"bottledwater" news and stories

Growing up in Portland, OR, when it came to drinking water, we were pretty lucky. The water that came out of the tap was clear and tasty. One of the hardest things to adjust to when I moved to Philadelphia was the fact that the water that came out of my kitchen sink didn't taste too great. For a while I bought bottled water, but my bank account couldn't handle that expense and I didn't like the amount of plastic I generated, especially living in an apartment building with sketchy recycling practices. It also felt wrong to me to buy bottled water, when I live in one of the few countries in the world where the tap water is pretty much universally safe for general consumption.

It appears that all across the country, upscale restaurants are making similar choices, leaving behind the bottled water and serving filtered still or carbonated water. Serious Eats has a nice round-up of recent establishments that are turning to the tap and choosing not serve bottled water, despite the financial sacrifice it entails.

photo by Marisa McClellan

Do you drink bottled water? Are you someone who won't drink water unless it's bottled? Do you only drink a certain brand of bottled water because it's chic, or trendy, or in some way is an extension of who you are?

You might be a water snob.

But then again, you might be pooh-pooh'd by a new breed of water snobs - those who won't drink anything but tap water.

Slate recently published an interesting article about reverse water snobbery, in which people are shunning the energy-wasting, eco-unfriendly bottled water for plain old tap water. Restaurants like Chez Panisse in Berkeley have stopped serving fancy, expensive bottled water in favor of filtered municipal tap water.

I'll have to admit, though I hadn't really thought much about the ecological impact of drinking bottled water, I usually don't. I just think it' a ridiculous waste of money.

Who says you have to wait til January 1 to make resolutions?

Below are eight foods I resolve to eat this summer (and beyond) and stuff I resolve not to eat. Some I've chosen because they're good for me (like #1), some I've chosen because, well, I just want to eat/drink them (#8). What about you?

1. Water. Believe it or not, I don't drink that much water, one of the healthiest things you really need. I drink it, but it's usually in the form of tea, diet soda, or fat free milk. It's time to get back to drinking water straight. It's good for you.

Ogo Water is a fairly new bottled water product from the Netherlands. With a 35 times higher concentration of oxygen than regular water, it promises a boost of energy, or at least 35 times more oxygen than you had before. The manufacturers call it "The Breathing Water."  Apparently, the burst of oxygen in each bottle of OGO will increase your body's oxygen saturation - how this is accomplished by drinking however, is beyond me.

The water is available in still, sparkling, and a lightly flavored "Flower Power," with elderflower and lychee. It looks like Ogo is currently available in Australia and the UK, and will be distributed in the US by Verve Brands, LLC.

Yesterday, The Fanatic Cook featured a good post with some highlights from a large-scale, bottled-water analysis done by the National Resources Defense Council a few years ago. One of the better details that TFC pulled from the report was how a bottled water called Spring Water, labeled with a majestic mountain lake, was actually sourced from an industrial parking lot next to a hazardous waste site. Fun, and probably not that uncommon. TFC also points out this handy chart with comparisons of tests run on hundreds of different bottled waters to check their levels of arsenic, fluoride, etc.