Is criticism of alkaline water justified? (2024)

AIs criticism of alkaline water justified?

published byKarl Heinz Asenbaum

Hiltrut G.: During a stay in Bad Füssing many years ago, I learned from a lecture by Dr. med. Walter Irlacher got to know alkaline activated water and purchased a water ionizer. Since then, I have been drinking the alkaline water regularly and have also recommended or given this water to others. Now my son-in-law discovered an article on the Internet under: “Alkaline water – a business idea with harmful consequences” published on September 11.09.2013th, XNUMX by VISION AQUA by Hans-Peter Bartos, in which alkaline water is portrayed as unhealthy and harmful. We are now totally unsure whether we can continue to drink alkaline water.

I couldn't find this article on the Best Water sales website you mentioned. Such sniper actions against activated water by proponents of the —> Reverse osmosis and —> Turbulence have a certain tendency to migrate, as they could of course also be prosecuted under competition law due to their untrue claims. However, I am aware of this article because it has been sent to me several times with a request similar to yours. After I already read the articles —> Toth, —>Roberts, —> Twister and —> Reverse osmosis Although I have gone into the core of the argument in detail, I will only deal with new arguments from Halle's Dipl. Ing. Hans-Peter Bartos.

I can't blame Mr. Bartos for taking a critical look at the “alkaline water” that is recently flooding the market with such inflation. In his essay he quite rightly says that anyone could make one very cheaply themselves, even without expensive electrolysis equipment, “by adding a few crumbs of caustic soda or caustic potash to pure water.”
But the alkalinity is only the satiety supplement of the electro-activated water and by no means what is on the menu. A lye like Mr. Bartos wants to make with caustic soda could also be called “basic water”: But the argument is missing the additive: active water. This occurs exclusively through electrolysis. Bartos continues: “Depending on the area, tap water also contains other substances such as: B. calcium sulfate (gypsum), which is then broken down into calcium hydroxide (slaked lime) and sulfuric acid by electrolysis." Here Bartos overlooks the fact that gypsum and slaked lime are solid substances, while calcium cations and sulfate ions in aqueous solution in many German mineral, Medicinal water or tap water are a completely normal component that you will find on almost every mineral water bottle under the anions and cations.
But that's not what water ionizers are all about! The ions are just the means to an end, the highest possible excess of electrons —> Redox potential in water, which is therefore called activated water, or “electrochemical activated water”.
Bartos does not understand what active water is all about when he writes: “It is even argued that one liter of “alkaline water” prepared in this way has the antioxidant power of ten lemons, even though lemon juice is not at all alkaline, but on the contrary extremely acidic (pH 2,4). Such a comparison is not convincing, but rather proves the opposite.”
Bartos at least understood that a lemon is not alkaline (—> alkaline foods). Since the lemon contains not only citric acid but also ascorbic acid (vitamin C), it is certainly rich in antioxidants, although not nearly as rich as basic activated water.
But here he confused sour lemons with rusty screws. The antioxidant power of alkaline activated water is a factor that is completely independent of the alkaline character of the water. With the help of electrolysis, even acidic or neutral water can be given antioxidant power. So Bartos has the basic idea of alkaline active water, alkaline and being antioxidant is not at all understood.

The core of Bartos' thesis lies in his following statement: “Why “alkaline water” is not healthy. An alkaline effect would not even extend beyond the stomach, as the stomach's digestive juice is highly acidic and would immediately neutralize the alkaline water. This would rather weaken the stomach acid and the body would have to react by producing more.
I would like to point out that our stomach contents, when they are not busy digesting a meal, are not even as acidic as a glass of orange juice at pH 4. Only the gastric juice, which is only injected into the stomach when food is consumed, has a pH value of around 1,5, which means it is around 10 times more acidic than a lemonade with a pH of 2,5. However, this gastric juice is so acidic buffered that it is not significantly changed by either neutral tap water or alkaline activated water. This was thoroughly researched and scientifically confirmed in Russia as early as 1997. (—> Russian research, —> Stomach acid). Blocked protein digestion, pepsin inactivity, parasite promotion - everything Bartos lists is proven to be false based on the current state of science.
Alkaline active water for drinking purposes has a pH value of a maximum of 9,5, which the German drinking water regulations even allow for tap water, because natural water, for example in large mountain rivers such as the Inn, is often very alkaline. Water with this pH cannot interfere with stomach acid production nearly as much as certain agents like Alka-Seltzer or proton pump inhibitors do.
It is important that our drinking water is as alkaline as possible and that we can use it to replace the many harmful acidic drinks. This is an important ongoing step against acidification. This is precisely why the electrolysis cells in a water ionizer for drinking water purposes are designed to produce antioxidant alkaline water. You could also create an antioxidant neutral or acidic water, but experience, physiology and taste speak for alkaline. But primarily, alkaline active water is about its energy wealth in the form of negative —> Redox potential.
When Bartos writes about the redox potential, his complete lack of understanding of the connections becomes apparent. The core concept of –> Relaxation time he doesn't know him at all. He considers the fact that alkaline active water does not have a permanent antioxidant effect to be a disadvantage. But this is precisely its characteristic, because a fresh apple is also healthier than an old one, so its redox potential also has a relaxation time, albeit a longer one. Just like we do as we age. We can apparently extend this distance with alkaline active water.