Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Don’t Be Fooled by the Alkaline and Ionized Water Scams

Episode Date: April 17, 2019

You probably know drinking water is good for you. You probably also know dehydration is bad for you, and you’ve probably heard you should drink water frequently throughout the day and err on the side of drinking a little more than you feel necessary rather than less. And you’re probably here because you heard that instead of drinking boring peasant water, you should avail yourself of the miraculous health benefits of alkaline water, including . . . - Less inflammation and oxidative stress in the body - Better hydration - Anti-aging effects - Weight loss - Less joint pain and fewer headaches - Lower risk of cancer, fatigue, leaky gut, osteoporosis, and basically every other ailment - More energy, drive, and vitality - And more In fact, according to some of the self-professed H20 experts shilling alkaline water, you should never drink anything but high-pH water. To do that, all you have to do is fork over a few grand for a contraption that uses a process called ionization (magic, basically) to transmute toxic tap water into a super-hydrating, inflammation-fighting, life-giving elixir “they” don’t want you to know about. If you’re uncomfortable with that price tag, you’re looking at this the wrong way. Just think about how much money your pristine health is going to save you in the long run. When your friends and family start dropping like flies due to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and the like, you’re going to be bouncing gleefully from one day to the next, like you’ve swallowed the star from Super Mario. So the real question is how can you not afford to buy a water sorcery machine from me for which I’ll be paid a 50% sales commission? What’s that? You want to know if there’s any scientific evidence of these claims? Of course there’s scientific evidence. Don’t look into it, but 97% of water scientists agree with everything I’ve just said. Now will that be cash or credit? And this is where my comedy shtick ends and real joke begins, which is alkaline water itself. Because the short story is it’s nonsense. All of it. Let’s find out why. 5:06 - What is alkaline water? 6:59 - What is ionized water? 10:22 - Why do people drink alkaline and ionized water? 19:20 - Who popularized alkaline dieting and drinking? 21:04 - Is ionized water better for you? 22:05 - What does ionized water do for you? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Welcome, welcome. I am Mike Matthews and this is the Muscle Life Podcast. And in this episode, we're gonna be talking about alkaline water, something that I get asked about fairly often. Usually it's the Kangen water machine. That's usually what people are asking about. So you probably know that drinking water is good for you. You probably know that dehydration is bad for you. And you have probably heard that you should drink water frequently throughout the day. And you should probably err on the side of maybe drinking a little bit more than you feel is necessary, rather than less. And if you are listening to this podcast, you probably have heard that instead of drinking boring peasant water, you should avail yourself of the miraculous health benefits of alkaline water, which include less inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, better hydration, anti-aging effects, weight loss, less joint pain, fewer headaches, lower risk of cancer, fatigue, leaky gut, osteoporosis, and many other ailments, more energy, more drive, more vitality, and on and on and on.

In fact, according to some of the self-professed H2O experts out there who are shilling alkaline water, you should never drink anything but high pH water. And to do that, fortunately, all you got to do is fork over a few grand for a fancy contraption that sits on your counter and uses a process called ionization, which is basically just magic. Think of it that way to transmute that toxic tap water into super hydrating, inflammation fighting, life-giving elixir that they don't want you to know about. And if you're uncomfortable with that price tag, you're just looking at this the wrong way. I mean, think about how much money your pristine health is going to save you in the long run. And that's to say nothing of how much better your quality of life is going to

be, which you really can't put a price tag on, right? And so imagine when your friends and family start dropping like flies due to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and so forth, you are going to be bouncing gleefully from one day to the next like you have swallowed the star from Super Mario. So the real question is how can you not afford to buy my water sorcery machine for which I'll be paid a 50% sales commission? Wait, you want to know if there's any scientific evidence for any of these things? Of course, there's scientific evidence. I mean, don't look into it, but 97% of water scientists agree with everything I have just said. Now, will that be cash or credit? Okay, so the comedy shtick ends. And now the real joke begins, which is alkaline water itself.

Because the short story is, it is nonsense. All of it. This is where I would normally plug a sponsor to pay the bills, but I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm just going to quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my fish oil oil supplement Triton. Now Triton is a high potency, high purity, 100% re-esterified triglyceride fish oil with added vitamin E to prevent oxidation and rancidity and natural lemon oil to prevent the noxious fish oil burps that we all know and hate.

