Chlorinated Water: More BAD News

written by Marina Zacharias

You already know that chlorinated drinking water is directly responsible for several problems including many cases of cancer in humans.

Animal studies by the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that drinking chlorinated water caused blood cholesterol to switch from high-density lipoproteins (the good guys) to low-density lipoproteins (the bad guys). Why the EPA doesn’t inform the public that our drinking water is contributing to the number one killer in our country, I’ll never understand.

But there’s more! In a back issue (May/June 1992) of Chemical Research In Toxicology, there is a report of the discovery that ingested chlorinated water alters and destroys essential unsaturated fatty acids!!

When water is treated with chlorine the compound "hypochlorite" is created. This compound creates free radicals which oxidize these essential fatty acids and cause them to turn rancid!

Remember, these fatty acids that are being destroyed are essential fatty acids. That means that the body must have them to survive and they’re not something the body can make.

They have to come from food!!

Free radicals being created by chlorinated water are not only decreasing the ability of the body to get these essential fatty acids from food, but they’re also creating dangerous toxins that have been directly linked to liver malfunction, weakening of the immune system, changes in the arteries and alterations of cellular DNA.

Of course if you are still feeding a typical commercial pet food to your animal you’re probably not concerned with this anyway. Why? There’s little (if any) unsaturated fatty acids in pet foods. Since they go rancid so quickly they decrease the shelf life. To solve these problems, most pet food manufacturers use either saturated fats or hydrogenated fats—both of which cause even more health problems. Even if they purport to be preserved with Vitamin E, the fat preservatives are only part of the story.

But for those of you trying to feed a natural diet and providing a good source of essential fatty acids, please take special care to avoid any and all sources of chlorinated water in your feeding program.