Is tap water really that bad?
Is a bit of flouride, minerals, and maybe an ounce of dirt from your tap filter going to result in the world spinning off of it's axis?
It would seem in our day and age we are becoming more and more afraid of our roots. At one point, we lived in caves, eat insects, drank water out of a dirty pond and relished in the earthy goodness of dirt. Now, we spray insects with delightful sprays that contain as many man made chemicals as possible, refuse to drink water unless it's from the other side of the world and in a fancy bottle, and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars buying products to keep us clean from the evil of dirt.
I remember in Cairo, Egypt, I once ordered a glass of water, sat and waited for my server. I watched as he took a glass, gave it a very quick rinse and poured my water quickly. When he brought it to my table, I could visibly see what could only be the remnants of someone's lipstick on the glass. I shivered in disgust, and quickly told the waiter. He looked at it, examined it carefully as if it held the answer to life, and then casually shrugged and took it behind the counter, to give it another quick rinse.
His non-chalant response to his unsanitary establishment shocked me; shouldn't he be panicking that I will report this to the food and health agency? Shouldn't he be shuffling on his feet, doing everything he can to assure me it is a legitimate establishment so that I return in the future?
Nah.
He just rinsed it again, not anymore thoroughly than the first time, and brought it back promptly. There it was, on the side of the glass, a lovely set of fingerprints even stained with a little bit of dirt from his glass. I smiled politely and thanked him. I looked at the glass warily, hoped for the best and drank from it.
I survived.
Apparently, a little dirt -won't- kill you, contrary to popular western belief. So why are people so afraid of tap water? Surely the filter must do something. I see people paying ridiculous amounts of money for water, which in my eyes, should be free.
Now, I never thought I would write about water until I actually bought a bottle of 'Fiji' water myself to see what all the fuss was about. For those not familiar with it, the water comes all the way from, predictably, Fiji, and comes in a fancy, semi-unique looking bottle to boot. Cool, I thought. Then I paid the near 3 dollars for a bottle of water. Needless to say, I will never pay for bottled water again (unless I'm in Cairo).
Not only was it ridiculously overpriced, it tasted exactly like I expected it to... LIKE WATER. I admit, I was somewhat hoping for this amazing luxurious water that would blow me away and force me to pledge my allegiance to Fiji water for the rest of my days. But nah, it was just like any other freaking water.
Thus, I ask you dedicated bottle water consumers, what is it that makes you so blindly devoted to bottled water? Is it really necessary to drink water from Fiji, from a glacier in the North Pole, or from an iceberg in the most northerly part of the French Alps? I think not.
I don't think it has anything to do with the health benefits, I think it is just some deep rooted need for us Westerners to try and fill the void in our lives by trying something 'exotic'. How else can we explain the prevalence of caviar, escargo, and bottled water in western civilization? Does anyone actually enjoy eating snails?
OHHHH, this water comes from Fiji, a tiny island in the middle of the pacific ocean that no one has ever paid attention to for the last 50 years until they decided to make it the centre of the world of prestigious waters. Quote, from the website:
"FIJI Water is drawn from an artesian aquifer, located at the very edge of a primitive rainforest, hundreds of miles away from the nearest continent."
WOW.
I am sooooo going to buy it now! It's drawn form an Artesian aquifier at the very edge of a primitive rainforst! WOW!
$*&% OFF. PLEASE AND THANKS.
I don't get what this fascination with exotic water is...I should send all these Artesian water drinkers to Cairo, Egypt...if fingerprints and lipstick stains isn't exotic enough for them, then they should stick to their tap water.
/rant