Furthermore, Triton is made from sustainably fished deep water anchovies and sardines and is molecularly distilled to remove natural toxins and contaminants. So if you want to optimize your mental and physical health and performance and reduce the risk of disease and dysfunction, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Triton today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout, and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't

have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.legionathletics.com now, here, head over to www.legionathletics.com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. All right, so let's start with the most obvious question, and that is what is alkaline water? And to answer that, we have to first understand alkaline. And to do that, we have to understand pH. So in chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity of a solution. So a pH of less than seven

is considered acidic, while a pH greater than seven is considered alkaline. And while many people believe that acidic substances are more likely to cause chemical changes in substances, so think of acid eating through metal, there are many alkaline substances, which are called bases, that are extremely reactive as well, such as lye. So if you remember in Fight Club when Tyler Durden burned a kiss into Ed Norton's hand, which I don't think Ed Norton's character even had a name in the movie, right? Am I remembering wrong? Anyway, so when Brad Pitt burns a kiss into Ed Norton's hand, he did that with lye. And it has a very, very high pH of about 13, and it can burn and melt organic material like your skin. Now, pure water has a pH of exactly seven, making it neutral. And what you drink

can have a slightly lower or slightly higher pH depending on what else is in the water, higher pH depending on what else is in the water impurities. So for example, well water can have a pH of anywhere from 6.5, which is slightly acidic to 8.5, which is slightly alkaline due to the minerals in it, which are imparted from the soil. Now, most tap water has a pH of about 7.5 due to chemicals like chlorine, fluoride, and other substances that make the water slightly more alkaline than it would be otherwise. So alkaline water is water with a pH over 7, which is going to be most of the water you drink, whether it's from a tap, a bottle, a filter, or a well. So that's alkaline water. Now let's talk about ionized water because this is always part of the sales pitch. This always goes with the alkaline element. So an ion is an atom that

contains an electric charge due to a loss or a gain of one or more electrons. And while the term ionized water might lead you to believe that it's some special water that's been infused with electricity or cosmic rays or the spirits of sea gods or something. The truth is far less sexy. Pure water is composed of three atoms. This is one molecule, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen, and it has a neutral electrical charge. So by definition then, water molecules are not ions. Now these molecules are also very stable, meaning they rarely break down or change form unless they are acted upon by various chemicals or electricity. Water molecules do decay over time, however, and eventually break down into two different ions,

over time, however, and eventually break down into two different ions, a positively charged hydrogen atom and a negatively charged hydroxyl, which consists of one oxygen and one hydrogen atom. Now, under normal circumstances, these ions exist for just a fraction of a second before they are converted back into regular water molecules. And so this means that at any given moment, only a few ions exist for every billion water molecules. And while there are electrical and chemical ways to increase the rate of breakdown of water molecules into ions, that rate is always far outpaced by the natural process that converts those ions back into water molecules. So the end result is really more or less no change. And what this means then is that all water is quote-unquote ionized to a very slight degree, and no matter how you treat it, including passing electricity

through it, the concentration of ions is always vanishingly small. Now, there is, however, a much simpler and less sexy way to increase the ion content of water, and that is to add minerals. So, for example, minerals such as calcium phosphate, magnesium carbonate, and sodium chloride are ions themselves. And if you add just a few micrograms of one or more of them into a cup of water, voila, you now have slightly ionized water. I mean, simply adding table salt, sodium chloride, which is another ion to water technically ionizes it. And that's why some of the water ionization machines out there add minerals to the water, usually calcium phosphate or magnesium carbonate. By doing that, the machines are increasing the ion content of the water.

And they usually also have a pointless electrical component that we just talked about. And that's, of course, what's emphasized in the marketing of the machines though, because the electrolysis sounds more science-y and more special and effective than just including some cheap minerals in the water that you could just do yourself. You don't need a multi-thousand dollar machine to do that. If you've got a bag of bulk mineral powder and your fingers, that will get the job done just as well. So why do people drink alkaline and ionized water? Why is this stuff still very popular and has been for at least a decade? Well, the primary reason people drink alkaline water is they believe it will improve their health and usually by increasing

