Will drinking softened water deprive me of essential minerals?
The short answer is no. All your mineral requirements are satisfied by the food
you eat, not by the water you drink. People who live in Cornwall, Wales or
Scotland and other soft water areas do not suffer from mineral deficiency
because their water is naturally soft, and neither will you when you have a
water softener.
Typical examples are - two slices of bread contain 375 mg, and two glasses of
milk contain 325 mg of sodium. For comparison, an adult in a average hard water
area drinking 4 pints of artificially softened water per day would add only 310
mg of sodium to their average daily intake. (sodium ions, not salt!)
Information above extracted from the independent Consumers’ Guide to Water
Softeners by British Water.
To put things in perspective, in a cup of tea or coffee there is more sodium in
the splash of milk than there would be in the softened water. Unlike the USA or the rest of Europe, in the UK there is a recommendation that
means where practical a tap must be left un-softened in the house. In practice
this means a third hard water mini tap at the sink. The two main pillar taps are
softened and the mini tap provides un-softened water. Fact sheet: Softened Water and Health
Can I drink water from my water softener?
Everyone can drink softened water unless they are on a medically supervised
sodium restricted diet like kidney dialysis patients or a bottle fed baby on powder feed less than six months old. It makes a
stronger flavoured tea or coffee, you don't get a 'skin' on it and you don't get scale in
the kettle.
The fact is unlike naturally occurring soft water, softened water has no link to
increased occurrence of cardiovascular disease because it has exactly the same
amount of dissolved solids in it as hard water. All we have done is exchanged
the metal ions of calcium and magnesium that cause scale and soap scum for the
metal ion of sodium that does not. In fact, Gall stone treatments include the
advice to drink plenty of softened water.
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New 3-way taps for water softeners
Hard water mini taps for water softeners