ISSUE 9: TAP IS FINE? TAP IS NOT FINE.

Water we even doing? I discuss filters...or no filters...without a filter.

Dec 06, 2023

Hello, everyone!

I see some new faces here!! If you’re here via my dear pal Sara, otherwise known by the internet as @omgskr, welcome! You’re about to get the same journey of ups, downs, confusion, and inescapable comedy—but instead of dating life, it’s gonna be all about food and wellness. Thanks for being here!

By the way, you can follow me on IG @ljsayshey.

Let’s get into it.

WOULD YOU TAP THAT?

Let’s talk about water. Good ol’ H20.

You’ve heard it countless times. “Drink more water!” “Your body is 60% water!” “Water you doing with your life, you little freak?”

Water is one of the most precious resources out there, and because of that, a massively contentious topic amongst governments, environmental activists, and your aunt who lives in Berkeley.

But today, I am not going to be talking about the political and environmental issues around water because that sounds scary and also I do not have a Masters degree in anything.

But there is one thing I have thought about a lot, and that is the quality of the water that I drink on a daily basis.

FILTER? I HARDLY KNOW ‘ER!

Does that work?

Think back to the first time you ever saw a Brita water filter. I can’t actually remember the first time I saw a Brita filter, but something tells me it was around 2003 at a friend’s house in a cookie cutter development.

“It’s purified water,” Mrs. Friend’sMom said.

“Ooh la la” my 3rd grade self swooned before I went back to crawling on the floor pretending to be a dog.

Learning that there is filtered water available tends to make you question if the water coming out of the tap will kill you on impact.

No, of course not. Water treatment plants will add chemicals like chlorine or chloramine that kills viruses, parasites, and bacteria like Giardia, which makes you shit until you see stars. According to the CDC, the water will retain low levels of these chemicals so that it will kill whatever else is in the pipes that the water has to go through to get to your thirsty ass.

This treatment all makes the water safe to drink, but that does not mean the water is necessarily “healthy” depending on where you land on your water purity preferences.

Sure, there is no bad bacteria in there, but there are low levels of things that we might not want, even if they’re not be setting off alarm bells for the agencies testing the water.

WHAT’S IN YOUR WATER?

I am not a scientist—shocker—so I’m not going to pull studies citing why everything potentially in your water in possibly problematic. BUT! I will refer you to a resource I love which is ~The Environmental Working Group~ and its

TAP WATER DATABASE!

On the Tap Water Database, you can input your Zip Code and then find out all the contaminants and at what level that have been detected in your local water. Per my thoughts above, here’s what the EWG’s website says about contaminants in water:

Legal does not necessarily equal safe. Getting a passing grade from the federal government does not mean the water meets the latest health guidelines.
Legal limits for contaminants in tap water have not been updated in almost 20 years.
The best way to ensure clean tap water is to keep pollution out of source water in the first place.

Check out your local water, and then you decide how you feel about it.

Quick Side Note:

That’s really all proactive health decisions are about. Deciding how you feel about it! Do I feel like I need to act on this? Or not? What’s best for me? There are always exceptions to every rule or health recommendation. Guaranteed that if you look up whether or not you should do something “for your health” there will be articles saying absolutely yes and absolutely no. That’s just how these things are. But definitely don’t drink battery acid! :) I feel confident making that recommendation. #wellnesstips

WATER YOU THINKING?

Ok, so how are we feeling about our water results? I inputted the Zip Code for Los Angeles Water + Power which serves almost 4 million people. Wow.

Here’s what it pulled up.

And below (hot tip: keep scrolling when you get your results, the page makes it seems like it ends but then you will find something looking like this):

I know what you’re thinking: yummy yummy. I would like 430x the recommended health limit of arsenic in my water!

It’s giving murder weapon in “Cell Block Tango.”

This video is queued to play at the relevant part…. but if you are allergic to musical theater, the punch line is “you know, some guys just can’t hold their arsenic.”

Well, then they better stay in Chicago and not come to LA!

If you click the “DETAILS” button under each contaminant, it will open up more information about the detected limit, health risks, potential sources, and ways to filter it. Very helpful!

What’s striking to me is how high the legal limit is for arsenic (as an example) compared to what the Environmental Working Group says is healthy.

Time after time, I sigh dramatically over governmental limits or standards on things related to our health. The most blatant other example I can think of is nutritional requirements for school lunches. (If you want to go down the rabbit hole on this, Bettina Elias Siegel used to write a great blog called The Lunch Tray on children and food policy. She doesn’t actively write it anymore, but you can still read it all HERE as well as her book Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World.)

Again, back to water. I’m really just going with the ~ f l o w ~ this issue, you know.

By the way, here are some companies that offer home-testing kits for water quality.

THIRSTY FOR SOLUTIONS

Ok, now comes the part that people love after finding out about a potential risk to their health: TELL ME WHAT TO BUY SO I CAN FIX IT????

Us modern wellness warriors (ew) love working on our health, but we also love buying little gizmos, gadgets, and supplements to change our lives overnight. The wellness industry is an industry, honey. And we want the goods.

And in this case, that means water filters.

MY UNFILTERED FILTER THOUGHTS

I think it was post-college when I started consuming information that said “Brita filters don’t do shit!” - New York Times. Just kidding. Although maybe? *Googles*

*Finds from this May:*

Here’s the link if you want to read that but finish reading this first because I’m cooler! Water cooler, that is.

There are a lot of types of filters you can read more about if you’re curious.

