Water is the lifeblood of every single living being on this planet. It contains no calories, it doesn’t provide what many would consider to be a “nutritional” value, other than a few minerals and some sodium. Yet if we don’t drink it, we will die. As natural and harmless as water may be, big corporations have found yet another way to ruin this essential substance for us, and believe or not it’s a whole lot scarier than the fluoride everybody has been fussing about.

Dasani Bottle Water Ingredients

You would expect bottled water to have only one or two ingredients: water, and sometimes the salt that is found in it. However, Dasani bottle water has been found to contain two extra ingredients that might surprise you: potassium chloride and magnesium sulfate.

Potassium chloride

Potassium chloride is a white, odorless powder that is dissolved into the water long before you purchase it, making it undetectable to the naked eye.

Potassium chloride is used for many non-medical reasons, including being commonly used as a fertilizer. One of the more disturbing uses of potassium chloride include the roles it plays in lethal injection, where it is injected directly into the bloodstream to cause death as quickly as possible.

Side effects of ingesting potassium chloride include having a bad aftertaste, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea and heartburn. It is advised to avoid the ingestion of potassium chloride if you have ever experienced kidney damage, if you are suffering from Addison’s disease, if you are taking diuretics or (ironically) if you are dehydrated.

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Magnesium Sulfate

Magnesium sulfate is commonly known as Epsom salt. It usually applied topically to treat fungal diseases such as athlete’s foot or toenail fungus.

Although magnesium sulfate is beneficial in some ways and works for a variety of medical uses, consuming it can be harmful if you are breastfeeding, pregnant or are planning on becoming pregnant. This is because, according to the FDA, there is a good chance that it can cause birth defects.

Magnesium sulfate used to be widely prescribed to pregnant women to prevent seizures that occur during pregnancy, however the FDA advised clinicians to ban its use in this fashion due to evidence that harm the developing bones of a fetus.

The FDA came to this conclusion after a review of 18 different studies in which women were given magnesium sulfate for an average of a bit less than 10 weeks. The studies found that a significant portion of these women’s babies were born with birth defects including fractures of long bones and ribs.

Other side effects that can occur when consuming magnesium sulfate include:

  • Confusion
  • Dizziness
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Low blood pressure
  • Muscle weakness
  • Sleepiness

There have been many problems associated with drinking bottled water. Aside from the health risks associated with consuming a liquid substance that has been soaking BPA-laden plastic, and the environmental impact that drinking bottled water has, this new evidence should put a nail in the coffin of bottled water consumption.