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13/01/2025 | By Super Admin

Drinking RO water can cause mineral deficiencies in the body?

It can't be denied that our bodies require minerals, which play a crucial role in health including supporting the immune system and promoting growth and development.

However, our bodies can't produce minerals on their own they must be obtained from various sources such as drinks, food, and a balanced diet. Deficiency or excess of certain minerals can lead to significant health issues.

One of the easiest sources of minerals is through mineral water. Various brands of mineral water are available in Indonesia. As the name suggests, mineral water contains minerals in accordance with the SNI 3553 Year 2015 standard. This is in stark contrast to Reverse Osmosis (RO) water, which contains no minerals at all.

RO water is produced by filtering through a semipermeable membrane with a filtration level reaching 0.0001 microns, so substances larger than that, such as bacteria and minerals, do not pass through and are discarded, resulting in 99% H2O (water).

So, is it true that drinking RO water can cause a mineral deficiency in the body?

RO water indeed has very low or even zero mineral content because the RO process filters out almost all substances, including all types of bacteria and minerals. However, concerns that exclusively drinking RO water could cause a mineral deficiency in the body are somewhat exaggerated because:

  1. Other Mineral Sources: Most of the minerals needed by the body are obtained from food, not drinking water. Sources include fruits, grains, eggs, and others. As long as a person's diet is balanced and meets nutritional needs, mineral deficiency from RO water is not a major issue.
  2. Re-mineralization: Some modern RO systems have a re-mineralization stage, which adds back important minerals like calcium and magnesium into the water before consumption.
  3. Electrolyte Balance: There are concerns that very pure water could disrupt the body's electrolyte balance. However, the body has adequate mechanisms to maintain this balance, provided the nutritional intake is balanced.

In general, drinking RO water will not cause a mineral deficiency if it is accompanied by a healthy and balanced diet. However, for individuals with very high mineral needs or limited diets, it is important to ensure sufficient mineral intake from other sources.