Growing up, my mom had a reverse osmosis filter for the house (flex), but now I was on my own. So I sought out something better than Brita (sorry to my friend BritTa who is reading this), and eventually landed on a Berkey filter.

Berkey filters supposedly filter everything and its mother (arsenic’s mother) out of water. They are supposedly even brought on camping trips because they can filter out bacteria like the shit-inducing Giardia I mentioned earlier.

Berkey’s are a double-chamber, gravity water system where you fill up the top and these big filters that look like shotgun mics remove “all the things” as the girls like to say, and then clean water trickles into the chamber below. It also can sit on a countertop, versus a water filter that you get installed at your sink (which would’ve been my preference but not an option because of my apartment).

I used my Berkey filter for about two years before I moved, and for the most part, I liked it! I just haven’t moved it to where I am now, otherwise I would probably be using it.

My boyfriend has a Kangen water filter that his mom bought him, so I use that. (You never see a dad buying their kids water filters.)

Upon researching for this article, I’m learning Kangen is really more of an alkalizer than a purifier, so now I am quietly spiraling in the kitchen thinking about all the chemicals I’ve consumed the last year.

Reader, It's two minutes later. I’ve gone and told my boyfriend that our water probably hasn’t been filtered, and he said “welp, tastes fine to me.” And that’s a very boy response to such a matter.

Anyway, let’s stay on track.

I haven’t found replacement for my Berkey, and just last month, the New York Times (who is getting a lot of references in this newslette)r, came out with a review of the Berkey I have with the words “Uncertified and Inconvenient” in the title.

Again, I am spiraling like the water going down the shower drain in PSYCHO.

However, the review does go onto say Berkey just didn’t use the same group that certified they ones they approved, and it also said it does show the same results on removing heavy metals like lead from water. So…. I’m not sure what to think? Do I need to set up a water testing lab in my house? Honestly, it sounds like the person who wrote this got broken up via text message with a water filter.

So now, reader, I am going to really dig in deep on water filters. Far beyond this article. Far beyond what I ever thought would be required of me.

WATER FILTER FOR THE FACE?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that for the past year or so, we have had a water filter head on our bathroom sink that is specifically made for bathroom sinks! It’s called Filterbaby and is dermatologist-tested and approved.

I was hooked by an Instagram ad featuring a video of a woman with flakey skin on her chin that I was also experiencing around that time. They claimed it was from, yep, chlorine and other shit in water, which can dry out and/or fuck up the pH of your face. I mean, it makes sense. Of course the quality of water would affect your face! Have you ever traveled to a place with really hard water and noticed a difference in your hands? I have. So I had to FACE the realization with…a product I could buy.

I have to say that I’ve noticed a difference in my skin, the difference being that I didn’t have the dry patchiness that I was experiencing before. I also have been away from home the last several days and not using it, and my hands are really dry and cracking. Hmmm!

I recently changed out the filters after about nine months, and here is the difference between the old and new filter:

On one hand, I was like damn that’s crazy! On the other hand, I wondered if it was just tinted dark from the carbon in one part of the filter. I really don’t know, but my occasional patchy dryness has ceased, and I do like that the water I’m washing my hands, face, and brushing my teeth with is supposedly filtered.

DID YOU GET YOUR FIL-TER?

This issue landed in a place very different place than I thought it would. And god, I landed…I landed on a tarmac full of questions instead of answers. And you were there with me. Fuck it, let’s just drink tap water.

Do you have a favorite water filter? Are you a tap water warrior? Are you concerned about contaminants in your water? Let me know in the comments.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It looks like Balenciaga and Erewhon are doing a collab. Balenciaga had a fashion show, and models were walking with Balenciaga x Erewhon bags. Hmmmmmm…. what? I also saw photos of a Balenciaga x Erewhon black charcoal drink…hmmmm……… If you’re new here, one of my favorite issues so far has been Issue 3 where I discuss the mayhem of Erewhon smoothies. I think Erewhon is great for some things. But also, I dislike when they play into the notion of their brand and by transitive effect, healthy eating, being reserved for the ultra rich. I mean, I get that the prices are only accessible to certain people, but still… some of their moves are just cringe to me. I think Kim K was also affiliated?
diet_prada
A post shared by @diet_prada
Speaking of Erewhon, I was just there (don’t @ me), and I saw this sunflower milk called Lattini with really cute branding. It has cane sugar in it which I try to avoid, but I’m still intrigued. They also tout the fact that it’s drought-resistant, which they are probably doing because almond trees famously suck up a lottt of water. I love sunflower seeds and sunflower butter, so I’m guessing I would also like sunflower milk. I also saw buckwheat milk. They’re milking everything these days!

I also saw this fun olive oil brand called SINGLE & FAT I hadn’t seen before, but the branding reminds me of a 90s VHS tape-era movie trailer mixed with Millennial pink. So ya, it’s def targeted at Millennials. Their website is giving BLING RING.

Lastly, I went to the Flamingo Estate Holiday House which is apparently a full-scale recreation of the Flamingo Estate house but made completely out of gingerbread. LITERAL GINGERBREAD. It smelled so good in there. Interesting brand activation! I can’t say it made me want to buy Flamingo Estate products (even though I definitely do otherwise), but it did make me want gingerbread and a chai latte immediately. They also had a little Flamingo Estate pop-up one storefront over where you could buy the brand’s coveted vinegars, candles, soaps, and more. I didn’t buy anything, but I did purchase a Flamingo Estate gift set for my friend last year, and she is savoring everything in it to this day. A nice gift idea for your foodie friends or for a beautiful host gift.