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The Soda Situation - Succulent Drinks w/o the Sweets?
Ticron asks: "Like most of you, my job and lifestyle revolves around drinking lots and lots of caffeine - usually in the form of soda. I've been trying to cut back on my sugar intake lately, and am interested in what some of you drink that isn't loaded down with the sweet stuff. Diet drinks have little to no flavor, and fruit punches have almost (sometimes more!) sugar than sodas themselves. Is there anything out there that maintains the convenience of a canned drink, but without all the sugar?"
This is a truly excellent drink. It is 100% calorie free. Sodium free too. It is very low on additives and preservatives -- just trace amounts of chlorine (to kill any bugs) and flouride (which actually strengthens your teeth!). You can drink as much as you can stand, without any ill effects -- no caffiene to make you crazy, no fizzy stuff to rot your teeth. If you drink it cold, it's actually calorie-negative! And not only is it cheap, but you can even get it free -- the stuff literally falls out of the sky! You really can't beat it. Give it a try some time -- you'll like it!
For all this "extra work"
I don't remember using the term "extra work" in my post -- doesn't belong in quotes.
bottled water STILL ends up with more bacteria 2 weeks later than ordinary tap water, as well as more contaminants.
And for all the extra work repeating this claim, you STILL haven't sourced it.
here are a ton of regulations governing the purity of the water you drink from the tap - none of which apply after its bottled and sold to you.
The regulations essentially say "this stuff won't kill you", but they're allowed to have "acceptable" levels of chemicals they don't feel like removing. And of course, what are they worried about, that people will switch to another municipal water supply? Who do you believe, government promises, or your own taste buds? Why does it taste so gross?
s for the "pipes that haven't been clean in 50 years", I don't know where you live, but the pipes here are flushed on a regular basis. It's not a hard process - they just dump some extra chlorine into the system, open the fire hydrant at the end of the loop and let it run. This removes any "dead zones".
Oh, except for the one between the fire hydrant and your home. You've dug that pipe out and cleaned it once or twice, right? No? And I'm glad there's a low risk of the flushing chemicals remaining in the water when it's re-connected.
lso, if you've ever done any home plumbing, you'd know that even 50-year-old copper pipe is in decent shape inside, after decades of attack by chlorine, ozone, and good old H2O.
"Decent shape"? What did you think I was worried about, leaks? I'm worried about accumlation of deposits, and yes, they are there when you look at you pipes.
And if you're concerned about energy consumption,
Lest I thought you were finished adding words to my post...
Plus, last I heard, copper and cast-iron water pipes don't have issues with phthalates leeching from the plastic water bottles. You know, those plastics that contaminate the water in the bottle, your peanut butter, etc., 6 types of which have already been permanently banned in Europe
Oh, well, if Europe's convinced. (They're also convinced that all genetically modified food is dangerous.) Besides, I mainly buy drinking water in the gallon jugs that are used for milk. Oh, wait, Europe's banned those too, right? Please.
they help explain the huge decline in male fertility over the last 50 years
No, they help you believe a conclusion you've already decided to believe. The male fertility issue is debunked in The Skeptical Environmentalis, which you probably reject entirely because of some odd reason like that it's "so damnably reasonable" or something.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.