drum roll...... bottled water!

> In fact, 34 percent of the growth in bottled water sales during the past 11 years (from 2012 to 2023) has come from people switching from soft drinks and fruit drinks to bottled water. U.S. consumers now drink an average of 46.4 gallons (176 liters) of bottled water per person, compared to 34.4 gallons (129 liters) of carbonated soft drinks. -- https://wcponline.com/2024/10/01/2024-state-of-the-bottled-w...

PS: To be fair, I switched from the (acidic!) soft drinks to tap water. Almost always boiled water. Despite being comparatively confident in the quality of our tap water, the pipes mustn't be great. According to our city's water supplier, the tests come out classifying the water at their end as "soft" (bordering very soft). Yet on our end, there's a lot of chalk build up in the water kettle. I am entertaining the idea to send a sample of the tap water to a lab.

My understanding is that soft water is classified as 0-60 mg/L of CaCO₃ equivalent, so there's no such thing as "very soft"). Maybe they're claiming "Moderately hard" is actually soft water?

> Yet on our end, there's a lot of chalk build up in the water kettle.

That's practically unavoidable, rapid changes in temperature cause the limescale to crash out of solution.

Get a water filtration device.

If you really want to avoid getting anything in your water - even essential vitamins and minerals - you can always distill your water. It’s worse for you though, much worse. That ‘chalk’ in your carafe is just small amounts of minerals you need anyway that come out of solution.

Bottled water has it too.

If they build up to the point it’s bothering you, a little vinegar will dissolve them right out.

I live in a hard water area as well.

I researched about this, and the best solution is to get a water softener. These are devices that mix salts with the water that break down the limescale minerals.

That said, most reputable manufacturers and installers of these devices will recommend you have an unsoftened tap for drinking water. The minerals in the water are actually good for you, and removing them could have deleterious effects on your health. Watering plants is generally best done with unsoftened water as well.

> To be fair, I switched from the (acidic!) soft drinks to tap water. Almost always boiled water. Despite being comparatively confident in the quality of our tap water, the pipes mustn't be great.

if you’re making hot drinks, sure, but by boiling, you’re going to concentrate the minerals (and anything else in there that doesn’t like to evaporate, like PFAS)

Water destroys bridges and roads, imagine what it would do to your intestines :) (old drunkards joke)

Of course I can, and tap water, filtered or not, constitutes most of my liquid intake. That said, I also like to drink other things every now and then. Sparkling water, kombucha, the eventual beer or cider...