If you follow our blog you have heard us talk about the negative effects of hard water on your plumbing, appliances, and budget, so it might surprise you that there are some reasons to be grateful for hard water. Often we overlook the health benefits of hard water minerals and the environmental impact of most water softeners, but today, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we’re going to help you be thankful for how hard your water is.
Hard Water is Healthy for You!
We’ve talked before about the science of hard water and what it’s made of, but hard water is mostly a high concentration of calcium and magnesium in your water. Those minerals are actually quite healthy for you! In fact, many healthy foods such as nuts, avocados, and whole grains are full of magnesium, while broccoli, yogurt, and tofu are healthy foods high in calcium.
Both of these minerals have very specific health benefits. Calcium primarily builds strong bones but has many other benefits. Your body uses calcium in the neurons in your brain, to help your muscles contract, repair damaged tissues, and regulate your blood sugar levels.
Magnesium, on the other hand, is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body and is used for a wide range of body functions, from the formation of our DNA to how our body processes energy.
Calcium and magnesium have a wide range of health benefits and are still being studied today, and may be responsible for some of the healthiest communities in the world. But not only can these hard water minerals be healthy for you, they are also healthy for the environment.
Hard Water is Good for the Environment
Above all else, hard water is often a natural quality of water, and many plants and animals living in hard water areas rely on the calcium and magnesium in hard water far more than we do. The same way our bodies use calcium and magnesium to grow and repair themselves, plants often rely on those minerals to live and unlike us, they rely almost entirely on groundwater for these minerals. Removing them from our water can affect the health of our gardens and house plants.
Additionally, the way homeowners remove those hard water minerals can have other environmental effects. Traditionally, we have used salt-based water softeners to replace the calcium and magnesium in hard water with sodium, which is highly detrimental to plants and will stick around in the soil and groundwater for a very long time. It has become enough of a problem that several cities and states have banned salt-based systems for the various economic and environmental issues they cause. Even alternative methods, like Reverse Osmosis systems, have some scientists questioning the health effects of removing all minerals from your water, and the WHO’s Guidelines for Drinking Water recommend adding back in the Calcium and Magnesium from demineralized water.
Keep the Benefits of Hard Water
Hard Water can actually have many benefits for our health and for the environment. It can be a hard choice for homeowners whether they want the benefits or if they want to prevent the consequences of hard water. While that is a decision for homeowners with a salt-based system or considering one, there is a way to get the best of both worlds.
With a NuvoH2O system, you don’t have to make that hard choice. Using the power of citrus, a NuvoH2O system prevents calcium and magnesium from forming hard water scale buildup while keeping those minerals in your water. With this eco-friendly technology, it’s possible to have the convenience of soft water and still be grateful for the natural minerals your water provides.
We’re Grateful for our Water
Everyone deserves the convenience and safety of having clean, healthy water in their home, and we all should be grateful to realize what a gift that is. To all our current customers, we are so grateful for your support. To both our customers and everyone else, we hope you are grateful for your water too.
