“All drinking water, tap or bottled, is controlled and can be drunk with safety”, but “none has specific therapeutic indications on health. The only rule is to drink and there are no contraindications to this. Without prejudice to precise advice of the doctor in specific pathologies”. Finally “the false belief that waters rich in calcium can contribute to the formation of kidney stones is still rooted, but it is a false myth and there are others”. Luca Lucentini, director of the National Center for Water Safety of the Higher Institute of Health, explains it to Adnkronos Salute.
As for the risk of stones from using the ‘wrong water’, “it is absolutely not true, because the formation of stones is linked to the metabolism of oxalates which derive from food, not from water. It is instead true that the richness of calcium and magnesium, which determines the ‘hardness of water’ for humans, which fortunately is different from a household appliance, is associated with a decrease in cardiovascular risk, the leading cause of mortality in Europe”. Mineral or not “the choice of water to drink is, therefore, essentially a matter of taste”. Drinking water, he recalls, “is a fundamental human right and must be guaranteed – in quantity, quality and affordable prices – for everyone, while bottled water is a consumer good, linked to market rules, but there is no there are differences on safety and they all bring mineral salts with health benefits both in terms of thermoregulation and on psychic and physical functions”.
Natural mineral waters “must be, by law, extracted from protected deep sources, whose chemical stability must be ascertained: the same water with known characteristics must arrive in the glass. This is a characteristic of bottled waters, while the profile of potable waters compositions can be variable because the sources are different and can also be superficial, as happens in 15% of cases”. In short, “you can choose what you want, the important thing is to drink”. The general ‘recipe’ is “to drink at least 2 liters of water a day, an amount that – continues Lucentini – should be declined according to the person’s physical shape, the external temperature, age. The important thing is to drink even without sensing of thirst, because, in this case, there is already a slight dehydration, which is more marked in the elderly and in children. Even this slight dehydration, however, already creates alterations in our physical and mental performance. Drinking regularly is essential” . (continued)
