Hey... I absolutely love ginger-ale and I used to make my own before i was raw... with ginger juice lemon honey and sparkling water... so i'm wondering I've seen NATURAL sparkling mineral water... is it really natural??? AND is it raw???? Thanks for your wisdom as always...

love laugh and dream

It's probably from a mineral spring that is naturally carbonated, you know, like Vichy Water. I don't know how warm those springs get(some are quite hot) so as to its being raw, dunno . . .

Yes, water can come out of a spring naturally carbonated--

"This magma superheats and groundwater beneath the Perrier spring that permeates the calcium carbonate layers, forms carbonation gas. This carbonated gas rises to mingle and carbonate the mineral water. Up through the last century, in fact, they formed a cool, bubbling pool ("Les Bouillens" in which locals and health-seekers often bathed.

"A desire for consistency, plus Perrier's growing public demands as a international beverage, led French scientists to devise a more efficient means to capture the water's perfect balance of minerals and carbonation and maintain consistency. By the end of the 19th century, the water and gas were collected separately and combined at the bottling plant under conditions likened to those once found within the source.

"This procedure has been modernized since then, of course. Both the water and carbonic gas are still harvested independently. They come from isolated points at different depths, within the same geologic formation. Before they come together for bottling, a filter is used to remove any natural impurities in the gas." [www.bottledwaterweb.com]

"is it raw?"

It's no longer "raw water" after it's been filtered and processed but is raw in the rawist sense, unless heated food ingredients like lemon juice are added.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2010 01:14PM by loeve.

A bit off topic but...

The kombucha I make gets super carbonated. If I add ginger during it's resting time, it tastes just like ginger ale.

Jennifer

That's because it's fermented, right? It's alcoholic (at least a little bit; I have seen the stuff they sell at health stores say there is a little alchohol).

luvyuu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey... I absolutely love ginger-ale and I used to
> make my own before i was raw... with ginger juice
> lemon honey and sparkling water... so i'm
> wondering I've seen NATURAL sparkling mineral
> water... is it really natural??? AND is it
> raw???? Thanks for your wisdom as always...

La Croix is apparently just carbonated. But I have bought stuff from Whole Foods which is naturally sparkling and (I think) bottled at the source. I don't think it's filtered, but I don't know.

ok... well i have to go to the store today so I will do some label reading...

Loeve what do you mean "heated food ingredients like lemon" ??? i don't heat my lemon juice... is there something i don't know about lemons???

another question about carbonation... i've heard it interferes with digestion... would this be the same with the natural kind...???

love laugh and dream

luvyuu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Loeve what do you mean "heated food ingredients
> like lemon" ??? i don't heat my lemon juice...
> is there something i don't know about lemons???
>
> another question about carbonation... i've heard
> it interferes with digestion... would this be the
> same with the natural kind...???


Myabe Loeve means when the company has lemon-flavored sparkling water. I don't think I'd get that legalistic about it, but whatever floats one's boat...

As for the digestion, do you remember when you were a kid an had indigestion that ginger ale was supposed to be good for that? I think that obviously part of it's the actual ginger but the carbonation seems to settle one's stomach. I love the sensation of carbonation myself. Maybe once in a while as a treat? I just would be concerned with the inorganic minerals (from rocks) in that mineral water...

That's right, Lemon Perrier is probably not raw, home made lemon ginger ale is as raw as one makes it. The CO2 is in such small amounts it can't hurt you I've heard, and gets metabolized easily like other CO2 in the body. Perrier happens to be an acidic water, and am not sure if that's because of the CO2 or other minerals in the spring, I suspect the later. There are lists of common bottled spring waters and their acidity on-line. I don't mind mineral rich acidic water and drink it daily out of my well.

It's easy to check the pH of water with a test strip. Some flavoured sparkling waters in the UK tested quite acidic, and so probably not so good for the teeth--

"RESULTS: All of the flavoured waters tested showed ... low pH (2.74-3.34)."

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

..that's more acidic than my well (pH 5.8). There must be some more neutral sparkling waters out there?

..here's one. San Pellegrino Sparkling Water has a pH of 7.7 --

[www.finewaters.com]

If anyone is going to drink any kind of water for an extended
period of time, look at the TDS (total dissolved solids).
San Pellegrino has 1109 TDS, and 7.7 pH. That's a lot of
inorganic minerals. Perrier has 475 TDS, and 5.5 pH. Distilled
Water has 0 TDS. I'd leave the Sparkling Mineral Waters alone,
unless you want stiff joints in your old age.

1109 TDS happens to an excellent number for total dissolved solids for San Pellegrino mineral water. It's an indicator of quality. --

"The Food and Drug Administration requires that “mineral waters“ contain between 500 and 1,500 mg/L of total dissolved solids, a combination of the dissolved minerals."
...
"The average North American consumes insufficient quantities of Ca2+ and Mg2+ and too much Na+. Recommended dietary intakes of Ca2+ and Mg2+ are best fulfilled via the consumption of foods in which these minerals are abundant and bioavailable. The results of our study suggest that drinking water may be an important dietary source of Ca2+, Mg2+, and Na+. This is because minerals are highly bioavailable in water and because drinking water sources available to North Americans may contain clinically important levels of these minerals. Adequate daily consumption of some tap and bottled waters may help North American children and adults supplement dietary intake of Ca2+ and Mg2+ as well as reduce Na+ intake. Physicians should therefore encourage their patients to check the mineral content of their drinking water, whether tap or bottled, and to choose the water that is most appropriate for their individual dietary needs."

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

..inorganic minerals can be very bioavailable. It's good to check your source for unwanted minerals though.

"total dissolved solids for San Pellegrino mineral water."

So I picked up some S. Pellegrino sparkling natural mineral water yesterday.
The bottle says total dissolved solids - 948 mg/l, calcium-4% Daily Value per
serving, low sodium, natural CO2, bottled at the source, San Pellegrino Terme - Italy.
The pH tested at 6.2 by test strip and it tastes gently fizzy.

It's natural mineral water. The "sparkle" is added.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2010 11:14AM by loeve.