Water

Food · Drink · Food, Typed Supps

Tap, bottled and sparkling hydrate identically. What differs is fluoride, sodium and price.

Stage by stage

Intake (Contact with teeth): Fluoridated tap water acts topically on enamel as it passes; bottled water generally does not carry fluoride.
Stomach (Empties fastest): Plain water leaves the stomach faster than any other drink; carbonation delays it very slightly.
Absorption (Passive uptake): Near-complete absorption across the small intestine and colon within minutes.
Regulation (Thirst and vasopressin): Plasma osmolality is defended tightly; anything beyond need is simply excreted.

Time to effect

Minutes: Absorption begins within minutes; urine output rises within about half an hour of a large drink.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Keto, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £2 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Water
Fluoride (tap)
Trace minerals

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 0
Protein: 0g
Carbohydrate: 0g
of which sugars: 0g
Fat: 0g
of which saturated: 0g
Fibre: 0g
Sodium: 3mg

Food vs. supplement

Mineral water is an inefficient way to obtain calcium or magnesium compared with food. Fluoridated tap water is the one case where the drink itself is the delivery mechanism worth keeping.

Kitchen tip

If sparkling water is replacing soft drink, that is a straightforward improvement. If it is replacing tap water, the only thing lost is fluoride — a real but small trade.

Common myth

"Sparkling water leaches calcium from your bones." In reality: The finding behind this came from cola consumption, where phosphoric acid and the displacement of milk are the proposed explanations. Plain carbonated water has shown no such effect on bone density.