Water is essential for keeping the body hydrated and offers numerous health benefits, helping to maintain the proper functioning of organs and the immune system and contributing to hormonal balance.
A law in São Paulo and another in Rio de Janeiro were created obliging restaurants and snack bars to make filtered water – known as ‘house water’ available to customers.
Recently, the São Paulo Court of Justice granted an injunction that suspends the law that obliges bars and restaurants in the state to provide free filtered water to customers in the state. In Rio, the law remains in force. While “house water” is offered free of charge in some regions, mineral water has varying – and often high – prices depending on the establishments. But are there any differences between mineral and filtered water?
“Most people think there is no difference, but there are countless differences between mineral and filtered water. Filtered water goes through some filtering processes to make it drinkable and without risk to health. It may contain some heavy metals and chemical components such as fluorine and chlorine. One of the main objectives is to ensure that it is drinkable, without the risk of contamination and disease, and to improve body hydration due to mineral salts”, explains nutritionist Patrícia Davidson.
No control over the quality of filtered water
According to nutritionist Thaís Araújo, there are several types of filters and several ways to sanitize filters and water arrives at each person’s home from different sources.
“So when you talk about filtered water, you don’t have control over the composition of that water that arrives at your home. For example, here in Rio, last year, we had some incidents of water contamination from CEDAE where no filter could handle it. So we don’t have the origin of the water and so we can’t specify the quality of the filtration”, he explains.
The expert says that there are several types of filtering with various promises. “But I don’t know what scientific and proven basis there is for us to know the level of water filtration,” she says.
Mineral water has composition control
“When you talk about mineral water, you are talking about water whose composition you do not control. It is water that is flowered from the source and has several minerals already present in it”, says Thaís.
“Mineral water comes from natural sources, without any filtering process or physical or chemical treatments. One of the main objectives is to be free of impurities and chemical components”, adds Patrícia Davidson.
According to the nutritionist, it is hydrolyzed water also from the point of view of having minerals, which come directly from a source that already springs from the earth, but despite this, it is necessary to pay attention to the labels, as there are differences between mineral waters.
“With mineral waters, you can access the composition and see what is better or worse for each person, such as the sodium content of the water. And then, knowing the origin of the source, you can have greater control when you think about mineral water consumption”, he concludes.
