Welcome to Bad Science on the Internet! Here, we highlight some of the crazy and sometime dangerous stuff people post online, and then we give you the facts.  

The bad science:

There are several companies selling something called “raw water”, which is unfiltered and untreated water.

What do they claim?

Some people claim that “raw” water is more healthy because it has minerals and probiotics and no chemicals in it. This is wrong. However, the website of one particular company, Live Water, is a goldmine of ridiculous pseudoscience tomfoolery. It’s clear that the health claims on this site weren’t written by a scientist, and honestly, I’m not even sure if they were written by an adult. Or at least not by an adult capable of using spellcheck! Let’s take a look at some of the silliest claims:

“Shocking but true- All other filtered and even bottled spring waters are sterilized with UV light, ozone gas, and a sub micron filter. This is similar to how most juice and dairy products are pasteurized for shelf stability. Unfortunately this sterilization destroys beneficial sources of minerals and probiotics.”

These processes don’t destroy minerals (though some can be filtered out using the submicron filters, which are filters with extremely small pores – too small for bacteria to pass through. Of course these processes destroy or remove bacterial (including potential probiotics), that’s the point. Many bacteria cause disease. Disease is bad.

“There are more nerve endings in our bellies than in our brains and there’s a constant battle between good and bad bacteria. The micro biome [sic] of our gut produces about 95% of the serotonin and 50% of the dopamine in our brains.”

I’m not sure what they mean by saying there are more nerve endings in “bellies” than in brains. I assume they are talking about pain sensing nerve endings? This is actually true- there are no pain sensors in the brain. However, gut bacteria do not produce 95% of the serotonin and 50% of the dopamine in our brains – they don’t produce significant quantities of either, and even if they did these chemicals can not be transported into the brain.

“The probiotics listed here are exclusive to our unsterilized water. There could be countless other benificial [sic] microbes present, scientists just haven’t discovered yet. They are imperative for optimal physical and mental health.”

If these “probiotics” are only found in Live Water’s well, then only people who have consumed this water have ever been exposed to them. So how do they know these bacteria are beneficial? As a general rule, it is not a good idea to eat previously unknown species of bacteria. This is dangerous. They admit that there could be all sorts of undiscovered bacteria in their water. They say this like it is a good thing, but it is not. How do they know these undiscovered bacteria aren’t dangerous? Finally, they tell us that their probiotics are “imperative” for optimal physical and mental health. I don’t think the author of this site knows what the word imperative means.

“Without these probiotics we’re not able to fully assimilate all the nutrients in our food. Some beneficial bacteria are also ​proven​ to have abilities to transform harmful bacteria. Here is a published medical report supporting evidence that raw spring water has vast healing abilities.”

The first sentence is absolutely false. The second statement is completely untrue. The report they reference is about a spring in Italy, not the spring they get their water from, and as they have already told us, the probiotics in their spring is different from all others.

“Major science has concluded that there is a body of water with a larger volume than all our oceans combined in the core of the earth. This is the earth’s way of cleansing water, and offering it back to us with a fresh new start.”

No scientist or health professional would ever use the phrase “major science., though we admit it might be a great name for a DJ or superhero. The reference to water in the Earth’s core suggests that they actually did a little research! However, they didn’t understand what they were reading. A recent report did hypothesize that there was more water in the earth’s mantle (different from the core) than in all the oceans, but this is not a “body” of water – the water is trapped inside of rocks. Because of this, this water is not part of the water cycle, and is not where the water in their spring is coming from.

“The Extensive Water Analysis shows super high levels of natural silica. Silica is essentially pure liquid crystals. Silicone holds information and energy in a unique way, thats [sic] why all our devices run off of them, hence the name silicone valley [sic]. Imagine how it would feel to upgrade your brain’s entire operating system to the best computer chips available.”

Wow. This is gibberish. You may know silica as sand (not whimsical “pure liquid crystals,” whatever that is). There is a lot of sand in this water, and they are trying to tell you that this is good for you. In all fairness, drinking a little sand isn’t bad for you, but it’s certainly not good for you. Then they switch to talking about “silicone” which they claim to magically “hold” energy and information. I assume they are referring to silicon (no “e”) microchips. Do you think drinking microchips will “upgrade your brain’s entire operating system”? You are correct – it will not.  For the record, silicone is a synthetic polymer of silicon, carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. It’s basically plastic, used in medical tubing and devices, lubricants, adhesives, and caulk. If there is silicone in their spring, no one should be drinking from it, and if Silicone Valley was really a place, we assume it would be greasy and sticky. (Kind of like the real-world silicon valley, but literal.)