the alkalinity of their blood. And that is apparently desirable because it is claimed that most types of disease require an acidic environment to develop and flourish. And as far as ionized water goes, the common reasons cited for drinking that are reducing inflammation and reducing oxidative stress in the body and increasing hydration. And those things are supposed to produce great benefits like weight loss, healthier skin, a decreased risk of cancer, and other rather dramatic changes in the body. So many people think that they can reduce the risk of or even cure many of the diseases and dysfunctions that plague our modern society by just drinking some specially treated water every day. How true are those claims? Is alkaline water actually better for you than regular water? And the

basic theoretical underpinnings of how drinking alkaline water might improve your health performance and longevity are really the same as those that are propping up alkaline dieting, which has also been a thing for some time now. So like water, some foods can be slightly acidic and other foods can be slightly alkaline. And according to alkaline dieters, you should only eat the alkaline foods and you should avoid the acidic foods because one, they say the body functions best when the pH of your blood is slightly alkaline. And when it is acidic, the risk of disease and dysfunction go up. And two, they say that eating too many acidic

foods lowers your blood's pH to unhealthy levels, whereas eating alkaline foods helps preserve a healthy pH level in your blood. This model is horribly flawed. And if you want to really dive into the details, check out an article that I wrote on the alkaline diet. If you just Google muscle for life alkaline diet, you will find it. It is called why the alkaline diet is you will find it. It is called why the alkaline diet is flawed and overrated. Now, as far as alkaline water goes, this is supposed to have similar effects in the body as the alkaline foods theory. Specifically, alkaline water is supposed to neutralize the acidity of lower pH foods that you might be eating and generally keep your blood pH in a healthy alkaline optimal

range. And the problem with all of that, with the alkaline diet and alkaline water theory, is it presupposes that the food and beverages that you drink can significantly impact the pH of your blood and wreak havoc in your body. Science disagrees, however. Research clearly shows that what you eat and drink has almost no impact on the pH of your blood or your organs. And that's good because if they did, you would be dead instead of listening to this podcast. Like your body temperature, blood pH is tightly regulated to remain in the range of 7.36 to 7.44. And this is something that scientists have understood since the 1930s. And to really move that needle, to really change your blood pH, you need to go to extremes like developing diabetes, starving yourself for extended periods of time, not just a day of fasting, or overdosing on alcohol. Eating a hamburger or drinking a soda is not going to cut

it. And logically, this makes sense. If you remember your sixth grade biology, you know that everything that you eat and drink is reduced into an acidic slurry inside your stomach called chyme. Then as the chyme is emptied from the stomach into the small intestine, the body secretes a variety of alkaline chemicals to increase its pH so it can move safely through the rest of the digestive system. So the body uses a variety of methods to raise and lower the pH of the foods and the liquids that you eat and you drink according to various stages of digestion. So for example, if water enters the stomach alkaline, it's going to be acidic by the time it leaves the stomach, and then it's going to be made alkaline again for further processing.

And the same goes for the again for further processing. And the same goes for the food that you eat. And remember, all of that happens long before anything enters your bloodstream where pH is also carefully regulated by a variety of other biological mechanisms. And this is why there is basically no research available on the effects of drinking alkaline water. There's no reason to spend time or money on it. Scientists are not interested because we already understand enough about how the body's pH systems work to know that no type of water is going to significantly change blood pH and thus health or well-being. That said, one of the few studies I could find that is even worth sharing was conducted by scientists at the University of Calgary, and it was a review of the literature. And in it,

researchers looked for any clinical trials, as opposed to papers that simply presented unproven hypotheses, that investigated the relationship between alkaline diets or water and cancer, which is one of the hot buttons used to sell people on both alkaline dieting and alkaline water drinking. And the scientists reviewed every study they could find in the matter from the beginning of modern science to 2015. And out of the 8,278 papers, they found just one that satisfied their criteria. And it found no connection between the amount of acidic or alkaline food that people ate and their risk of bladder cancer. The scientists who conducted it also tested whether acidic or alkaline urine was a risk factor for cancer and again found it wasn't.

