The Water You Drink: The Forgotten Liquid (And Why Chlorine Is Stealing Your Life)
In the article about salt, I told you you're a walking ocean. Today I want to share the other half of that truth: 70% of your body isn't just water—it's a specific kind of water. And what comes out of your tap, however safe it might be from cholera, isn't what your ancestral biology recognizes as "living water."
This isn't a cooking article either. It's the second piece of the puzzle we started with salt. I talked about minerals, balance, how your body speaks an ancient language. But minerals need a messenger: water. And when that messenger is poisoned with chlorine, altered with chemicals, or stripped of its natural structure, the entire system fails.
A humble note before we begin:
As you know, I'm a chef. Not a doctor, not a biologist, not a scientist. What I'm sharing comes from my personal experience, my own research, what I've witnessed in my community and my own family. Please, as I did, cross-check this information yourself. Read studies, consult sources, ask trusted professionals.
I'm not writing this so you'll come to the burger joint expecting us to take care of your health. As you'll see, even we have limited means. I'm writing this so you'll take action in your home, in your daily life. Because as we've said, this is cumulative: drinking tap water for one day won't harm you, nor two, nor three. But years and decades without taking measures make the difference between a healthy life and a life bouncing between doctors and hospitals.
This knowledge doesn't reject the advances in sanitary engineering that eliminated epidemics, but seeks to complement them: how can we have water that's safe AND alive?
The Invisible Enemy: Endocrine Disruptors in Water
Before talking about chlorine, we need to address something more insidious: endocrine disruptors. These chemical compounds (phthalates, BPA, organochlorine pesticides, pharmaceutical residues) mimic or block your natural hormones. They enter your body through water, plastic, treated foods, and alter your endocrine system at a molecular level.
This isn't science fiction. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Environment Agency have documented their effects: reproductive disruptions, thyroid problems, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and even changes in sexual development. They hijack your hormones, confuse your body's signals, and create long-term physical and hormonal identity problems.
Critical note about children:
Children don't just absorb water to maintain life; they use it as building material to become adults. Every cell they form, every hormone they synthesize, every organ they develop between ages 0 and 18 depends on what enters their body.
Giving a child water bottled in plastic for years exposes them daily to microparticles of endocrine disruptors. Plastic, especially when heated (bottle in the sun, in a car), releases BPA and phthalates into the water. There are plastics labeled "BPA-free," but many use substitutes (like BPS) that are equally problematic.
If there's a time in life when the water you drink MATTERS existentially, it's during childhood development. This isn't fear-mongering; it's developmental biology. Studies show that early exposure to endocrine disruptors is associated with early puberty, future fertility problems, and metabolic disruptions that persist into adulthood.
Solution: If giving bottled water to children, use glass whenever possible. If there's no option, choose PET or PP plastics, and never leave bottles exposed to heat. Better yet: filter tap water at home and store it in reusable glass bottles.
The Great Disconnect: Safe Water vs. Living Water
In the 19th century, they discovered that chlorine killed pathogens in water. It was revolutionary. Cities stopped being cholera and typhus graveyards. No one disputes that achievement. Water purification saved millions of lives. Tap water in Spain is, generally, safe for immediate consumption. It meets health standards.
The problem isn't municipal water per se. The problem is accumulated consumption over years and decades without taking measures. Water quality varies enormously depending on the city, its source (river, reservoir, underground aquifer), and the treatment it receives. In Santiago, water comes from reservoirs and is chlorinated. Other cities add fluoride. Rural areas may have contamination from agricultural runoff.
Municipal water is safe, but not optimal. It's traveled through concrete and metal pipes, had chlorine added (and sometimes fluoride), lost its natural minerals in the purification process. It's bacterially clean H₂O, yes, but it's stripped water: it's forgotten where it comes from and lacks the structure and mineral richness of natural water. Drinking one glass won't harm you. Drinking thousands of glasses over 50 years without filtering does have cumulative consequences.
The Biology You're Ignoring Every Time You Drink
1. Your Blood Doesn't Ask for Water, It Asks for "Structured Water"
When I said you're an ocean, I wasn't exaggerating. Your blood plasma has the same saline composition as primordial seawater (0.9%). But there's more: the water inside your cells isn't "normal" water. It's structured water, organized in hexagonal patterns, almost gel-like. It's called fourth phase water or EZ water (Exclusion Zone).
This water has electrical properties. It conducts information. It's the medium through which your cells communicate, through which minerals (like those in the sea salt I told you about) travel and do their work. When you drink chlorinated tap water, you're introducing chaotic, unstructured liquid. It's like trying to hear a symphony on a broken phone: the message gets lost.
2. Chlorine: The Guardian That Kidnaps
Chlorine fulfills its function: destroy bacteria. But it doesn't distinguish between harmful bacteria and beneficial intestinal flora. Every glass of chlorinated water is a micro-attack on your microbiome. And your microbiome (those trillions of bacteria in your gut) produces 90% of your serotonin, regulates your immunity, and digests your food.
More chlorine = less flora = worse digestion = chronic inflammation. It's a silent chain. It doesn't kill you today; it wears you down over decades. And when at 50 they tell you "it's your age," no one looks back at what you drank for 50 years.
3. Cellular Dehydration: The Dead Water Paradox
Ever drunk liters of water and still felt thirsty? It's not psychological. It's biochemical. Water without minerals (like distilled or ultra-purified water) doesn't hydrate at the cellular level because it lacks electrolytes. It's like trying to charge a battery without terminals: it simply doesn't connect.
Your body needs water with mineral information to open aquaporins (the channels that let water into cells). Without salt, without magnesium, without potassium, water enters your mouth and exits in urine without ever reaching where it should: the intracellular space.
