Is it worth your dollars and cents to buy bottled water? iVillage released results from a study conducted by Berkley Wellness that shows most bottled water products are nothing more than regular tap water!
Statistics show the average American drinks more than 24 gallons of bottled water each year, more than milk, beer, or coffee. Soda is more popular but, bottled water is catching up, the industry made nearly $10 billion last year. People buy bottled water because they are suspicious of what is in tap water, but really, tap water has more guidelines and regulations than bottled water companies.
Tap water is strictly regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and monitored by municipal suppliers. But bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, only if it's shipped across state lines or imported. But because most bottled water is packaged and sold within one state, it's only subject to state regulations which are less strict, and in some states, non-existent!
In blind taste tests most people can't tell the difference between bottled and tap. Mineral water is the only bottled water that has extra nutrients and researchers say these minerals don't add up to much. Tap water has fluoride which helps to reduce cavities in children.
If you care at all about the environment, tap water is much more logical because more than a million tons of plastic is used every year to make bottled water, most of which is not biodegradable.
So the next time you buy your bottled water, read the label, see what it says. I did, and found my "Glacier" brand was nothing more than bottled tap water from New Jersey!
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