Japanese aren’t strangers to premium products, ranging the food, beverage, and tobacco spectrum. Mizu no Genso 水の元素 (Elements of Water) from Irom Pharma may not say “premium” on the label, but the price and the packaging says it all. $3 for 300ml as opposed to a 500ml Volvic for $1 is quite the jump. This is water for the aficionado who just wants pure, unadulterated H2O.
Mizu no Genso is no ordinary water. It’s free radical (electrolyzed) water containing only hydrogen and oxygen, with non of that fancy mineral content. Adding to the healthy image, we happened to pick this up in a pharmacy next to the register, giving it nice credibility. The girl at the counter said she tried it and said for us to be sure to “be close to the restroom” after drinking it, because it goes right through. Yikes.
We aren’t scientists, so we don’t know much about electrolyzed water. What we DO know, is that this is a brilliant concept from the marketing side:
Phase One: Electrolyze water
Phase Two: ?
Phase Three: Profit!
UPDATE: I did a blind taste test with four people drinking Mizu no Genso, regular mineral water, and tap water. Tap water was guessed 100% correctly and our premium choice came away with 75%. Hmm…
UPDATE #2 It seems that the water is also saturated with hydrogen gas, though (scientifically) I still have no idea what that means in practical terms.
Mizu no Gen at Irom Pharma
Michael is the Editor of JapanTrends.com and Director of the 
Hydrogen gas implies that hydrogen is present like carbon-dioxide in carbonized drinks… but why would anyone want to do this? There’s no point: at best it could bond to any oxygen atoms peacefully to form more water and at worst it could bond violently… producing more water and possibly death/destruction.
Are you sure they don’t mean that the water is saturated with hydrogen as-in: a ratio between hydrogen and oxygen of 1 : 2 i.e. plain water.
Btw, where I’m from, tap water is as good as bottled water if not better :-p …and it’s a thousand times cheaper too! Crazy ain’t it?
This is what one would call pure, unadulterated, highly concentrated, methane infused, enzymatically reduced, high fiber, low nutrient, male Bovidae effuse product.
Also know as Bull-Shit.
Water is Water is Water. It may have more or less minerals and contaminants, but H2O remains Water. If you electrolyze water you create H2 and O2 gas that escapes (and probably contaminate the water with some trace heavy metals from the electrodes).
Brilliant marketing for the brain dead.
the minerals are required in the water.
de-ionised water can kill you, duh!
fact. twice. :)
Probably just distilled water, thus pure water without any trace elements in it. I’m pretty sure you can buy this in medical stores for dirt cheap or simply make your own with a decent enough distill.
Thats nothing – my local chemist sells some kind of fancy mineral water thats double the price of that stuff ;)
I second Bill’s point. Deionized water can kill you – the minerals are absolutely required. This is a stupid product.
This water is unhealthy, because it will dissolve minerals that are already present in the body.
Such kind of water is only good for education and industrial production.
Deionized (distilled) water will not kill you, or even harm you. Those who believe otherwise are ignorant of both chemistry and biology.
When you drink deionized water the first thing that happens is that it mixes with your saliva, then it mixes with the hydrochloric acid in your stomach, and then it mixes with all the salt and other things you have eaten. In order for deionized water to dissolve minerals in the body, it would have to affect biological processes like thyroid output.
As far as being more reactive, deionized water is not that different than tap water in terms of its willingness to dissolve ionic compounds. Try it yourself. See how much salt you can add to 8 oz. of distilled water before no more will dissolve, and then try the same with tap water. Not much different is it? Some posters on this board want you to believe that difference may be fatal.
Although deionized water will not hurt you to drink, please remember that water is a dangerous chemical. It is fatal upon inhalation and has a fairly high specific heat capacity (it conducts heat away from your body causing hypothermia).
Deionised or distilled water will NOT kill you. You people are as stupid as the people buying this “premium” water. But if they have enough money then who cares? Same goes for getting a $15 belt at Target versus a $300 belt at Louis Vuitton: if you’ve got the money who cares. Also do some researched a stop being ignorant: minerals are supposed to come from a healthy diet, not water. Prove that deionised or distilled water kills — you can’t because it’s a common thought among idiots.
Glaceau Smartwater has been available in the States for some time. It is a premium water that is vapor distilled and is also electrolyzed.
glaceau dot com
-Philip
Well, I’m going to market my new drink. It’s an Oxygen based drink, fused with hydrogen. It’ll be like nothing you’ve ever tasted.
The way we have created this new drink, is by using a $17 billion super collidor. We shoot the gas particals at each other, and a collector plate catches the new liquid. Sadly it takes 14 years to create one 8 oz glass of my super drink. I will be putting bids on ebay for $10,000.
When I get the link, I’ll let everyone know about it. =)
Expensive bottle water is bullshit.
Presumably the reason they saturate the water with H2 gas is so that it doesn’t immediately grab onto CO2 and become acidic when exposed to air – ie, when you open the pouch.
While drinking chemically pure water in small quantities won’t kill you, larger quantities can by throwing off the electrolyte balance in your cells. Since your urine always contains (fairly large) quantities of salts, if you are not replacing them in the water you drink, you’ll be dangerously depleting them from your body.
Of course, this would require you to hole yourself away for a couple days with no food a a couple hundred bottles of deionized water.
I can provide nothing of value to this discussion. However the thought of $3 death water is interesting.
Here are some science links for you folks to reconsider what you are saying about hydrogen water or hydrogen gas. Actually there are probably minerals in this water but it is so small that it does not need to be mentioned.
The hydrogen is put in the water because it can act as an antioxidant. You are right that if they use electrolysis to make it there might be contaminants. But one can also use hydrogen gas to infuse directly (hint). The other point about hydrogen reacting with oxygen to produce more water is possible only if there is oxygen in the water; however, the oxygen supposed to be removed.
The point about the hydrogen escaping–yes that easily happens and if they produce the right container it will stay in for a certain amount of time–about 3 months for maximum effect. There are many difficulties in retaining hydrogen and only the best hydrogen water company knows how to do it for now.
Also the water is ionic with a negative ORP of less than 300mV. Only one company in Japan has negative ORP of -600mV. So it is not going to deplete your body of minerals and even if it did you are only supposed to drink 1 to 3 a day.
Smartwater–well it is only electrolyzed with salts added. There is no electrolysis so it is not real electrolysis water. You can check the ORP with an ORP meter and you will see that it is positive like every other water out there except for Real Water and hydrogen waters, but most hydrogen water companies loose their ORP level within short time.
So–the water is used to deliver the hydrogen. It is not meant to be drunk as you would drink water. The science is starting to come in and here is some I found on H4O’s website. There will be more coming I am sure.
NIH review
http://www.h4o.jp/e/pdf/nm0607-673.pdf
Hepatic injury
http://www.h4o.jp/e/pdf/BBRCH2.pdf
Nature medicine–#1 medical journal inthe world
http://www.h4o.jp/e/pdf/Nature_070508.pdf
recent article on diabetes and hydrogen water with research being done at world famous Kyoto Univ.
http://www.nrjournal.com/article/S0271-5317(08)00023-7/abstract
Thanks Jay,…finally someone that has done his homework! This info is a bit more informed than anything else I’ve read here today…..good job.