Neglected Water Nutrition

Many people think the content of mineral elements in water is very small and can be ignored. In fact, no matter how rich the diet structure, a certain proportion of important mineral elements required by the human body comes from drinking water.

According to an academician of the American Academy of Engineering, over the long-term, consumption of ion-free water can lead to nutritional deficiencies ^[1].

The World Health Organization's Nutrients in Drinking Water states that drinking water is an indispensable source of minerals intake for human body. Purified water cannot supplement minerals, and causes the loss of mineral elements from the body ^[2].

the Importance of Magnesium in Drinking Water

The World Health Organization's Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality 1st edition, states that the human body must ingest a certain amount of minerals and trace elements from drinking water. The typical intake of calcium and magnesium is about 5% to 20% of the total adult intake ^[3]. In addition, food cooked with purified water will lose a large amount of mineral elements, of which magnesium and calcium can reach up to 60% ^[2].

Waterborne magnesium is known to be more bioavailable than magnesium obtained from foods and thus may be more important clinically ^[4].

Magnesium participates in many different biological functions, ranging from catalytic roles in enzyme activation or inhibition, and regulatory roles by modulating cell proliferation, to cell cycle progression and differentiation. Most correlation studies show that people with higher magnesium levels in drinking water have lower cardiovascular disease and stroke mortality, and vice versa ^[2].

the Importance of Calcium in Drinking Water

Calcium performs many biological functions in the body, the most important of which is bone mineralization. The mineral composition of drinking water is becoming relevant in the modulation of calcium homeostasis. In fact, calcium present in mineral drinking waters is an important quantitative source of calcium intake. Together with its excellent bioavailability, contributes to the maintenance of the bone health, provides beneficial effects on both bone biomarkers and bone densitometric parameters. ^[5].”

Mineral water rich in calcium does not contain calories and can be used as an important dietary source of calcium. The calcium from the mineral water is thus highly bioavailable, at least as bioavailable as milk calcium ^[6].

There is some evidence that high-calcium water is beneficial to bone. There is some evidence that high-calcium water is beneficial to bone. Spine mineral density was significantly (P = 0.03) higher in 175 women aged 30–70 years living in Sangemini, a region of central Italy, who drank the local high-calcium water (318 mg/l), compared with 80 women in the same region who drank low- calcium water (<60 mg/l). The estimated difference in calcium intake from an assessment of diet and water was 258 mg/day on average.