June: Filtering Your Water

By John, Certified Holistic Health Coach

This January, instead of making the usual resolutions that we’ve given up on by the end of the month, we decided to break it up by dividing some big goals into manageable chunks.

Each month, we invite you to overhaul one aspect of your life to reduce toxins, improve health, and increase your peace of mind. Our promise is that these changes will be easy to implement, helping you avoid resolution overwhelm. 

(If you’re just joining us, here is January’s mini resolution on upgrading junk foods, February’s with a medicine cabinet detox, March’s on improving indoor air quality, April’s five ways to clean up your cleaning products and May’s on making your yard non-toxic.)

A human can go for weeks without food, but without water we can only make it about a week, at best. Our bodies consist of about 70% water. Water that is free from a wide range of contaminants should be a high priority.

June marks the beginning of the warmest months of the year, and a time when we all (should!) drink more water. But even in places with “good water,” what comes out of our faucets is often contaminated with a wide range of toxins, heavy metals, and trace pharmaceuticals. This month, I invite you to invest in a filtration system that will improve your water, health, and peace of mind!

The sheer volume of water-treatment options is staggering. We offer only a limited number of filtration systems in our online store because most folks need only one of a few options. We see no need to make things more confusing!

You can learn more in our article, Do You Need a Water Filter?, but below I’ll tell you what you want to get out of your water, and then four filter options that will do that.

Filtering Your Water

The main things we want to get out of our water are as follows:

1) Chlorine

Chlorine is used to kill many biological agents, including bacterias like cryptosporidium, giardia, and cyclospora. Chlorine is incredibly effective, but chlorine in drinking water is implicated a wide variety of health problems, from cancer and heart disease to reproductive problems and more.

2) Heavy Metals

Lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, mercury, and more easily bio-accumulate in our bodies and can cause serious long-term health problems.

3) Pharmaceuticals

This is a relatively new source of toxins now found in water supplies throughout the world. Pharmaceuticals pass though those who take them and are eliminated through our urine. They are flushed and later show back up in drinking water.

4) Industrial products/byproducts

DDT, Dioxins, Percholate, Hexachlorobenzene, MtBE, PCB’s, Chromium VI and many others can now be found in the water of many towns.

5) Radioactive elements

These are now showing up in some locations. If you have them, you should of course filter them out. This usually requires reverse osmosis technology.

6) Fluoride

There is robust debate over the use of fluoride in drinking water. Some believe it to be okay while others can point to studies suggest it is a potent neurotoxin. I choose to filter it from my water.

Filtering Your Water: Choosing the Right Filter

We offer three basic types of filtration systems in our store.

1. Two-Stage KDF/GAC/carbon block filtration. These filters take care of most of the contaminants found in municipal drinking water, but they lack a fluoride filter. Choose an under-counter or counter-top model. Requirements: A hole in your countertop for the under-counter model, and a faucet with an aerator tip for the countertop model. Do you live in a city? If so, you should invest in a pre-filter for your system.
2. Three-Stage KDF/GAC/carbon block filtration. This model includes a fluoride filter. Choose an under-counter or countertop model. Requirements: A hole in your countertop for the under-counter model, and a faucet with an aerator tip for the countertop model. Do you live in a city? If so, you should invest in a pre-filter for your system.
3. ZIP Countertop Reverse Osmosis filter system. These filters are perfect for folks who cannot put a hole in their countertop and/or have the modern type faucet that will not connect to the KDF/GAC/carbon block countertop unit. They are also great for folks who may have radioactive elements in their water.

A Word About Reverse Osmosis (RO) Filtration

RO does a great job filtering water of just about everything. One of the downsides is that RO traditionally wastes 4-5 times as much water as they produce. The ZIP limits the amount of waste-water and even stores it in a special chamber so that it can be used elsewhere in the home (we use ours to water plants). RO filtration also removes beneficial dissolved minerals, so care should be taken to be sure that your diet contains these trace minerals. For most of us that is not a problem.

What About Charcoal Filtering Bottles?

Activated carbon is a great filter medium, but usually water is forced through the charcoal by the pressure in the system. When you just drop a stick of charcoal into your water bottle and head off to yoga, there is simply not enough time for any significant filtration to occur.

Finally, water also enters into our bodies when we shower and the chlorine that’s added to all municiple water sources enters with it. Chlorine can also become a gas when heated and thus get into our lungs when taking a steamy shower. To prevent this, it’s worth considering a shower and/or bath filter.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask questions.

Stay Sane,

Shop This Story

Three-Stage Under-Counter Filter (includes fluoride filtration)

$294.99Buy Now

Three-Stage Countertop Filter (includes fluoride filtration)

$220.99Buy Now

Two-Stage Under-Counter Filter (does not filter fluoride)

$220.99Buy Now

Two-Stage Countertop Water Filter (does not filter fluoride)

$140.00Buy Now

Reverse Osmosis Countertop Filter

$469.95Add to cart

Shower Filter

$69.95Buy Now

Bathtub Filter

$79.95Buy Now

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Related posts:

Do You Need a Water Filter? New Harvard Study Says Yes What You Need to Know About Toxins In Your Water Alkaline Water Questions? We Have Answers! How to Choose a Water Filtration System Why You Should Drink MORE Water When it’s Humid (and a Problem with Air Conditioners)