Yet, medical professionals agree that drinking water is an insignificant source of healthy minerals, compared to the foods we routinely eat. It is estimated that in order to get all the minerals you need from drinking water, you would have to drink more than what is humanly possible. Medical professionals have also reversed their opinion that soft water could be associated with heart disease. In fact, exhaustive investigative reports con-clude that there is no link between water hardness and mortality rates.

In addition, studies done by the Water Quality Association, the water industry's trade organization, show that calcium and magnesium, the two minerals which make water hard, might actually have some adverse effects on the foods you eat and the beverages you drink.

First, hardness minerals can detract form the taste of the water, as well as any beverage or food made with water, such as coffee, concentrated juice, soup or even gelatin.

Second, some foods, especially fresh vegetables, don't cook or taste as good when prepared with hard water, because the calcium combines with a protein in vegetable skins, making them tough and sometimes shriveled.

Third, hard water can be hard on your skin and hair, making them dry and unhealthy looking. That's because a sticky residue forms on skin and hair when hardness minerals in the water combine with soap.

Yet another issue is the corrosive nature of the water. In the past, many believed that hard water was less corrosive than soft water, meaning that it was less likely to corrode plumbing and leach contaminants like copper and lead into the water. But in the summer of 1996, the EPA concluded that softened water "does not increase lead or copper leaching in household plumbing systems." The EPA test found no statistically significant difference in corrosion of copper pipe between softened water and hard water.

In addition, leading manufacturers of water treatment equipment, like Kinetico Incorporated, point out that soft water will actually increase the service life of household plumbing, as well as major home appliances, because it keeps lime curd and scale from building up inside pipes and around moving parts.

Kinetico's unique water softeners provide around-the-clock protection for you, your home and your pocketbook, since they're non-electric and feature a twin-tank design. There are no electrical components to malfunction from humidity or power outages. And, the second tank ensures an uninterrupted flow of soft water 24 hours a day (something that single-tank softeners can't claim).

Cost- and energy-conscious consumers will also appreciate the fact that demand-initiated-regeneration softeners like Kinetico's clean themselves (regenerate) on demand, rather than at a pre-set interval, so the systems use as much as 50 percent less water and regenerant.

For more information about the water you drink, call Kinetico at 1-800-944-WATER (9283) and request the FREE Consumers’s Guide to Protecting the Water Your Family Drinks. Or visit Kinetico's Web site at www.kinetico.com for more information about water.