The filters that are used to make this water so much better for you are the same ones that are used in tap water.

As a card-carrying gym rat, one sees a lot of very strange things. Girls who wear too much makeup and then work out as little as possible, guys who can sit for a full 10 minutes on one machine without doing a single lift.

But my personal favorite has always been seeing a line of people standing at the bottled water machine in the Klotsche Center, willing and able to spend their hard-earned money on something that they could just as easily get from the drinking fountains in the locker rooms. One guy was even holding an empty bottle as he stood in line.

Now comes the part where I burst the bubble of those who haven’t already received the memo: bottled water has no special formula to somehow make it better for you. The filters that are used to make this water so much better for you are the same ones that are used in tap water. If you’re reeling from that, sit down, because I’m about to make your day just a little bit worse.

If you’re drinking bottled water that is “manufactured” in Wisconsin, the stuff you’re consuming may be worse for you than tap water.

Why?

Because the Food and Drug Administration’s laws regarding water purity are pretty much nonexistent for water, and they’re even more lax if it’s manufactured and sold in only one state. As a matter of fact, most of this water does not come from “natural springs” or “glaciers;” it can be found next to industrial waste plants.

Now, let’s put two and two together for the full picture: nonexistent safety laws for bottled water, which is manufactured in a factory located next to an industrial waste plant.

Of course you can say that so is tap water, but ladies and gentlemen, I have seen the Milwaukee reservoir, and it isn’t next to a waste plant. Personally I’ve been left feeling just a little bit stupid after the few occasions on which I’ve been forced to buy bottled water (all because I didn’t bring a Mountain Dew bottle with me to the gym).

I’ve shelled out $1.25 for something that I could just as easily have gotten from the fountains downstairs, and I’d have been able to buy my post-workout Sobe without any problem.

I don’t personally have anything against the bottled water industry. In fact, I’m impressed that they have been able to make so much money off of something that is so readily available to just about everyone in the United States. I even applaud them for it.

Having said that; I do have an issue with the guy who holds a used bottle in his hand and waits to buy another one along with all the other boys and girls. We’re in college, and it shouldn’t take one overly opinionated writer to tell you that you’re wasting your money by spending so much on water.

Drink soda, drink iced tea, drink whatever and just save the bottle. If you wash it out with tap water (!) after you’re done and then fill it up again later, you’ve just saved yourself enough for a cup of coffee.

But you already knew that. I just like to remind people of the obvious every now and then.

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