“Since our water is alive and abundant with healthy microflora, it is imperative that we keep it from reaching sweltering conditions. Unlike sterile water, our water will turn green if exposed to excessive heat and sun light.”

Their water is turning green because things are growing in it. Would you drink green water you found in the woods? Of course not, that would be dangerous. Where do the bacteria (and maybe algae?) that are turning this water green come from? They were there all along, there just weren’t enough of them to see. Once they have a chance to multiply in the petri dish that is raw water, they turn the water green and cloudy. Gross.

“In it’s natural cycle water is infinitely chemically and energetically complex. Water goes down into the soil and becomes the perfect probiotic as it passes through microbes and micro-organisms in the humus. It picks up bio-available [sic] mono atomic [sic] elements and minerals that just can’t be replicated.”

More gibberish. Water is not complex – it’s one of the simpilest chemicals on earth. Water cannot become a “probiotic” – probiotics are living bacteria. A monoatomic element is a element that is stable as a single atom. There actually aren’t many of these elements out there- mostly noble gases like helium, neon, and argon. I doubt this is what the author was referring to – honestly I have no idea what they are trying to say here, and I doubt they do either.

“Blasting water with ozone changes it’s molecular structure. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation uses synthetic ultraviolet light, different from our natural environment UV, to kill or inactivate micro-organisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA. A hard fact to swallow, but your drinking water might be considered a genetically modified organism. GMO seeds and GMO water don’t have the capacity to reproduce life. Perhaps this could influence human’s capacities also.”

Ozone does not change the structure of water. Water is water. Synthetic UV light is just UV light, no different from the UV light that comes from our sun. Both kill microorganisms at high enough doses – that’s the point of treating water with it. No reasonable person would call UV-treated water a GMO, because there is no “O” (organism). Because it’s just water. GMO seeds absolutely produce life – where do you think GMO plants come from? I think the last sentence is suggesting that UV-treated water can harm  person’s ability to have children, which is completely and utterly false.

“Unfortunately almost all tap water also has the neurotoxin fluoride put into it…”

Fluoride is not a neurotoxin. It is perfectly safe at the levels used in tap water (and your toothpaste), and is the main reason that you can eat candy and other sugary foods without immediately losing all your teeth to cavities.

“‘Purified Water’ is typically devoid of all minerals, and actually strips your body’s minerals. The world health organization [sic] declared this a major health threat.”

It is difficult and expensive to pull all the minerals out of water. Tap and bottled water have plenty of minerals in them. Even if you got your hands on ultra-pure water and drank it, it would not strip the minerals out of your body. The WHO is not worried about this.

“We’ve chosen to use glass for our water because all plastic water bottles are toxic.”

Completely, totally, and troublingly false.

There’s more, but you get the point. Seriously, this may take the award for the most over-the-top collection of unfounded inaccurate pseudoscientific nonsense we have ever seen in a single website. They also claim to increase the oxygenation of your cells (not possible), to provide “super effective” detoxification (no), reverse the aging process (nope), and to activate the immune system, That last point might actually be true – more on this below.

Are they trying to sell you something?

Of course. 2.5 L will cost you 16 bucks. That’s almost 20 times more expensive than bottled water, and 6,000 times more expensive than tap water. Water is water. Don’t waste your money.

Is any of this true?

Absolutely none of it.

Is any of this dangerous?

Very much so. Getting a life-threatening water-born illness will definitely activate your immune system. Here is a list of some of the diseases you can catch by drinking unclean water:

Polio! SARS! Dysentery! You don’t want any of these diseases. Many of them can be fatal. We won’t get into which ones, because it doesn’t matter. What matters is THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER DRINK UNTREATED WATER THIS IS NOT SAFE DON’T DO IT.

What’s the bottom line?

Don’t drink raw water. It’s not any more healthy than regular bottled or tap water, it’s expensive, and it is very, very dangerous. Water is water, unless it’s full of disease-causing microbes, in which case this might happen: