You may have seen or heard celebrities including Beyoncé, Bill Gates, Jennifer Lopez, and Tiger Woods swap their plain drinking water with alkaline water for its many reported health benefits.

Although it may seem like a fleeting trend, natural spring alkaline water truly is a healthier alternative. Aside from its more pleasant flavour, it’s been studied for its potential for supporting weight loss goals.

If you’re looking for science-backed information about the health benefits of alkaline water [link to blog here], you’ve come to the right place.

We’re sharing the ways alkaline water can help you meet your weight goals and what you can do to make drinking alkaline water part of your routine.

WHAT IS ALKALINE WATER?

“Alkaline” refers to how acidic or basic a solution is on a pH scale. The range goes from 0–14. The more acidic a solution, the lower the pH level, and the higher the number, the more alkaline.

Most tap and regular bottled waters have a neutral pH of about 6.7–7.4. In comparison, alkaline waters have a pH level between 7.5–9.

The pH levels tell us a lot about the chemical condition of water and control the microbial activity, biological functions, and nutrient absorption of other chemicals.

You can find alkaline water sold as functional bottled water, that is, a beverage that has been enhanced to improve its health benefits, or you can install an ionizer machine at home to change the pH of your tap water.

However, the best form of alkaline water comes from natural spring water sources. The mountain ranges and rock sediments contain a wealth of beneficial trace minerals our body needs to carry out vital functions.

Distilled water or reverse-osmosis water treated via an ionizer to reach a higher pH won’t have these same benefits.

Many people prefer drinking alkaline water for its crisp and subtly sweet flavor, making hydration a more enjoyable experience.

Now, let’s get into the benefits of drinking alkaline water for your weight loss goals.

Drinking Alkaline Water Can Control Your Appetite 

The basic premise of weight loss is to consume fewer calories than you expend while still getting enough nutrients to fuel your body.

The intense cravings for certain foods like sugar and processed carbs are a dieter’s worst enemy. Giving in to your cavings can throw your progress off the rails, making it difficult for people to lose weight.

One of the best ways to curb these uncontrollable desires for food is to drink water.

The hypothalamus plays a critical role in the thirst, hunger, and satiety signals. We often mistake thirst for hunger, so we end up snacking or eating a meal when we still have plenty of energy stores to burn.

A study found that older participants who drank water before a meal decreased the number of calories consumed as they could feel fuller with less [1].

Another study observing dieting women and found that drinking water promoted weight loss by reducing the total energy intake and altering metabolism [2].

Next time you feel a craving strike, drink a bottle of alkaline water. That urge to munch on something may actually be your body signaling you to hydrate rather than feasting.

Alkaline Water Supports Your Metabolism

Your metabolism is the biochemical process of converting nutrients into energy that our bodies need to function (thinking, circulate blood, breathing, muscle movement, and temperature control).

The higher your metabolic rate, the speed at which your body uses energy, the more calories you’ll burn, which means you’ll lose weight.

Research suggests that drinking 500 mL of water increased the metabolic rate by 30% and that drinking 2 L of water per day could increase one’s energy expenditure by approximately 400 kJ [3].

These studies were conducted with regular drinking water. However, drinking natural spring alkaline water or functional bottled water is a healthier choice. You’re getting the benefits of trace minerals that support nutrient absorption and improve your metabolism.

Drinking Alkaline Water Helps To Support Healthy Digestive Function

Reach your weight loss goals by improving the health of your digestive tract.

A happy digestive tract will increase the gut’s metabolic activity, allowing you to be more efficient at using the calories you consume.

Let’s start with the stomach.

Pepsin is the chief digestive enzyme in the stomach. It breaks down proteins into smaller peptides (or chains of amino acids) that can be absorbed into the small intestines.

Sometimes, stomach acidity and a pepsin build-up can cause painful acid reflux symptoms or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). GERD has been linked to slight increases in body weight, even in individuals who are not overweight [4].

Drinking alkaline water helps to neutralize pepsin that can lead to damaging acid reflux symptoms [5].

In Japan, alkaline water ionizers are seen as medical devices after studies found that alkaline spring water effectively cleans the colon to reduce inflammation and other gastrointestinal symptoms [6].

Alkaline Water Improves Muscle Function & Recovery

Another fundamental component of weight loss is incorporating a regular exercise routine to expend more energy than you consume.

Exercise has so many benefits to your body and mental health. And to remain active, you need to keep a healthy level of hydration.

Drinking water is critical to ensuring your body can keep up with losing the amount of fluid from breathing and sweating. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that experts recommended drinking water during exercise. Before this, it was commonly believed that hydration hindered performance.

We now know that you need water to supply oxygen and nutrients to your organs and muscles to keep up with your energy demand.

A study found that alkaline water to be an effective beverage in preventing exercise-induced metabolic acidosis [7]. Metabolic acidosis is a condition where too much acid accumulates in the body caused by toxins, kidney failure, medications, or drugs.

High-intensity exercise can also lead to metabolic acidosis due to lactic acid building in the working muscles, lowing the blood’s pH. The build of lactic acid and the microtears in the muscle fibers during exercise causes you to feel sore the next day.

Another variable that affects athletic performance is blood viscosity.

