Pure Water

3. Pure Water

Water deserves treatment equally as much as air. In fact, inasmuch as breathing is an automatic process and drinking is a consciously-directed process, water deserves more attention. Though every aspect of our well-being deserves adequate attention, those areas wherein our health is more likely to be endangered or undermined should receive the most detailed treatment. Getting the water we need is one of those areas.

Besides wholesome foods, only three items should ever be taken into our bodies. These are air (about which we’ve spoken), sunshine (which we’ll speak about in another lesson), and water. We’ll take up this subject next. At this stage suffice it to say that anything in or on the body other than wholesome foods, air, water and sunshine-all essential body nutrients—is unhealth! This stricture may seem severe. But we cannot exceed the limits of our adaptations. To do so is to subject ourselves to pathological consequences.

Your role as a health practitioner is to keep yourself and your clients in a regime of living as free as possible of the dangers inherent within the context of a “civilized” society. The word “civilization” is in quotes, for what kind of society can be said to be civilized if it harbors grave dangers for its members?

As promised, let’s move on to the subject of water. What is water? What is its role in the body? Why do we need it so vitally? What kind or kinds of water should we have? What is the best source for our water requirements? As we get into the subject we’ll endeavor to answer these questions.

The expression pure water is used throughout our treatment of the subject of water. If there’s anything everyone wants, it is pure water. No one wants impure water. Yet, most people drink anything but pure water. Pure water is purely water-only water and nothing but water.

3.1 Best Sources for Humans

The purest water is distilled water. Inasmuch as an individual lives as he should he will get all or almost all his water needs from a diet of proper foods. Therefore, very little distilled water will ever need to be consumed. Distilled water should be a secondary source of water. Humans are not naturally water-drinking creatures, for they have absolutely no equipment for it as have natural water-drinking animals. Therefore, the proper diet for humans is necessarily water sufficient. A correct diet must contain the pure water that we require.

Fruits contain the purest water of all and also are the finest foods of all. The water in fruits is completely pure; that is, it is without any trace of inorganic minerals or other matters that are likely to combine with body fluids and clog up blood vessels, cells or interstitial spaces. Most Life Scientists are primarily and almost wholly fruit-eaters. (Bear in mind that many so-called vegetables are actually non-sweet fruits and that, technically, nuts are fruits, too.) Because we were almost exclusively fruit-eaters in a pristine state of nature and because a fruit diet is water sufficient, humans never developed water-drinking mechanisms.

Why does the body need water? What role does water play in the body? Why is impure water harmful to the body?

The primary role of water in the body is as a transport medium. It is also the medium for storage of needed organic compounds and electrolytes within the cells. This is accomplished by the water holding molecules and nutrient reserves in suspension.

Impure water harms the human organism because the impurities are invariably poisons. While our foods contain water, water from non-food sources is not our medium for food or nutrients. Minerals in water are dissolved from soil and rock and have no more virtue in the human body than if the soil or rock itself was eaten. The body simply cannot handle inorganic minerals. Inorganic minerals circulate in the body as poisons. Anything at all in water aside from wholesome foods is, therefore, a pollutant or a poison.

Thus, people who drink water are likely to imbibe a plethora of poisons. Different people drink water for different reasons. For instance, many health seekers drink spring water, well water, sea water and other kinds of water in the mistaken belief that it is healthful.

Let’s take a closer look at water drinking in America and examine certain probabilities in regard to water-drinking.

• Some people, including Life Scientists, drink little water because they are primarily fruitarians. Their diet is water sufficient.
• Some people drink distilled water either because they are health-aware and want pure water or because their regular water supply is unsuitable for drinking. By far the larger number of Americans who drink distilled water do so because their regular water is so bad, not because of any overall health orientation. They may be said to be undertaking a healthful measure in preference to an obviously unwholesome practice. In either of these cases of people who drink distilled water, water drinking is indulged because of a more or less unwholesome diet (a cooked diet containing salt and other condiments). Our natural diet is water-sufficient.
• Some people deliberately drink mineralized waters in the mistaken belief that their bodies need all
  the minerals they can get. These are usually “health-oriented” persons who do not realize that minerals in water as picked up from soil and water are the very same as the minerals in soil or powdered rock and are not used by the body. They shun chemicalized waters from water systems.
• The majority of people drink whatever water is available—mineralized; chemicalized; from their local water system, wells or springs. These people consume a diet that is either water-deficient or so unwholesome as to require heavy supplies of water.
• Life Scientists sometimes drink distilled water. They may do so because they are fasting and not taking in water from food sources, or they may drink distilled water to supplement the water present in their diet. In the latter case, extra water may be required during particularly hot weather, especially if the individual engages in vigorous physical activity.
• Tens of millions of Americans drink soft drinks, coffee, tea, cocoa and a host of other water-containing concoctions when thirsty. These people entertain and stimulate themselves in the process of getting their liquids. While pure water is, in itself, very satisfying to the thirsty, many seek other gratifications which they get by consuming the kinds of drinks just mentioned. All drinking of anything but pure water is less than ideal and most often is quite unwholesome and disease-producing. For instance, many drink fresh vegetable and fruit juices to quench their thirst. Juices, though fragmented foods, are, nevertheless, foods. They should not be used as substitutes for distilled water.

