Q: I know how important it is to drink water, but after living overseas I was wondering if there's a health difference in drinking the carbonated water with no flavor? Is sparkling water the same as drinking uncarbonated water?
A: Sparkling water may be to tap water what a microbrew is to cheap, frat-house kegs, but there's no data we can find comparing different members of the H2O family. However, carbonated water can leach calcium from your bones, so take an extra 20 mg of calcium for every eight ounces of carbonated water (or other carbonated beverage) you have a day. The two studies on the benefit of water in preventing a second heart attack (the strongest data on ensuring hydration with an extra 64 ounces a day) were both done with noncarbonated water.
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