H2 "NO": Why Most Drinking Water is Unfit for Consumption... And What You Should Drink Instead

I hate to do this, but today I’m going to rain on your parade and make you rethink everything you previously thought about the water you are drinking.

In my recent ancestral diet article, I went into detail about the ultra-processed nature of modern diets, and why we need to return to a style of eating that mimics that of our pre-historic ancestors. However, one thing that is commonly skipped over when we talk about diet is drinking water.

Despite the measures most of us take to drink high quality water, the fact remains that the water we consume is not only highly processed, but also likely a major contributor to many common ailments that we see in our world today.

This article is specifically about the water that we consume via eating and drinking but please do understand that the water that we use to bathe and for other non-eating purposes is also damaging to our health. However, for the purposes of this article we'll stick to discussing our drinking-water only.

Historical sources of drinking water

It doesn’t take a historian or archaeologist to know that humanity has always relied on being in close proximity to natural sources of fresh water. Throughout the course of history, we can trace human migration patterns and the one thing that is consistent is that where there is no water, there were no people.

Before the dawn of agriculture, humans lived nomadic and hunter-gatherer lifestyles and relied on various sources of water including ground (well) water, freshwater streams, natural spring water, and rain to satisfy their hydration needs.

With the rise of agriculture and civilizations, many human groups became sedentary with unnaturally large and dense populations settling on relatively small areas of land. While this may have proved beneficial for humans in a number of ways, this marked the beginning of a new relationship with water in which we not only began manipulating our water supply with technology such as aqueducts and irrigation, but we also began systematically polluting our water supply with runoff from the civilizations that relied on the very bodies of water that they began tarnishing.

With the rise of civilization came the beginning of the decline of readily available and reliable sources of natural drinking water for most humans. Large populations living in close quarters became a recipe for tainted water supply and countless deaths from waterborne illness like dysentery. As a solution we began to see societies turn to beer, wine, and other fermented drinks because they were safer to consume than most water sources.

In many Asian societies, boiled water would be consumed in the form of teas rather than alcohol due to genetic differences from western civilizations that result in less ability to break down alcohol.

This continued until the 1800s when the first large scale water treatment plants came into existence.

Modern drinking water is ultra-processed

Today in the US, most of the population lives in cities or suburban communities that can only sustain life through industrial scale water processing. In some cases, this water processing enables civilization to exist in previously uninhabitable areas such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. From the standpoint of supporting life, our mass-handling of water can be viewed as a success story. However, from a pure health perspective, the effects of our water treatment are catastrophic.

While the water in the US and many other places around the world is drinkable with extraordinarily low odds of keeling over and dying from typhoid or parasites, it is most certainly not clean or fit for human consumption.

We’ve removed the most acutely dangerous substances from our water, but through a combination of previously non-existent pollution sources and treatment additives, modern water is a far cry from the fresh ground and rainwater that our bodies evolved consuming for tens of thousands of years pre-modern times.

The water situation now is honestly way too convoluted for me to explain or even fully understand. Like with many other things in our modern world, even the experts are still trying to fully grasp the situation we’ve created for ourselves. What I do know is that modern drinking water, in the US at least, is far outside of the definition of a “whole food” and in my opinion should not be consumed as part of an ancestral diet that optimizes metabolic function and hormonal balance.

Water processing, and the mere existence of industrialized civilization has turned our public drinking water into yet another toxic component of the standard American diet. There are plenty of toxins of concern in our water, too many to name to be honest, but I’ve listed a few below so you can get the idea.

Carcinogens – Widespread proliferation of pesticides, fertilizers, forever chemicals, and disinfectants has led to an insurmountable amount of cancer-causing chemicals to enter into the water supply. My understanding is that water treatment facilities typically do not remove these chemicals and in-home filters may or may not work.

The result is that when you do your best to stay hydrated throughout the day, you are also dosing yourself with a concoction of carcinogenic substances that could potentially lead to many types of cancers including bladder, lung, liver, skin, etc.

According to the watchdog organization, Environmental Working Group, over 100,000 cases of cancer in the United States is caused by contaminated drinking water.

Lead – When the foundation of America’s water infrastructure was built in the 1800s, builders used lead because of its favorable material properties. However, we’ve since learned that lead is toxic and not a suitable material to use for water infrastructure. Unfortunately, lead piping was not banned until the 1980s, meaning that there are still millions of pipes feeding into the homes of tens of millions of Americans.

In fact, Chicago, the city I live in, is home to the highest concentration of lead piping in the nation. Replacing the thousands of miles of led pipes that were laid pose a horrendously expensive and tedious process, so one workaround includes treating the water supply with chemicals that bond to the interior surface of lead pipes and provide a protective barrier. However, different factors such as high acidity in water can corrode this protective layer and open a pathway for lead to enter the water supply.

