There is a lot in the news about the quality of the water we drink. Whether it be lead, “forever chemicals,” or microplastics, there are things in our water that we really don’t want to be drinking. Throw in pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, hydrocarbons, and debris from aging water pipes, and most of us will realize we need some help with our water.

    Purchasing filtered or spring water is one approach to getting better quality water, though to quote one of my patients, “it’s as pure as the person who sold it to you.” I recommend good quality water to drink, to cook with, and to use for the coffee enemas. That’s a lot of water to be lugging home from the store.

    I commonly get asked about water testing. As it happens, the website Wirecutter (owned by the New York Times) just ran an article on water testing, and they had a recommendation. However, water testing is not cheap. It might make more sense to skip testing and use the money for the purification system.

    Therefore, sooner or later, most of my patients get a filter. The CDC has an article on their site, “A Guide to Drinking Water Technologies for Household Use.” It gives a good overview of the pros and cons of the different types of purification systems out there.

    Dr. Gonzalez and I recommended either reverse osmosis or distillation over the years. Either approach produces good quality water, if properly maintained, with a carbon filter to absorb a few things the method can’t take care of. Most RO units have a pre-filter and post-filter built in to manage this.

    The disadvantages? Reverse osmosis wastes a lot of water, and distillation is slow. While I was in the New York City area, I used reverse osmosis. Now that I live in a much drier part of the world, I use distillation.

    Finally, people frequently ask me about the Berkey system. Here is the Wirecutter assessment of that system.