I'd been hearing about the benefits of alkalization for a few years, and how an awful lot of our "generally just not feeling quite as good and alive as we should" was due to bodily acidification. But this information all seemed to come from rather cranky diet zealots, many of whom wanted me to give up pizza. So I just filed the information away.
Then last year I read Daniel Reid's The Tao of Detox and was struck by the possibility of drinking purified alkalizing water. Seeing as how we depend on water for every bodily process, and are larely composed of the stuff, this seemed like an easy and direct step to improved general vitality. But the book mainly talked about hugely expensive units which you plug into you kitchen tap and then need replacement filters for. And a fair bit of web research showed a number of companies fighting bitterly for the customer's attention, slagging off each other's machines and leaving everything rather unreliable.
So when I discovered the Alkalark, which is small, poratable and does the same basic job for a fraction of the price, it wa something of a blessing. You don't have to unscrew it when you move house, you just need to refresh it with a few drops of the supplied solution once a week. You're supposed to use only pre-purified water for best results, but I've been quietly ignoring this and it still seems pretty useful. I haven't checked the science of it, and I daresay there are doubters out there, but the fact that the Alkalark's design is filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggest that it really does do something.
Most importantly, my favourite uber-sceptic, after loads of initial mockery, is now drinking from it regularly because the water is "really nice."
The Alkalark is available in the UK from www.relax-uk.com for £78.50, and is quite hard to get hold of otherwise (or was when I got mine.)
Ian Threadgill, 14/09/2007