3.2 Chemicals Used in Water “Purification” Are Toxic

Most Americans drink liquids and most liquids taken contain inorganic minerals, fluorine, chlorine and other so-called “chemicals of purification.” Bacteria in water are far less harmful than the chemicals that are used to destroy them. Their presence in water usually indicates that the water contains organic matter, but bacteria in water are no more harmful than those we constantly take in by air or those which populate our intestinal tracts. However, water we drink should be pure. No water system in this country furnishes pure water. Invariably it is polluted in some harmful way.

Drinking tap water is fraught with dangers. The US. Public Health Service released the results of research and surveys of waters from various water systems in the U.S. Over eighty carcinogens were found. Most of these were from the breakdown of chlorine in water systems or its combination with other chemicals. Chlorine itself is a carcinogen. Chemicals from agricultural fertilizers, chemical industries, pesticides and homes pollute our waters. Sulfur, iron, gypsum, calcium, magnesium and other inorganic minerals are toxic in themselves. Purification systems, so-called, do not remove these minerals. They are designed to remove bacteria, which are far less harmful. Purification systems add chemicals rather than remove them (except in some systems where the water supply is deadly at its source). This is especially true of some waters in Louisiana and New Jersey.

Fluorine is added to water, not as a purifier, but as a mass medication. This waste product of the chemical and metals industries has been rammed down our throats, so to speak, in the mistaken belief by many that it will prevent tooth decay. Obviously, it doesn’t work, for tooth decay is just as rampant today as before—in fact, it t is worse than ever. Fluorine is in the water of more than half our population’s water supplies. Inorganic fluorine compounds are carcinogenic and deadly. Poisons are never the basis of health. Our teeth are sabotaged by dietary practices also.

3.3 Spring and Well Water

As mentioned earlier, many people think mineral water, well water, spring water or other impure water is just what we need. Spring water, waters from mountain streams and waters to which certain minerals have been added are quite popular. In New York City and in some other places, such waters are the rage. Many people in these places will not touch their city water supply for drinking purposes. But processed waters which have had mineral concoctions added and waters from springs and mountain streams are in vogue. While these waters with their mineral content cannot possibly be as harmful as the mineralized and chemicalized water supplies, they are, nevertheless, very unwholesome. Distilled water is available in New York City but it is relatively neglected in favor of so-called natural waters.

Many waters, especially imported spring waters, are prized for their peculiar tastes. Some waters are carbonated to give them extra attraction. But all such waters are harmful. Pure water is pleasant to drink and has no taste or kick whatsoever. If you’re thirsty, pure water is the most satisfying of all, even without any taste thrill.

Though you should get most of or all your water from your food, you should never try to get anything from water but water.

For the purposes of emphasis and enhanced understanding, we will repeat what has already been stated about water: Anything in water as drawn from tap, well, spring or stream is inorganic and harmful. The body cannot digest or metabolize inorganic substances. Other than air, water, and sunshine, the body cannot utilize anything except organic compounds as found in food. All else is poisonous. Inorganic materials cannot be utilized; they clog up our bodies if not eliminated, and they combine with body fluids, oils, compounds and wastes and form substances that cake our vascular system. They are deposited in our joints and muscles, interstitial spaces, organs and lymphatic system. Both deranged foods, that is, those that have been cooked and processed, and impure water contain inorganic minerals, which are harmful to our organism.

People with the debris of impure water and cooked food in their systems usually do not eliminate all of it. When these substances are in an active state, that is, when they are circulating in the system, the body is in a frenzy. Leucocytes (white blood cells) proliferate, pulse rates increase, and often enough, these people are stimulated. The stimulation usually begins within 15 to 30 minutes after drinking or ingestion and lasts until the materials are eliminated or sidetracked in the system—as in plaques which form in arteries.

Just as impure water contains harmful, non-usable inorganic minerals, so do cooked foods. This topic will be covered in depth in a later lesson.

There are several schools of thought in this country that advocate drinking mineral-containing water such as well water, spring water and mineral water. They say that mineral-containing water is needed because the body requires the minerals from it. In addition, they say that distilled water causes heart attacks and leeches needed minerals from the body, causing tooth decay, pyorrhea and osteoporosis and that distilled water is dead water and fish cannot live in it. They contend that water containing minerals will correct these problems as well as preventing them from happening in the first place.

Proponents of mineral-containing water attribute the superb health of the Hunzas to mineralized water. The Hunzas are one of the healthiest peoples in the world. They supposedly drink a frothy white mineralized water from glacial runoff.

Of course there are valid responses to these arguments. To the implication that we need the minerals in impure water, we point out that, if our diet is proper, we get more than we need of minerals of all kinds. Further, the minerals in water are totally unusable, thus making them a toxic burden within instead of nutritional. Water is needed in the body for itself, not for any incidental impurities it may have picked up from soil and rock.

