Water -- everyone drinks it, whether from a bottle or the tap.
WMAZ brought eight brands of bottled water and Macon's tap water to The Macon Water Authority to test its pH balance. With many claims of the benefits of alkaline water, we wanted to see how these brands measured up.
Gabrielle Dawkins spoke to several people in Central Georgia, and many claim that they chose their preferred brand because of several factors: cost, taste, and bottle style, price, and brand loyalty.
Your reasons may vary, but Michelle Tapp says she chooses her water source based on a larger scale.
"One of the main reasons is that I like the way that it tastes. It's virtually free and on a bigger scale I like the fact that I am not impacting the earth in a negative way by throwing away bottled water," said Tapp.
There are claims that acidic drinks have a negative impact on the body.
But there's a difference, much deeper than what the eye can see. Macon Water Authority's Lead Operator, Chuck Mixon, cracked open a bottle of water and poured its contents into a beaker before placing it on a Thermo Scientific pH checker, to see how the different brands measured up.
These were the results.
Dasani: 5.56 pH
Essentia: 10.07 pH
Aquafina: 7.31 pH
Smart Water: 6.95 pH
Voss: 6.5 pH
Deer Park: 8.07 pH
Nestle: 7.18 pH
Fuji: 7.3 pH
Macon's Tap Water: 7.13 pH
Out of the eight brands, Essentia tested alkaline, at a 10.7 pH. The lowest was Dasani, testing acidic with a pH of 5.56.
Macon's tap water tested neutral.
Mixon said that overall most brands tested OK.
Dr. Curtis Hayslip checks for cavities five days a week. He says that acidic water makes the environment around your teeth more acidic and can lead to cavities.
"The human saliva is 6.5 to 7.4, and that's what helps keep your bacteria under control and your enamel from wearing. I would say that anything 5.5 and below, with any excess, is going to start messing your teeth up, and your insides, of course," said Hayslip.
As for alkaline water he says, it may have some benefits.
"Alkaline basically raises your pH up and make you better, feel better, healthier, your immune system gets better, inflammation will go down. It can actually lower your blood pressure, which is a good thing to know. I did not know that until I started looking into it," said Hayslip.
The National Institutes of Health says an alkaline diet may benefit bone health and reduce muscle wasting.
However, according to the Mayo Clinic, there isn't enough substantial evidence to support the claims of the benefits of alkaline water.