Paleo Water?!

A quickie here, but I know many of my readers don't do the whole social media thing and this is just too something for words (can't even think of a good adjective there!)  

I try and read Jimmy's stuff in a reader to avoid the ads, but there it was ... screenshot right.

So I couldn't resist clicking ... and no, it's not April Fool's Day and no it's not a spoof!  Awww shucks ... you go to the link today and the paleo header is not displaying at the moment :(  It was a Geico-style cave man juxtaposed with Jimmy Moore's "The Thinker" and the LLVLC promo.  Hope they bring it back!!

What is this alkaline water ... I Google ...

You know you're on to something when Mercola is against it!  Not sure what to make of this ;-)  

James Fell has done a great job on the marketing shenanigans of it all, it's an entertaining read!  Check out:  Paleo has jumped the shark (and if you haven't already and you've got a little time, check out his other recent work: Low carb and paleo dieting as religious zealotry ).  Saved me some blogging time and gave me a few laughs.

Seriously, as I read the copy there on Paleo Water, I kept thinking it was a joke.  Then again, I was convinced Ben Greenfield's Superhuman Encoder bracelets were a joke.  But no.

screenshot from manual

So no need to rehash Fell's commentary vis a vis bacteria in water and all that.  But yet again we have a bastardization of science to scam a buck so I thought I'd address that briefly.  There is actually some truth to the claims about H2, despite this initially setting my BS meter needle jumping.  The research, however, by no means justifies the claims made for this $500 filter unit (1 year lifespan with usual use, $200 for replacement cartridges).  Turns out, the usually fairly chemically inert H2, is an unlikely antioxidant in the body (serious studies exist).  If this is occurring at any significant rate, that means it is oxidized preferentially to the other substances that would otherwise be oxidized.  That's how antioxidants work.  If hydrogen gas is oxidized this would mean:

H₂ → 2H⁺ + 2e

That would, if anything, be in direct conflict with the alkalinity claims as this would increase the acidity of the environment (lower the pH). 

Forgetting the infused hydrogen though, and focusing on just the claims about alkalinity, which may an anomaly of gas dissolution or due to other substances added to the water, you have yourself full on scamming going on.  If the water is slightly alkaline, once it hits your stomach acid it would be neutralized on the spot anyway.  Seriously.  Which got me thinking ...

Whatever you do, don't use this Paleo Water to wash down your Paleo Logix Adaptagest!  

Yes that Poliquin-inspired scamming, courtesy of Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser,  slapping the paleo label on useless betaine HCl tablets, came first.  That stuff ain't cheap so to get the most out of the utterly unsubstantiated claims of increasing your stomach acid, the last thing you want to do is sabotage your efforts by washing them down with alkaline water.    

And besides, everyone knows that paleo man had supplements before clean drinking water anyway.....