Thus, this team from the University of Calgary concluded the following. They said, despite the promotion of the alkaline diet and alkaline water by the media and salespeople, there is almost no actual research to either support or disprove these ideas. And let's not forget a point that I made earlier, and that is most of the water you drink is already alkaline. Normal drinking water, both tap and filtered, typically has a pH of about 7.5 to 8. And ironically, even if you could significantly raise the pH of the water you drink, it wouldn't necessarily be good for you. If you recall, strongly alkaline substances can also be extremely toxic. Remember the lye example? So a good example of this is a

report that was written by scientists at the University of Bonn that describes the negative effects of a large quantity of lye that was accidentally dumped into drinking water. And this increased the pH of the water to about 12, and many people suffered skin burns as a result. Multiple studies on rats have also shown that consuming water with a high pH causes impaired growth and damage to heart muscle cells. Now, that's the animal model, of course, and you wouldn't necessarily assume the exact same thing would happen in humans, but it doesn't bode well for us. Now, you are not likely to suffer those effects from using any of these overpriced, mostly useless at-home water ionizing machines, of course, because they don't raise the pH of the water that high. I think it's maybe 8.5 to 9.5 or

something like that is considered the quote unquote alkaline water. But it's just a good reminder that higher pH for drinking water is not always better. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank

you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Now, as we're already here and busy scalping, let's meet the man who popularized alkaline dieting and drinking, Adolf Hitler. I'm just kidding. That'd be rich though. No, it was a shameful man named Robert Young who was arrested in 1995 on two felony charges of practicing medicine without a license, charged again in 2001 of practicing medicine without a license, convicted in 2016 of practicing medicine without a license, and then convicted again in 2017 of defrauding his patients,

including taking $77,000 from a woman who was dying from cancer to inject her with baking soda, which did nothing, of course, and she died. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd actually rather take dietary advice from Hitler than Jung. According to a woman who served as the Fuhrer's food taster, his diet was all vegetarian, the most delicious fresh things from asparagus to peppers and peas served with rice and salads. It was all arranged on one plate. Just as it was served to him, there was no meat and I do not remember any fish. That actually sounds pretty healthy. Now I can see it now. My next book, The Hitler Diet, How to Eat the Reich Way. Come on. You know that would sell. Might be a bad idea though. Might

get me banned off of Amazon now that Amazon is going after quote unquote right wing authors. That's a no-no. All right. Tabling that for now. Anyway, the bottom line here is there is no evidence that drinking alkaline water is better for your body than drinking neutral pH or even slightly acidic water. Now, what about ionized water though? Is that stuff better for you? And quacks everywhere insist that alkaline water is not enough. It has to be ionized as well. If you really want to increase the vibrational frequencies of your chakras toward the green tea infinity. And the most well-known water ionizing machine is the Kangen water machine, which supposedly ionizes the water and raises its pH for a poultry investment of just $3,000 or more. And as I mentioned earlier, this machine and others like it work

by adding minerals to the water and then passing it over a series of electrically charged metal plates. Adding the minerals does raise the water's pH and its ion content and the electricity. Well, it doesn't really do anything, but why should shysters let that get in the way of a good marketing pitch, you know? Now, this ionized water, what does it do for you? Well, according to the liars, shills, and morons out there, the ionized water does all kinds of awesome things. It supposedly reduces the size of the water molecules, allowing them to more easily enter the body's cells and hydrate them. That's a big claim that many people make.

According to one Kangen peddler on YouTube who really should stop snorting so much chalk, ionized water is, quote, more wet than regular water. No, no, not wetter, more wet. Got that? And when water is more wet, it also helps you beat bloating and lose weight and super hydrate your body. See, the theory here is that water molecules tend to bunch up into clusters and the larger clusters cannot pass into your cells. But if you break the clusters up, then your body can tap into the full power of its drinking water. Now, there's no evidence for any of that, of course, and as far as science is concerned, water does not form into clusters of any kind, regardless of how ionized,

alkaline, or holy it is. Additionally, there is still an ongoing debate in the scientific community as to even the best way to describe the structure of water. Our best guess currently is it functions as a network of molecules that are continually binding and unbinding with each other at remarkably high speeds. And ironically, even if water molecules did form large clusters and even if you could reduce the size of them they would still have to be further broken down by the body before they could enter cells and the reason for this is water enters cells through specialized channels called aquaporins which allow one molecule of water into a cell at a time. One molecule, just two hydrogen atoms, one oxygen atom. And in case you are wondering about the name, aqua is Latin for water and

