According to this doctor, drinking bottled water is recommended in “rare and very specific” cases

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A doctor may direct people with certain deficiencies to drink bottled water in rare situations.

Consumption – Water is life. It also taps. Last Monday, Nestlé Waters Group admitted that Perrier, Vittel, Hepar and Contrex – used hygiene practices contrary to regulations on its water sold in bottles. A problem with transparency, when 48% of French people announced they would drink bottled water every day in 2023, according to the Water Information Center’s annual Kantar Barometer.

HuffPost Wondered under what conditions bottled water was recommended for tap water damage. Contacting us, general practitioner Brigitte Tregoet confirms that there is none “There are almost no situations where bottled water is recommended.”. If the prescription of mineral water can help in certain specific cases, This is the practice “Tendency to disappear”.

Some hints “Rare and very specific”

Some bottled water is in fact “unbalanced”That is, they are very rich in minerals – this can be calcium, sodium, magnesium… In some cases, some of them are recommended by doctors to their patients.

“For people who have kidney stones, we can try to change the mineral composition of the urine by overloading the body with certain minerals through unbalanced water.”The doctor explains.

Overall, these are indications “Rare and very specific”she suggests. “If you have a calcium deficiency, you won’t be asked to drink a gallon of Contrax. You will be given calcium tablets and an ampoule of vitamin D. The interest in water has gone down a lot. We have other ways of treating people”, assures Brigitte Tregoet. Some bottled waters are sometimes clearly unsanitary: “People with heart problems can’t drink water that’s too high in sodium, like most sparkling water. »

Bottled water is also recommended for infants, but tap water is also fine, according to Sante Publique France. This needs to be taken Some precautions, such as not putting the neck of the bottle in contact with the tap, using cold water and cleaning the tap head regularly. “If you taste chlorine in your tap water, leave the water in an open carafe in the refrigerator for a few hours”Adds a government website.

Tap water, the most regulated food in France

Tap water “Very well suited in most cases”, according to Brigitte Tregoet. However, many people still prefer to drink bottled water. Between 2022 and 2023, the confidence rate in tap water dropped from 85% to 78%.

The doctor recognizes that there was “ worry »Regarding the quality of tap water, due to the possible presence of “Nitrate in certain places where there is intensive breeding”.. This can also be water “Polluted by faeces, if there are herds of animals near the wells”, she continues. But when there are warnings about the quality of tap water, the population is alerted by regional health agencies.

In April 2023, an ANSES report revealed contamination of tap water with pesticide residues. But these results do not question the potability of tap water. This was explained by Dr. Damian Muskrat at the time France 3 : “We can still (drink the tap water) because we’re talking about water quality here that has exceeded the threshold, but there’s another threshold that’s much higher that we call the health threshold here and there, the agency Emphasize, he has. not exceeded. »

On its website, ANSES also makes it clear“To guarantee consumer health, (the agency) provides the General Directorate of Health with useful scientific criteria to monitor the quality of tap water. To do this, the Agency is specifically implementing its methodology to identify, among pesticide metabolites, those whose presence in water intended for human consumption should be the subject of priority attention. »

In fact, tap water remains the most regulated food in France, “At all levels of the production chain and down to our taps”, suggests Public Health France. Which makes it very “Safe, (…) economical and environmentally friendly”Because it does not use plastic. Not only that, bottled water has been shown to contain high levels of plastic particles. Brigitte Tregoet concludes: “I am a doctor and I am 65 years old. I have never seen people get sick from tap water. If it exists, it is very marginal. »

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