarely is a new trend as obviously flawed as “raw water.” Raw water is untreated, unfiltered water pulled from Earth and bottled for consumption by people willing to pay absurd prices for it. The best part? It’s probably going to make them all sick anyway.
Unlike other healthy eating trends, like consuming only raw fruits and vegetables or insisting upon antibiotic-free “clean” cuts of meat, raw water is actually the opposite of clean. It’s not pure in any way, shape, or form, and the only thing natural about it is the fact that potentially deadly bacteria has yet to be removed from it. It is, simply put, the dumbest food trend to come along in a long, long time.
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As Business Insider reports, raw water is catching fire in California’s tech hubs, selling for nearly $30 per gallon. That’s pretty funny considering the fact that it takes more work to produce the clean, disease-free water lining the shelves of your local 7-11 for $1 per bottle than it does to funnel unfiltered dirty water into a glass jug and sell it for ten times the price.
Proponents of raw water suggest that the filtering and sterilization process that most bottled water goes through actually kills off good bacteria that our bodies may benefit from. You’ll have a hard time finding any studies that support that notion, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that, even if drinking sterile, pure water doesn’t contain “good” bacteria, that’s a small price to pay for not contracting cholera, Giardia, or E. coli.
The best (or worst) part about this whole raw water trend is that it actually leads to water that expires just like other foods. Even the most vocal raw water proponents admit that you have to drink any raw water you obtain within a couple months of its bottling or it’ll turn its bottle green with algae, like the inside of a fish tank. That sounds just great.
In a recent New York Times piece about the raw water trend, Dr. Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic sums up the burgeoning movement nicely. “There are people, just like with immunizations, that don’t accept the status quo,” Dr. Hensrud says. Raw water drinkers are basically anti-vaxxers. Enjoy your diseases, everyone!
“... consuming only raw fruits and vegetables..”
As did a colleague in the lab I worked in 30 years ago did, at least until I described the Central Valley truck farm harvests. They hire illegals to walk these mile-long rows of broccoli or carrots or cabbage, and at the end of the rows are a couple of porta-johns. I asked him what the odds were that an ill picker would be able to make it to the end of the row in time. Be sure of your source when choosing comestibles.
The invention of cooking was a great advance in human health.
like you, I milked for years and would not buy from others unless I personally observed their operation and handling procedures. doing it properly is expensive and time consuming.
Dysentery.....it’s not just for breakfast anymore!
There is a local bottled water company that pays a town in NW Washington state for spring water. The town’s hydrant’s are hooked up to the spring - and the company goes up with a tanker truck and hooks onto the hydrant nearest the spring.
Then bottles it. They may filter it (but I don’t think they would need to.) I know they don’t treat it in anyway.
Yeah - it’s just well water. There are also public hand pumps in various towns where you can go with containers and fill up. I think those get tested once in awhile for stuff like e-coli, pesticides, etc. just to be on the safe side.
I’m confused too. Raw water is water in it’s natural state. Rivers, lakes, ponds, rainwater, well water. I’m confused because it’s inconceivable to me it can be sold in that state. You can go out and collect it, but I can’t believe it can be sold without filtration/treatment anywhere in the US. My wellwater is raw water, but I can’t believe I can sell it. IMO it’s a marketing ploy.
I had the opportunity, no, it was actually stupidity at that time, to drink “pure, natural” water. (Should have boiled it first) Be assured that amoebic dysentery is not fun, especially with medical facilities at two day’s walking distance. I did learn, though, that drinking soy sauce lessened the impact of my stupidity.
Hasn’t anyone heard the old advice, “don’t drink the water” in Mexico, et al?
And it was known long ago the best way to handle water was to boil it first. When people did not understand that, they didn’t drink straight water much but that is how they got into beer and wine. Not realizing the fermenting and cooking was making it safer.
It’s not cleaner if it’s actually in the bowl.
Yeah, I like it.
This goes along with that stupid vaccination fear.
Except them using bad water won’t hurt the rest of us, like no vaccines.
Fiji water is like this. It is bottled directly from the aquifer.
Depends on hat the most recent use of the bowl was.
Do you thoroughly clean the bowl after every usage? Can you? Ever able to clean way down there in the suction tube?
Nah, didn’t think so!
Yeah. I drink out of the rivulets in the bottom of draws in coastal Oregon. Not everyone is so lucky. Also have gallon jugs of tap water stashed in the woods. Stays clear for years.
Fly fishermen on the Rogue , in OR , are always getting it.
I grew up with both raw milk, and well water, and have lived for a couple of weeks at a time drinking out of mountain streams while on hunting trips. I just try to make sure and let the horse drink downstream from me, just in case. The water up high in the mountains tastes like when you let a snowball melt in your mouth, which it should.
We also used to bring in an occasional wild honeycomb, eat it with our fingers, comb and all!
I spent my spare time hunting, fishing, riding motorcycle, driving race cars, breaking and showing horses.
I’m still alive
Would microwaving raw milk make it safe?
I not only have an unending source, but there is even a little poem about it:
“Milk,
Milk’
Lemonade,
In the back’s where chocolate’s made!”
For centuries the best was to handle water for those who could afford it was to drink beer or wine.
I haven't either, and I've been drinking raw water from a well for years too. I don't know, but I have to believe in most or all states bottled water has been filtered and/or treated.
I’ve been on a well for over 20 years and had no idea the harm I was dong myself. ;)
Had a buddy years ago that was a home brewing fiend. He took some of my water and had it tested, said it was almost exactly identical in mineral content to the Bass plant in Leeds England.
He traded me 2 six-packs of his pale ale for 15 gallons of it. Probably the best deal of my life.
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