MT in MO's Link
I'm all for restoring the gut microbiome but I believe that is something that should be approached incrementally, imo. If these companies are pulling from surface water, that could be setting folks up for a bad time. The problem with going to the extreme is that folks could be introducing bacteria their "restored" systems cannot handle.
I read another article about this last night that I can't find again where the guy who is in charge is from India. He was talking about the health benefits of Live Water. He was saying the water is only good for so long before it spoils and you know it is spoiled because it turns green...cannot make this stuff up...8^)
Edit: but really.. what a bunch of idiots. I can't imagine living a life like that.
Here's another one for you all:
The sort of people who want to pay $24 per gallon of untreated, bacteria-filled water are exactly the sort of people I want drinking untreated, bacteria-filled water.
So chin-chin, evolutionary dead-ends!
Silicon Valley is developing a "raw water" obsession.
In San Francisco, "unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water" from a company called Live Water is selling for up to $61 for a 2.5-gallon jug -- and it's flying off the shelves, The New York Times reported.
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People are gathering gallons of untreated water from natural springs, venturing out onto private property by night to get the water, according to The Times.
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The cost of a 2.5-gallon jug had increased to $61 from $37 since The Times published its article on Friday.
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Though fans of the untreated water are not backed by science, many told The Times they felt confident they were getting health benefits from drinking it.
For example, Mukhande Singh, the founder of Live Water, told the publication his startup's water expired after a few months -- something he said was normal for "real water."
"It stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery," Singh said. "If it sits around too long, it'll turn green. People don't even realize that because all their water's dead, so they never see it turn green."
Yes, their water is dead of all waterborne pathogens.
Do these people think that "live water" has midichlorians in it?
Nope, not midichlorians. Cholera feasting on feces in the water!
Given time, they will become extinct for numerous reasons...death, failure to reproduce, inability to survive in the real world, psychosis from microaggression over stimulation, etc.
Mike B's Link
"Do you ever feel like your drinking water is just too clean? Last week, The New York Times reported on a trendy new beverage known as raw water. Yes: people are spending loads on unfiltered, untreated, and totally unsterilized spring water.
“It has a vaguely mild sweetness, a nice smooth mouth feel, nothing that overwhelms the flavor profile,” Kevin Freeman, a shift manager at San Francisco’s Rainbow Grocery, told the Times of his store’s au naturale H20. “Bottled water’s controversial. We’ve curtailed our water selection. But this is totally outside that whole realm.”
But drinking raw water isn’t just about flavor and mouthfeel. No, the real joy of sipping Mother Nature’s unfiltered lifeblood is the rich, diverse community you’ll immediately be introduced to. Say hello to a few of the awesome friends you could meet when you drink untreated spring water. Giardia
GIARDIA
This sassy little lady is sure to impact your life—or at least your bowel movements—in a big way. Giardia is a genus of parasite with a fleet of fashionable flagella that make swimming through your intestines a breeze. Most people only get to meet Giardia after taking a sip from a contaminated stream during a camping trip, interacting with an infected baby or dog’s poop, or dealing with woefully inadequate sanitation and water supply. But thanks to raw water, you could find her right there in your local high-end supermarket!
After taking a few days or weeks to settle into her new home in your GI tract, this pal will give you gas, cramps, nausea, and violent diarrhea. Once pooped out, Giardia stays tucked into a protective little cyst until someone else consumes her—so you can introduce her to your whole family.
Legionella
Legionnaires’ disease is a severe—often fatal—form of pneumonia. Most people get it from bacterial growth in plumbing systems or air conditioning units, but Legionella shows up in rivers, lakes, and streams as well. The people of Flint, Michigan had a deadly run-in with this infection when water from the Flint river was pumped, untreated, into their homes. They had no choice in the matter, but you can spend upwards of $30 a gallon to get better acquainted with the lovely Legionella.
Norovirus
Who the heck needs to go on a cruise to meet norovirus when you can just invite him into your home? The notoriously contagious virus—which inflames your stomach, intestines, or both to cause such symptoms as diarrhea and vomiting—is spread by poop, so it can show up in pretty much any body of water if there’s a sewage leak (or, let’s be real, a backpacker with norovirus who does his business upstream.) What’s super fun about raw water is that if it’s really never treated at all, norovirus can sneak into the product at any point in its production. When 4,100 people got to party with norovirus in Spain in 2016 because of contaminated bottled water, experts speculated that someone might have vomited somewhere in the bottling factory and then come into contact with the water. Just imagine all the ways norovirus could find its way into your raw water if no one is treating it literally ever! The possibilities are truly endless.
Campylobacter
Here she is, boys: the leading identified cause of Guillain-Barré syndrome! Campylobacter bacteria can get into water anywhere that animals might be poopin’, so your odds of running into this friend are pretty good (I mean, how often do you see an animal that’s not pooping). You’ll almost certainly get a fun case of diarrhea, but wait, there’s more! The infection is known to sometimes trigger GBS, a rare autoimmune disorder that can leave you permanently paralyzed. Also, some strains of Campylobacter are now resistant to multiple antibiotics. So you might be hanging out with this one for a long time. Best friends 4 ever.
Crypto
While all your coworkers are talking about cryptocurrencies, you can get ahead of the trends and start investing in Cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite transmitted by (you guessed it) poop. It’s amazing how much poop you can consume when you drink raw water. What did we do for all the years when our water didn’t have poop in it? We stopped getting cholera, sure, but at what cost? Crypto can survive for ages outside your body and you keep shedding it even after the characteristic watery diarrhea stops a-flowin’. Also, it can kill the immunocompromised. Salmonella and E. coli
You think you know Salmonella and E. coli, but if you think the best way to meet these tall drinks of water is to eat raw eggs in cookie dough—well, you’re just a poseur. You’re actually most likely to get this brand of food poisoning from produce washed with water that happens to contain poo (it’s always about the poo). Guess where else you can find water that happens to contain poo? That’s right: in water! Especially the unfiltered kind.
These are just the buddies you’re most likely to meet on the journey to a totally unfiltered life, but there are so many others you could run into along the way. 780 million people around the world lack access to safe water, and now you can pay to join them. We truly live in the future.
As for untreated spring water, I guess it depends on where you collect it. I have 4 springs on my property that bubble right out of bedrock. I've drank from one of those many times, but only right from the source, never down stream.
Matt
Rhetorical question...8^)
POST OF THE YEAR HERE!!! That's a CLASSIC Owl!
I have a well also, and when we moved here I had Culligan Water treatment come by to test it and put an iron filter in. I also had some bottled water and he tested both. He found that while the well water obviously had higher mineral content, and neither one was anywhere near a contamination level where you needed to be concerned, the bacterial content in the well water was actually LOWER than the bottled stuff!
And some take that as a CHALLENGE!
