Cold, hot and pH what?
This might be a common theme now: tap water may be as pure as source water – or more precisely source water may contain as much contaminants as your city’s tap water.
In any case, the fact remains: we need to drink water – lots of it!

Some say to follow the 8 x 8 rule (8 glasses of 8 oz per day or about 8 cups).
7-10 glasses seems to be the magic number depending on your activity level and your metabolism.
It hydrates, helps our metabolism to function well and our body to eliminate waste.

Why is it that we now need to add stuff to it in order to drink it?
Flavours, sugar, bubbles… if they help you drink it, it may be a strategy to start.
The other strategy might be to just get used to the natural plain taste.

I would opt for the bubbles if it is going to help you drink more if it.
There is controversy about the carbonic acid added (well, there is also controversy about added sugar and flavour) to the water: it may cause tooth enamel and bone calcium stripping as well as kidney stones.
This controversy may have arisen from a scientific article that connected carbonated cola drinks with low bone mineral density.
Again, you can find many articles claiming to prove contradictory hypothesis…
I would beware however of what else your carbonated water may contain: CO2 or carbon dioxide is what you are looking for – not sugar, sweetener, sodium…

The simple act of drinking water was rendered quite complicated with the overwhelming quantity of common sense (and non-sense) articles and blogs.

The pH of water.
You may have come to believe that a basic (alkaline) pH for your drinking water (basically a pH above 7) is what you should aim for. You have paid an insane amount of money to drink pH 8 or even higher pH water.
Are there benefits to doing so?

What is pH?
This may be one of the first things we learn in high school chemistry. Yes, a while back! pH is a measure of acidity vs alkalinity of water based mixtures.
A pH below 7 is acidic because it has more free hydrogen ions; above 7 is basic or alkaline and has more free hydroxyl ions.
The scale of pH is logarithmic which means that an increase or decrease of an integer value changes the concentration by a tenfold.
Thus water at a pH of 5 has tenfold more free H+ ions than water at pH 6. Water with a pH of 9 has tenfold more free OH- ions than water at a pH of 8.

Your water should be around pH neutral as too acidic or alkaline water can cause harm.
But given the logarithmic scale, there is room to play.
Water at pH 6 to 8.5 is considered safe.

Cities tend to want their drinkable water slightly above 7 so that their pipes do not get oxidized and ruined as it would with acidic water while not too basic to prevent slime and deposits that may ultimately block the pipes.

Until next time. Hot or Cold water.
Lots of water…everything else moderately!