Another study found that mineral alkaline water decreased blood viscosity by 6.30% compared to table water at 3.36% [8]. This means that blood can flow more freely through the vessels to deliver nutrients to the cells, allowing for increased performance and better overall recovery.

How To Make Alkaline Water Part Of Your Daily Routine  

Many people live busy, fast-paced lifestyles and are looking for convenient ways to improve their health quality or help them lose weight.

The simplest way to do this is to switch to alkaline water as part of your daily routine.

The key is to look for naturally sourced alkaline spring water — not just reverse-osmosis or distilled water that has undergone ionization. These sources lack the essential minerals found in natural alkaline water that contribute to most of the benefits, such as calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium.

Our body uses these minerals to carry out vital functions from energy transport, nutrient absorption, and regulate hormonal function.

Here are some ways to make it easier for you to switch from tap water to drinking alkaline water part of your daily routine:

• Keep functional beverages on hand for convenience
• Drink a bottle of water first thing in the morning to kick-start your metabolism
• Drink a bottle of alkaline water before every meal to reduce your calorie intake to help you lose weight
• Set reminders on your phone to notify you when it’s time to drink water
• Bring functional alkaline water with you to your workout

What Is Black Alkaline Water?

For those who want the most health benefits from their alkaline water, black alkaline water is the way to go.

You may have recently come across black bottled water and wondered what it might have to offer.

Don’t let the water’s colour scare you off — black alkaline water has become a growing trend in the functional beverage industry.

It still maintains the crisp, clean taste people have come to enjoy from your favourite alkaline spring water beverages, but it’s infused with trace fulvic and human minerals that are organically derived.

Fulvic acid is a subclass of compounds known as humic substances, a byproduct of organic degradation of microorganisms. They contain special chemical properties that have been found to support life.

Humic substances to support health has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for nearly 3000 years for their benefits towards immune modulation, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects [9].

These factors can help to play a role in achieving your weight loss goals by improving your exercise endurance, nutrient absorption, and regulating your hormones.

The Takeaway: Alkaline Water Helps With Losing Weight

There’s enough evidence here to suggest that drinking alkaline water along with eating a nutrient-rich diet and following a weight loss exercise regiment can help you lose weight.

It’s important to note that not all alkaline ionized water will support you in your weight loss journey.

TRACE Water is pure Rocky Mountain spring water. It’s naturally alkaline thanks to the abundance of trace minerals from the surrounding rock formations. Remember, reverse-osmosis or distilled water that’s been ionized will not support you in the same ways as they lack essential minerals.

We’ve combined fulvic and humic minerals with the pristine alkaline water from Britsh Colombia for a great-tasting functional beverage that hydrates and supports your active lifestyle.

We’re all about supporting you with convenient nutrient boosters to optimize your endurance, muscle adaption, mental focus, and more.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of alkaline water and functional beverage backed with scientific data, be sure to check out our blog for more resources.

Resources:

1. Van Walleghen EL, Orr JS, Gentile CL, Davy BM. Pre-meal water consumption reduces meal energy intake in older but not younger subjects. Obesity(Silver Spring). 2007 Jan;15(1):93-9. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2007.506. PMID: 17228036.
2. Stookey JD, Constant F, Popkin BM, Gardner CD. Drinking water is associated with weight loss in overweight dieting women independent of diet and activity. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008 Nov;16(11):2481-8. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2008.409. Epub 2008 Sep 11. PMID: 18787524.
3. Boschmann M, Steiniger J, Hille U, Tank J, Adams F, Sharma AM, Klaus S, Luft FC, Jordan J. Water-induced thermogenesis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Dec;88(12):6015-9. doi: 10.1210/jc.2003-030780. PMID: 14671205.
4. Festi, D., Scaioli, E., Baldi, F., Vestito, A., Pasqui, F., Di Biase, A. R., & Colecchia, A. (2009). Body weight, lifestyle, dietary habits and gastroesophageal reflux disease.World journal of gastroenterology, 15(14), 1690–1701. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.15.1690
5. Koufman JA, Johnston N. Potential benefits of pH 8.8 alkaline drinking water as an adjunct in the treatment of reflux disease.Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2012 Jul;121(7):431-4. doi: 10.1177/000348941212100702. PMID: 22844861.
6. Tanaka, Y., Saihara, Y., Izumotani, K., & Nakamura, H. (2019). Daily ingestion of alkaline electrolyzed water containing hydrogen influences human health, including gastrointestinal symptoms.Medical gas research, 8(4), 160–166. https://doi.org/10.4103/2045-9912.248267
7. Chycki, J., Kurylas, A., Maszczyk, A., Golas, A., & Zajac, A. (2018). Alkaline water improves exercise-induced metabolic acidosis and enhances anaerobic exercise performance in combat sport athletes. PloS one, 13(11), e0205708. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205708
8. Weidman, J., Holsworth, R.E., Brossman, B. et al.Effect of electrolyzed high-pH alkaline water on blood viscosity in healthy adults. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 13, 45 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-016-0153-8
9. Winkler, J., & Ghosh, S. (2018). Therapeutic Potential of Fulvic Acid in Chronic Inflammatory Diseases and Diabetes. Journal of diabetes research, 2018, 5391014. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5391014

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