Kangen Water

liezelcha

Has anybody had any experience with this? I am planning to attend a class on it and I wondered if others had heard of it or were perhaps drinking it. It is supposed to be a high PH water that promotes general health, well being and weight loss, if I understand correctly.
I attended a "Fat Loss' class, presented by the same people, and it was really about "clean" eating. They talked about eating organic fruits and veggies. I did learn about about using grapeseed oil vs olive oil for high heat cooking. Pretty much the rest of it I heard read about thru MFP.
Anyway, just trying to collect some thoughts on it.

crystaltrejo

who are "these people" you speak of....I'd like to learn more.

givprayz

I just did a search on Kangen Water, which I had never heard of, and it looks to me like another good product made outrageously expensive through multi-level marketing. Do a search for "ionized water" or "water ionizers" and see what other companies produce and sell.
I just did the same kind of research on "Shakeology" and found that I can get the same product from another company that doesn't sell through multi-tier marketing for about a third of the price.

liezelcha

It is a local pharmacist here that is promoting it and it you read givprayz's comments it may be true that we need to do a little further research on it. I'm going to look into ionized water like she mentioned and just see what I can find out. I believe it is very pricey to purchase a machine that produces the water and then of course there are people that have the machines that sell the water. This guy actually has a machine and will let you use his water for free but of course he does sell supplements, etc. It's a little ironic that he is a pharmacist and doing this........................

givprayz

Just found a great site that looks at this from a biochemistry/physiologic perspective. Here is a summary:The bottom line

Here, in a nutshell, are a few basic facts that I believe anyone with a solid background in chemistry or physiology would concur with:

"Ionized water" is nothing more than sales fiction; the term is meaningless to chemists.
Pure water (that is, water containing no dissolved ions) is too unconductive to undergo signficant electrolysis by "water ionizer" devices.
Pure water can never be alkaline or acidic, nor can it be made so by electrolysis. Alkaline water must contain metallic ions of some kind — most commonly, sodium, calcium or magnesium.
The idea that one must consume alkaline water to neutralize the effects of acidic foods is ridiculous; we get rid of excess acid by exhaling carbon dioxide.
If you do drink alkaline water, its alkalinity is quickly removed by the highly acidic gastric fluid in the stomach.
Uptake of water occurs mainly in the intestine, not in the stomach. But when stomach contents enter the intestine, they are neutralized and made alkaline by the pancreatic secretions — so all the water you drink eventually becomes alkaline anyway.
The claims about the health benefits of drinking alkaline water are not supported by credible scientific evidence.
"Ionized"/alkaline water is falsely claimed to be an anti-oxidant. It is actually an oxidizing agent, as can be seen by its ability to decolorize iodine (see video)
There is nothing wrong with drinking slightly acidic waters such as rainwater. "Body pH" is a meaningless concept; different parts of the body (and even of individual cells) can have widely different pH values. The pH of drinking water has zero effect on that of the blood or of the body's cells.
If you really want to de-acidify your stomach (at the possible cost of interfering with protein digestion), why spend hundreds of dollars for an electrolysis device when you can take calcium-magnesium pills, Alka-Seltzer or Milk of Magnesia?
Electrolysis devices are generally worthless for treating water for health enhancement, removal of common impurities, disinfection, and scale control. Claims that "ionized" waters are antioxidants are untrue; hypochlorites (present in most such waters) are in fact oxidizing agents.
Claims that "water ionizers are approved for use in Japanese hospitals" are misleading: these "approvals" merely attest to the machines' safety — that they will not electrocute you! My understanding is that the Japanese Health Ministry is highly critical of therapeutic claims made for alkaline water.
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html

There is way too much bad information out there!

givprayz

Sorry, now I'm on my soap box! This is another one of those totally cracked ideas that's only purpose is to separate you from your money. The more I read from real science, the more insane the claims of these "ionizers" become.

Stay away from this stuff. The water is basically a mild sodium solution, which none of us need to be drinking, and if you are concerned about high acidity, take some Milk of Magnesia and call me in the morning. Don't waste your money, and don't believe anything else these folks are selling because they obviously don't know anything about human physiology.