I was at a concert this summer, empty handed (but happy) after finishing my can of A&W Rootbeer. A buddy bought the group a round of beers, and, unasked, handed me a bottle of water, which was genuinely kind of him. As he passed it over he paused and said, "wait — are you okay to drink out of a plastic bottle?"
I laughed and said I'd be fine. What I didn't say, because we were at a concert and I'm not a maniac, is that the PFAS leaching out of the plastic lining of the A&W can I'd just had were almost certainly worse than anything in that water bottle. Never mind the actual ingredient list of the root beer. And the water? Who knows what the fluoride content was. Ha.
Here's the truth about me: I'll come home and drink nothing but straight aquifer mountain well water, or splurge (financially) on deuterium-depleted Litewater — and I'll also happily go out and be a normal person once in a while. (Well. As normal as the only adult drinking a pop at a concert can be. Too old to care about that now.)
That's the whole spirit I want to bring to this. There's real value in knowing what's in your water. There's also real value in not letting that knowledge turn you into someone who can't accept a bottle of water from a buddy.
But you do you.
When I first started drafting this blog the basic idea was to lay out all the facts etc., but when it came to putting pen to paper (so to speak) I honestly just cannot even be bothered anymore. Why? Well if you're here, you probably already chosen the particular science you believe in. You know the arguments for both sides, you've seen the EPA cases and the communities getting rid of it, and maybe you live in a city like me where - at exactly the same time that many communities move to banning the addition of it, Calgary spends a few years and millions of dollars upgrading their water processing plants to add it back in. Lovely.
So. Why did I bother writing any of this at all?
Because I want to try and tell you where I've ended up, because I think a lot of people get stuck in the muck with it all. Lost in the obsession, focused on one tiny thing at a time. You lose the plot, you know?
I take a bioenergetic view of health now, so I like to try and understand how things affect our battery, so to speak. What powers us up, what depletes us. It is my belief that fluoride depletes us. The argument goes that a hyper-electronegative ion like fluoride could disrupt our hydrogen-bond networks and proton flow.
"Cool, cool. Can you please get to the point and tell me what you drink etc.?"
Sorry! In Calgary we got a bone char filter for the whole house (only bone char works for fluoride (has to do with the ions), not regular charcoal), and RO for the fridge/tap water. I didn't bother to get it remineralized. I diy that myself with our meals. I also have a Litewater subscription (only comes in plastic bottles to Canada lol), but I can't afford thousands a month in DDW water so our current allotment only lasts a week or so (but we do lots to mitigate deuterium in other ways). If you go to Lightcellar in Bowness you can fill your jugs up for free* (donation encouraged) with water that's been expertly filtered, re-mineralized and vortexed (they do their homework) and this is an amazing budget-friendly option (with some obvious inconveniences).
There are services that do deliveries of Culligan-type bottles of natural spring waters as well, so if you're super into "alive" water, that's an option I've seen. I have reached out to a few but no one has ever had it tested for deuterium (can you see what my personal obsession is?). Is "alive" water better than RO water? I don't know. Probably?
In Montana, we have a 400ft deep well that has crazy hard water. My general understanding of the area is that is should be relatively low deuterium water, and it does have some naturally occurring fluoride. I haven't had it tested in any way yet because it wasn't easy to quickly find a place to test the deuterium levels, and because I am not neurotic and I have 50 bajillion other things to do to keep moving my life in the direction I want. You know what I mean?
I also have Sertodo Copper water dispensers at both houses that we drink from (not the full filters, just the dispensers). I believe there's some benefit in that as well.
Since we're talking about fluoride, the obvious related question is what do we do for toothpaste. I don't do hydroxyapatite because I don't trust it, and most pastes still have a few too many extraneous ingredients. I avoid baking soda because it is extremely hard on the gums. The solution I finally arrived at is my own, a mix of: coconut oil, xylitol and a dash of peppermint EO. Tooth health comes from diet and lifestyle, not from toothpaste. I'm just trying not to make it worse.
You ask me what filter you should get, and I ask you: what are your contraints?
- If money were no object and I lived in the city, I would get a whole house RO system, with all the remineralization, including all my pipes redone in copper and a vortex at the end. I would also have the water tested for deuterium, and supplement more or less my drinking (and cooking) water with a DDW subscription.
- If money were no object and I had my own well, I would have it tested for deuterium. If it was low (because I live in the mountains), I would ensure copper pipes throughout the house (and eaves, to collect rainwater), filter the larger solids, and enjoy my living water.
- If I were renting a place and had no control over the whole house system, I would get some kind of shower filter, and have spring water delivered on subscription as well as a DDW subscription. Should the budget allow for it, I would cook with the spring water.
- If money is the main constraint, I think I'd still do a shower filter (expecting to have to change it out frequently), and I'd seek out a place in the city like Lightcellar in Calgary where I could access spring water for cheap and that would be my drinking water.
I think that's all I have to say on this. I chose my solution for the time being, I am content and I've moved on.
xo Caitlin