You may have seen alkaline water peppering the shelves of your local health food store—and it’s really gaining traction as a new health and wellness staple. With celebrities like Elle McPherson, Victoria Beckham and Gwenyth Paltrow buying alkaline water filters and tooting brands like Aqua Hydrate as well as the benefits of living an alkaline lifestyle, and incorporating alkaline water as a big part of that, people are becoming more and more intrigued about how this h2o-based change could impact their health.
We spoke with Pete Evans, a huge advocate of alkaline water to discuss the benefits of incorporating it into your diet. Here’s what you need to know, along with my personal experience of drinking alkaline water everyday for two weeks.
An alkaline lifestyle is a healthy one
For many of us, the modern diet (read: processed and with poorer nutrient quality) and high-stress way of life render us with a lifestyle that has an acidic effect on the body. Therefore, it’s essential that we include alkalising foods and water into our diet to negate the impact.
Pete says “an acid-forming lifestyle, coupled with the stresses and vigour’s of life, can lead to a lack of energy, poor mood, low immunity and feeling pretty average from the inside out as your body isn’t getting enough of what it needs to thrive.” He argues that maintaining pH balance in our bodies is our first and best line of defence against sickness and disease—because disease thrives in an acidic environment, but cannot survive where pH range is healthy.
Alkaline Water helps neutralise the acid-base in your body and in the process helps balance your body’s pH. For optimum health, our bodies need to maintain a good level of alkalinity, typically between 7.35 and 7.45. Drinking alkaline water regularly is the perfect way to help you achieve this level and continued pH balance.
Alkaline food and drink
Incorporating alkaline food and drink into your diet helps to clean the blood, oxygenates the body and keeps your cells ship shape and shiny. An increase in energy, better skin and alleviation from issues like chronic inflammation, allergies, IBS and constipation are all part and parcel of alkalising your diet and lifestyle. Sound good?
Replacing acid-forming foods (processed foods, sugar and poor-quality excess meat as examples) with nutrient-rich, alkalising foods like leafy greens, fruits, nuts, legumes and vegetables and switching out regular tap water with alkaline water can pay dividends for your health.
The difference between alkaline water and regular tap water
The difference is all down to the pH level. The pH spectrum measures how acidic or alkaline something is, and the scale runs from 0-14, with a pH of 7.0 being neutral. The higher the pH (greater than 7) the more alkaline. The lower the pH (less than 7) the more acidic.
Tap water is municipally treated water which varies from region to region. Tap water has been found to have heavy metals along with traces of pharmaceuticals in some regions; because the pipe network is outdated and, in most cases, has a residual build-up of rust and other impurities which need to be monitored and filtered before drinking.
I tried alkaline water for two weeks—here’s what I noticed
Sceptical but intrigued to see if I could actually feel a difference, I embarked on a two-week journey of consuming ALKA POWER Alkaline Spring Water. While I did have the odd glass of tap here and there, I stuck mostly to alkaline water—and can honestly say I’m impressed.
While the results weren’t dramatic (aka I didn’t wake up with clearer-than-clear skin or jumping about like an energizer bunny), I did definitely see an improvement in terms of breakouts and overall sense of wellbeing. The high pH level of 9-10 makes it an inarguably healthy choice, and I felt a lot better for giving my system a much-needed break from the gallons of tap water I usually chug each day. I felt more hydrated and felt like I looked more hydrated too. Will definitely turn to alkaline water more in the future when I feel like my health needs a pick-me-up!