a porin is a kind of protein that forms channels for stuff to pass through. And that mechanism applies to every drop of water you've ever consumed and will ever consume. All water was and will be absorbed into your cells one molecule at a time. No amount of ionization or pH shenanigans are going to change this. This is basic physiology. Now, another common claim made by the ionization carpetbaggers is it increases water's antioxidant capacity, which you can confirm by examining its oxygen reducing potential, or also just referred to as ORP, which is a measurement of how much oxygen is dissolved in a solution. Now, ORP is something that is usually used by biologists to determine how well a lake or other natural

water source can support life at its different depths. And more importantly, though, it sounds fancy. And that's why people use it to convince other people to buy Kangen water machines. By lowering the ORP of the water that you drink, So by lowering the amount of oxygen that is dissolved in it, the sales pitch goes, you can reduce inflammation and oxidation in the body. Yeah, or not, because the oxygen content of drinking water does not influence oxidation levels in the body. Research shows that like pH and body temperature, oxygen levels in the blood and other tissues are very carefully controlled. And there's no evidence that the amount of oxygen in the water that you drink, a higher or a lower ORP can influence this inflammation or oxidation levels whatsoever.

So the bottom line here is water ionizers are a sham. There is no way to markedly increase the ion content of water through electrical processes. And there's no reason to spend thousands of dollars to mix tiny amounts of cheap minerals in your water. You can do that yourself if you want to. All right, let's summarize everything we have just covered. Alkaline water is water with a pH above seven and ionized water is just water that contains ions, which includes all water because at any moment, water does contain ions in the form of hydrogen atoms and hydroxyls. Now, the pH value of the water you drink has virtually no impact on the pH of your blood or your organs because the body uses a number of biological mechanisms to control the pH of the foods and liquids that you eat, raising and lowering the pH of them throughout

the process of digestion. And the body also very tightly regulates the pH of your blood and tissues, including your organs. Therefore, it is no surprise that there is almost no research available on alkaline water. And the little research that is out there indicates that it offers no health benefits whatsoever. Now, as far as ionizing water to break up clusters and make it more hydrating goes, that is very fake news. Water ionizers do not change the size of water molecules or break clusters down into smaller, more absorbable structures. And even if they did, it still would not improve cellular absorption because cells accept water one molecule at a time under all circumstances, period.

Likewise, water treated by ionization machines is not better for reducing inflammation or oxidation in the body. And the arguments for these things mostly just boil down to pseudoscience and trickery. So at bottom, alkaline water and ionized water are simply manifestations of the same moral turpitude that has spawned many other health and fitness scams like detox teas, lectin-free and carnivore dieting and CBD oil. The playbook to sell this kind of crap is pretty simple and will be repeated probably until the end of time to sell us on the next fad and the next fad and the next fad. It looks like this. First, you make extraordinary outlandish and unproven claims that include treating or even curing everyday diseases,

dysfunctions, ailments like headaches, joint pain, fatigue, and then maybe more extreme stuff like cancer and diabetes and heart disease. And then what you do is you use a lot of science-y buzzwords like oxidation, inflammation, oxygen-reducing potential, toxins, leaky gut, insulin, and so forth. And then you support all of the puffery with completely irrelevant research and quotes from fake doctors and other quote-unquote gurus. And last but not least, don't forget this one, you got to charge extravagant amounts of money and you got to have extravagant profit margins that can fund extravagant marketing budgets.

And of course, let's not forget, most importantly, extravagant Tim Ferriss lifestyles. So when you see people using this playbook, please don't fall for it. So instead of drinking overpriced woo-woo water, just drink filtered tap water frequently throughout the day. I prefer reverse osmosis machines. They are cheap, they are effective, and they make clean, tasty water. And as far as the amount of water, just err on the side of drinking a little more than you feel you should rather than too little.

Something around a gallon a day or three quarters of a gallon a day. For most people, that's going to be good. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies

ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously, though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fish oil supplement,

Specifically, my fish oil supplement Triton. Now Triton is a high potency, high purity, 100% re-esterified triglyceride fish oil with added vitamin E to prevent oxidation and rancidity and natural lemon oil to prevent the noxious fish oil burps that we all know and hate. Furthermore, Triton is made from sustainably fished deep water anchovies and sardines and is molecularly distilled to remove natural toxins and contaminants. So if you want to optimize your mental and physical health and performance and reduce the risk of disease and dysfunction, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Triton today. www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Triton today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast to check out and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops

or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.legionathletics.com now, place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.