The answer might be simpler than you think.
Tap water. Spring water. Bottled water. Alkaline water. Ozonated water.
There are plenty of choices when it comes to drinking water—and plenty of claims about which one is the healthiest. But is there actually a “best” type of water to drink?
For most people, the answer is simpler than you might expect: safe, properly treated drinking water is an excellent choice, regardless of whether it comes from a tap, bottle or spring.
There are differences between these types of water, including their source, mineral content and how they are treated. But those differences don’t necessarily translate into one type being universally healthier than another. Let’s take a closer look.
Tap Water
For most Canadians, tap water comes from a municipal drinking-water system. Municipal water is treated and its quality is monitored according to provincial or territorial drinking-water requirements. The exact characteristics of tap water vary depending on where you live. Water naturally picks up minerals and other substances from its environment, so factors such as hardness, mineral content, taste and odour can differ from one water supply to another. Water can also interact with materials in the distribution system and a building’s plumbing before it reaches the tap.
Does that make tap water less healthy than other options? Not necessarily.
When municipal drinking water meets applicable health and safety requirements, it is considered safe to drink. Additional point-of-use treatment may be chosen to address a specific water-quality concern or characteristics such as hardness, taste or odour, but municipal tap water doesn’t inherently need to be replaced by bottled or specialty water simply because it comes from the tap.
Bottom line: Properly treated and monitored tap water can be an excellent everyday drinking-water choice.
Bottled Water
It’s easy to assume that water in a bottle has undergone more treatment—or is somehow purer—than water coming from the tap. That’s not necessarily the case.
In Canada, bottled water can come from springs, aquifers, wells and even municipal water supplies. Bottled water other than spring or mineral water can therefore begin as municipal tap water and undergo additional treatment before bottling. Health Canada states that there is no evidence that bottled water is safer than tap water. Bottled and municipal water that meet applicable health and safety standards are both considered safe. That doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with choosing bottled water. It can be convenient, portable and preferred for its taste. But the bottle itself doesn’t provide an inherent health advantage.
Bottom line: Bottled water can be perfectly good drinking water, but being bottled doesn’t automatically make it healthier or safer than compliant tap water.
Spring Water
Spring water is a little different. In Canada, water sold as spring or mineral water must come from an underground source other than a public community water supply. As groundwater moves through rock and soil, minerals dissolve into the water, giving different sources their own mineral composition and taste. Calcium and magnesium, for example, are naturally present in many Canadian waters and are also the primary contributors to water hardness.
These minerals are essential nutrients, but that doesn’t mean spring water is automatically healthier than tap water. Tap water can contain calcium and magnesium as well, and Health Canada notes that, for Canadians eating a reasonably balanced diet, drinking water is generally a minor source of these minerals compared with food. So while the mineral composition of spring water is a genuine difference, there isn’t a basis for saying that spring water as a category is healthier than safe tap water.
Bottom line: Spring water can offer a different mineral composition and taste, but “spring” doesn’t automatically mean “healthier.”
Ionized or Alkaline Water
Alkaline water has attracted considerable attention, often accompanied by claims that increasing the pH of drinking water can provide additional health benefits. Water ionizers typically use electrolysis to produce water with different pH characteristics, including an alkaline drinking-water stream. So, is alkaline water actually better for you?
Current evidence doesn’t support a broad health advantage for healthy people.
A systematic review examining alkaline, oxygenated and demineralized water found no demonstrated additional health effects from alkaline water compared with mineral water in healthy populations.
Some research has identified limited, specific effects associated with certain alkaline waters. However, these findings don’t support broader claims that alkaline water can “alkalize” the body, enhance immunity, prevent disease or provide other wide-ranging health benefits. Some observed effects may also relate to the water’s mineral composition rather than its pH alone.
Changing the pH of water is also different from treating a specific water-quality problem. An ionizer should not be assumed to remove contaminants simply because it produces alkaline water.
Bottom line: Alkaline or ionized water is different from ordinary drinking water, but current evidence doesn’t establish it as a healthier everyday choice for most healthy people.
What About Ozonated Water?
Ozonated water doesn’t quite belong in the same category as tap, bottled or spring water.
That’s because ozone is primarily a water-treatment technology, not a source of water.
Ozone is a strong oxidant and disinfectant. In water treatment, it can be used for purposes including disinfection and the control of certain taste, odour and water-quality issues. Ozone is also permitted during the bottling of spring and mineral water in Canada as a disinfectant. These are real treatment benefits—but they shouldn’t be confused with additional health benefits from drinking “ozonated” water. As with any water-treatment technology, ozone also needs to be properly applied. For example, when naturally occurring bromide is present in source water, ozonation can lead to the formation of bromate. Appropriate treatment design and control are therefore important.
Bottom line: Ozone can be an effective water-treatment tool, but water isn’t inherently healthier simply because ozone was used during treatment.
So, What Is the Best Water to Drink?
If you’re choosing between safe tap water, bottled water, spring water and alkaline water, there isn’t compelling evidence that one category is universally healthier for the average healthy person.
What matters more is the quality of the water itself. Where did it come from? What is in it? Has it been appropriately treated? Are there contaminants that need to be addressed? Is the treatment system appropriate for that particular water source? Those questions tell you much more about drinking-water quality than the words printed on a bottle.
And that’s particularly important because water quality can vary significantly from one source to another. A treatment technology that’s valuable for one water supply may be unnecessary—or may address the wrong problem entirely—for another.
Better Water Starts With Understanding Your Water
Rather than searching for the “healthiest” label, start by understanding the water you already have. Water testing can identify the characteristics of a water supply and help determine whether treatment is needed. From there, technologies such as filtration, water softening, reverse osmosis, disinfection and other treatment processes can be selected based on what is actually present in the water and what needs to be addressed.
At Summit Water, our team works with water quality, treatment and purification across a wide range of applications. We help evaluate water, identify treatment requirements, and select and size equipment based on the needs of the individual application.
Because the best drinking water isn’t defined by a label. It’s water that’s safe, appropriately treated and suited to its source.