Food and beverage trends sometimes come with highly lauded health benefits, but if you have found yourself caught up in the latest trend of drinking “raw water” - you may want to listen to some experts who are warning of serious risks. Raw water is water that hasn’t been treated or filtered in any way and is scoring points with some who worry about extra additives in water or losing healthful minerals from the filtering process.
Time reports about some of the dangers of drinking raw water and why this is one trend you may not want to give a try. Start up companies in Maine and California have begun selling the idea that virgin or raw water gives you a more pure product with all of the minerals intact. But experts warn that along with those pure minerals can come dangerous pathogens leading to disease like Cholera, typhoid fever, and Hepatitis A.
Kellogg Schwab, professor of water and public health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, explains why the water from our tap remains much safer than drinking raw water. Schwab says, “Having a central treatment process of our drinking water and then distributing it out to the individual homes and businesses is a tremendous asset that we, as a country, take for granted.” Schwab adds, “Anything you can think of can be in untreated water really.” And this includes bacteria, viruses and agricultural runoff. And as of now, there is very little data showing what is in the raw water being sold.
What do you think of the idea of drinking “raw water”?
Would you consider drinking “raw water” if it was available in your local market?