It is said that parents are putting their children in danger by giving them bottled water that doesn’t contain the government’s fluoride. This article from Tuscon News Now (via Health Day News) is a product of the anti-bottled water brigade – that is, those who are unable to bear the notion that people may have other choices besides the poisoned, government water systems. The writer of the article notes:
While most bottled water manufacturers declare that their products are 100 percent “pure,” “clean” or “natural,” few brands contain one ingredient that most Americans take for granted: fluoride.
That is supposed to be devastating news. In fact, since bottled water use is now rampant in our modern culture, it is being blamed for the uptick in tooth decay. Although the article’s author cautions the reader about his own implication.
But the connection between bottled water and dental health is just a suspicion, with no scientific proof.
Shenkin acknowledged that “there has been no research to show using bottled water causes tooth decay.” At the same time, he cautioned that fluoridated tap water is now believed by experts to reduce the risk of tooth decay by about 25 percent, and that no research has effectively discounted the possible connection between non-fluoridated bottled water consumption and a rise in tooth decay risk.
I haven’t conducted any research or studies either, but I can take a stab at a part of the problem, if one actually exists: walk into any corner store, grocery store, or convenience store, and stride over to the massive, wall-to-wall beverage chillers, for starters. Liquid calories, in the form of sugar, dominate American culture. Everywhere I go nowadays, I see people – including children – with beverages in their hand. Beverage addiction. On top of that, America has become a processed food nation, with all of the foods (sauces, frozen and bagged meals, dressings, etc.) being loaded to the gills with high fructose corn syrup and other artificial sweeteners, as well as laboratory-produced chemicals.
If the industrial food machine and its special interest cohorts are successful at pinning the blame on non-fluoridated water, it’s another step toward banning bottled water altogether, or in the least, successfully labeling it as “junk food,” and thereby increasing the likelihood of pinning a Bloomberg-type tax on bottled water products to make them less attractive as a substitute for government water.