Approximately 70% of homes in Chicago alone test positive for lead in their drinking water.

Birth Control – The proliferation of birth control in the United States has had an unintended effect on our water supply. When the hormones present in birth control medication exits the body it enters the municipal water system. Unfortunately, the treatment facilities typically do not have the capabilities to remove these hormones from the water. Thus, when it is recycled back into the water supply, the population ends up unknowingly consuming trace amounts of the same hormones found in birth control medication.

Tests have shown that animals that were exposed to high levels of estrogenics in water experienced a number of side effects including “feminization” of males that began developing female reproductive organs.. and yes, the actual scientific term is called “male feminization.”

If this is happening in animals, then what is it doing to humans? It is believed that the estrogenics in our water supply are one cause of alarmingly low testosterone levels in men compared to 50 years ago, which has translated to lower sperm counts and infertility, among many other issues.

Prescription Drugs – Considering that the go-to remedy for most medical situations in western cultures is prescription medication, it should come as no surprise that the ubiquitous use of antibiotics, hormones, and mood stabilizers has led to a water supply that contains a litany of medications that have deleterious effects on the human body and overall public health.

Similar to birth control in the water supply, these drugs are endocrine disruptors that alter the body’s hormones and lead to a slew of adverse health consequences including the rise of antibiotic resistant microbes and declining metabolic health, among other ailments.

You may think you’re in the clear by drinking filtered water, however most water purifiers do not remove all of these harmful substances. There are some very effective home filtration solutions that you can use, such as reverse osmosis, or resorting to distilled water, but such solutions are not always feasible for most people.

This means that when we think we are being healthy by carrying around a reusable water bottle and topping off at a filtered water tap, we actually are putting highly questionable substances into our bodies. The result is hormonal imbalances that may be triggering many of the health ailments that we can’t seem to shake such as chronic diseases, weight gain, mood disorders, infertility, and the laundry list of other problems that we have collectively accepted as merely “genetics.”

Natural spring water

When it comes to drinking water. I believe there is a very simple and practical solution.

In keeping with my philosophy that minimal processed foods is best, I also try to minimize the amount of processed water that I consume. Granted it is all but impossible to completely eliminate exposure to processed tap water, but I do focus on what I do have control over which is the water that I drink at home.

We want to get back to drinking the ground, spring, and other natural sources of fresh water that our prehistoric fore beings drank. This water has been filtered and treated by the earth through natural processes which means that it will typically contain a level of purity that simply cannot be matched through modern water treatment.

Before you bring up that you only drink bottled water, please know that most bottled water is sourced from municipal tap water and ran through purifiers. Additionally, plenty of water that is naturally sourced is packaged in plastic bottles, which contaminates the water with the microplastics and other chemicals as mentioned above. So simply running to your local Walmart or Costco and buying pallets of Aquafina or Desani will not resolve the issue.

Instead of your typical bottled water, it is best to drink water sourced from natural springs, glaciers, streams, etc. We also want to minimize contamination from packaging by avoiding any form of plastic and only buying water in glass bottles. By simply following this protocol we can enjoy water that is not only minimally processed, but also water that contains the minerals and electrolytes that are vital for proper body and cognitive functioning.

Mountain Valley water fits the bill for what I would consider to be an acceptable water option that aligns with my ancestral style of eating. It is now my preferred hydration solution. I have no affiliation with this water brand aside from the fact that I just think it is a practical and high-quality option.

Remember that water makes up about 2/3 of the human body. We are the water we drink because it touches literally every single process within our bodies. While I’m sure we all know that some water is better than others, I think we grossly underestimate exactly how impactful water actually is on our health. I argue that it is equally as consequential as the food that we eat, but unfortunately it is commonly omitted from the health equation.

Spending a little more to consume the highest quality of water is worth the investment in my opinion.

Applying this knowledge to a fitness protocol

If you are someone who is trying to lose weight, get leaner, build muscle, overcome depression or other mood disorders, or fight chronic disease, then consider the kind of water you are drinking and whether or not you can benefit from switching to healthier water sources. The fact is that much of our health, wellness, and fitness is a direct result of how well we manage our hormones. The equation is not as simple as tracking calories or eating that “heart-healthy” thing from the store. We must look at how the things we consume impact our hormonal balance, and this ranges across everything from the foods we eat, to the cosmetics we put on our skin, to the water we drink.

The reason I created Unleashing Savage is to investigate these kinds of things and develop a holistic approach to health and fitness, financial freedom, and living life on your own terms rather than the myopic approach that society has a propensity for taking.

My invite-only body elevation program takes that holistic approach that you may be looking for to help you melt away body fat, sharpen your cognitive performance, and balance your hormones through reconnecting with nature. Reach out to me to learn more.