Rather than distilled water causing heart attacks, it is the other way around. Distilled water does not leave behind any indigestible debris from unusable inorganic minerals. Those who drink mineral-containing water are often found to have heavy plaque in their systems. The rejected minerals which the body cannot use often combine with cholesterol and other fatty substances to form plaque. These block the arteries. The rejected minerals are also likely to be put aside in the body in spaces that exist. Notably is this so in the cranial cavity where the spaces of lost brain cells are filled in by minerals, thus leading to ossification of the brain. This is a cause of senility.

How pure water could leech minerals from the body has received a thorough refutation from physiologists. An important thing to remember about water and everything else put into the body is that it is done unto by the body. It does not do unto the body. Those substances which seem to act on the body, as in the case of unmanageable acids, compounds and chemicals, are poisons. The body is the master of its domain. Following this reasoning, soft water does not leech minerals from the body. The body uses water. Water doesn’t use the body. Water and other foodstuffs are under the control of the body while in the body. The body does what it wants to with water. It excretes the water if it’s not needed. Along with the water it excretes mineral matter that it no longer requires. The kidneys are the final arbiters of what will be excreted and what will be returned to the body economy for use. For instance, the body recycles about 95% of its iron regardless of the water we drink. It also recycles many other mineral compounds or salts. The body is very conservative with its nutrient supplies.

An example is eating watermelon. If you eat watermelon, your urine will be completely clear. There will be almost no mineral matter in it to color it. The very pure water of watermelon that is unneeded by the system is speedily expelled. Very little mineral or other matter will be in it, for the body is doing unto the water. The water does not circulate freely in the body. The body retains or expels the water according to its need.

On the other hand, if you are fasting or under any other condition in which you’re not taking water from food and the body is conserving its water supply, your urine will become very dark yellow because the body is giving up more wastes and more mineral matter relative to the water it is expelling.

What the Hunzas (or North Pakistan) drink is not responsible for their health. Water is a need of life but total health is dependent on healthful living. Water is but one element of many. Travelers who have gone there find that the Hunzas really drink very little water. They’re primarily fruit eaters. The water they do drink is permitted to settle first. As the glacial runoff comes rushing down the mountains it picks up minerals as debris rather than holding them in solution. That is, the water has silt in suspension rather than minerals in solution. This silt is the basis of Hunza health, true, but because it is deposited on their fertile gardens, not because they drink soil and rock in their water. The water itself comes from relatively pure snow. Very few minerals are in solution by the time it has rushed from the heights to their catch basins below. Only a few minutes of time in contact with minerals accounts for the mineral complement of these waters.

Again, how can waters be responsible for a condition of health? If drinking water was the secret for great health, then all we’d have to do is drink the kind of water we need and not worry about food, exercise, sleep or anything else. Water would take care of everything. Healthful living would be unnecessary.

Next let’s examine the argument that pure water is dead water and that fish can’t live in it. As you know, many fish live in the ocean. We can’t drink sea water, for we’d quickly die. It has a heavy complement of minerals – sea water is richer in minerals than any water in the world. Other fish live in rivers, creeks, ponds and lakes. You don’t drink water out of rivers, ponds and other places where fish live. Such waters contain the excrement of fish and other creatures, decaying leaves and other organic matter. In fact, we don’t drink from fishy waters for a very good reason: It’s unfit to drink. Further, water, whether fish live in it or not, cannot be described as living or as dead. In short, there can be no living water, for it is an inert lifeless compound at all times.

It is true fish cannot live in distilled water. Distilled water has no air in it. Neither does it have the food supply a fish requires. Thus it can be seen the argument is without any merit.

To repeat: If we’re eating the diet to which we’re biologically adapted, we do not have to drink water except on those occasions when we must use unusual amounts of it to refrigerate ourselves as in heavy physical labor in hot weather.

Why do most Americans drink so much water and other liquids? Cooked food eaters require copious amounts of water. People who take in so many irritants or poisons as found in heat-deranged foods; in condiments, especially salt and other seasonings; and in unsuitable foods such as grain and animal foods, need this water to help hold toxic materials in suspension so that they offer less harm to cells and tissues.

People who eat a wholesome diet require less water than people who eat an unwholesome diet. On wholesome diets there is usually sufficient water in the foods to meet all needs whereas, on an unwholesome diet, abnormal amounts of water are required to help cope with the irritants, stimulants, excitants or poisons within.

Edema or dropsy, for instance, is a disease of those who eat cooked foods and/or salts and other condiments. The body takes on extra water to hold these toxic materials in suspension. Until the body can dump these they are stored in likely areas, often the feet and legs. A few days of fasting enables the body to catch up on its housecleaning. It thus will expel the waters and purify its fluids and tissues.

This concludes our examination in depth of the first two essentials of life, air and water. In the next lesson we’ll keep up consideration of other of life’s essentials.