On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:43:18 GMT, (Sponix) wrote:

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:00:20 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

Umm... no.

Umm..yes.

There is more sodium in a slice of bread than several litres of
softened water.

It has a cumulative effect.

That's not quite true. Cardiovascular risk is cumulative anyway

The significance of that depends on the individual.

Even softened water would be classified as low or very low sodium
content on a dietary basis.

If somebody has health issues for which sodium of under 1.5g per day
is indicated, then they shouldn't be drinking tap water anyway, be it
hard or soft, since hard water can contain appreciable amounts of
sodium as well. At this point, the person should be drinking
demineralised water anyway.


The whole thing also depends on the original hardness of the water.
The harder it was to begin with, the more sodium is added in the
softenening process.

Probably of more importance in terms of cardiovascular risk is not
presence of sodium, but absence of magnesium.


In terms of overall risk to health from tap water, I would be more
concerned about presence of organic chemicals, pesticides, nitrates,
fluorides (as in fluorides being toxic) and so on far before sodium
content.



Southern water (and I assume other water boards) insist on a seperate
unsoftened tap so as not to breach the water supply regulations.

That may be, but its not because of any significant health risk to
most people from sodium in softened water.


I can quite appreciate that softened tap water doesn't taste very
nice. For that matter, hard doesn't either and so I don't drink
either of them. However to suggest a health risk for most people
is fanciful.


--

..andy