The Galician Wisdom We Forgot
I grew up in a Galician village where water ran pure and clean through the fields. We drank directly from streams, from natural springs. Back then, you could drink from almost any running water. It wasn't romanticism; it was reality. That water had a different taste, a different texture in your mouth, because it literally was different water: it had traveled through granite rocks, naturally mineralized, cold and structured by its movement between stones.
In Santiago, before municipal pipes, people drank from public fountains. Some still remain drinkable, fewer and fewer. Years ago, we collected drinking water from the fountain next to the Seminario Menor. It was a weekly ritual: glass carafe, fresh water, alive. But some time ago they installed a foot pedal that makes the process extremely complicated, and reduced the flow to such a thin stream you'd spend minutes filling a one-liter bottle. It's as if they didn't want people to use it.
But times have changed, and we must accept it. Fields are now fertilized with pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers. When it rains, all that washes into aquifers, into springs. Every day it's harder to drink living water unless you live in a remote valley, far from industrial civilization. "Natural" water isn't so natural anymore. That's the uncomfortable truth.
But here's the important part: what we must not do is resign ourselves to drinking dead water. We have tools. Today, in our kitchen, Antonio and I have installed an activated carbon filter attached to the cooking water. It removes chlorine, improves taste, reduces some contaminants. It's not spring water, but it's better than straight tap water. At the bar, when a customer asks for water, we serve bottled, because, much to our regret, we don't have a filtration system there. It's a limitation we acknowledge.
The Protocol: Transform Your Water (Today)
You don't need to move to a mountain with a spring. You need to understand and act. Here's the method I use at home and you can apply in yours:
The "Living Water at Home" Protocol:
Step 1: Remove Chlorine (And Everything Else)
The Reality of Our Water: Santiago's tap water has between 110-120 ppm (parts per million) total dissolved solids. That includes chlorine, lime, and trace metals depending on the area and pipes. It's not chemically pure water; it's treated water with multiple components. You can measure it with a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter. Numbers don't lie.
- Basic method (chlorine only): Fill a glass pitcher with tap water and leave it uncovered for 12-24 hours. Chlorine evaporates into the air. This does NOT remove heavy metals, fluoride, or pesticides, but immediately improves taste.
- Intermediate method (what we use in our kitchen): Activated carbon filter attached to the faucet. Removes chlorine, improves taste, reduces some heavy metals and microplastics. Brands like Brita or ceramic filters with carbon are accessible (30-80 euros / $35-90). Reduces PPM to about 60-80. A practical solution for daily home use.
- Advanced method: Reverse osmosis. This system filters water at a molecular level. After going through osmosis, water drops to 10-20 ppm. Nearly pure. Removes chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic), pesticides, herbicides, endocrine disruptors, and microplastics. Initial investment: 150-400 euros ($165-440). A long-term health investment, especially recommended if there are children at home.
- Extreme method (severe cases): Heat distillation. If your municipal water has not just chlorine but also high fluoride levels and other difficult-to-remove chemicals, distillation is the purest option. Heat water until it evaporates, collect the vapor, and condense it. You get nearly 100% H₂O. Then, ESSENTIAL: remineralize with natural sea salt (0.5-1 gram per liter). Without this, distilled water is dead water that can even leach minerals from your body.
Step 2: Remineralize
Tap water, after treatment, is "empty" water. Give it back its life:
- Add a pinch of natural sea salt (the one you use in cooking after reading my salt article) to each liter: approximately 0.5-1 gram. You won't taste it, but your body will notice the electrolytes.
- Optional: An organic lemon slice provides vitamin C (which neutralizes residual chlorine) and slightly alkalizes the water.
This isn't homeopathy; it's restoring the mineral profile that natural water has by default.
Step 3: Structure the Water (The Forgotten Ritual)
This sounds esoteric, but it has a physical basis. Water has molecular memory. It's not pseudoscience; it's applied crystallography. Dr. Gerald Pollack from the University of Washington documented how water changes its structure according to its environment.
- Pour water from one container to another from a height (30-40 cm / 12-16 inches), creating a small vortex. Repeat 7 times.
- What does this do? Oxygenates the water, reorganizes molecules into smaller clusters (more bioavailable), and simulates the natural movement of water in rivers: the spiral flow that structures the liquid.
Yes, it looks like a ritual. And it is. But it's a ritual with physics behind it. Spring water is structured water because it's traveled winding between rocks. You can mimic that movement.
Step 4: Store in Glass, Never Plastic
Plastic releases microparticles (BPA, phthalates) that act as endocrine disruptors. They use your water as a vehicle to enter your body. Glass is inert: it yields nothing, doesn't contaminate, doesn't alter.
2-5 liter glass carafes are sufficient. Consume within the next 48 hours to maintain vitality.
What You Notice When You Change Your Water (Real Testimonials)
It's not placebo. It's restored biology. I've seen in my surroundings (and in my own experience) the effects of switching to filtered water. And the closest case, the one that pains me most to remember, is Antonio's.
Antonio spent days writhing in pain waiting for medications to dissolve those "kidney stones." He learned the lesson the hard way: in his own body. But you don't have to get there. Wisdom can reach you through others' experiences. That's what I hope for with this article.
As a mother, I also try to deal with this as best I can so my daughter, or any child in our circle, grows up healthy. It's not always easy. I don't always have all the answers. But I do have the responsibility to share what I've learned.
- Drastic reduction in kidney problems. After Antonio's episode, we switched to filtered water at home. The stones didn't return. Coincidence? Maybe. But the likely cause is reduced accumulation of inorganic minerals (lime, metals) that the body can't metabolize and that deposit as sediment. With filtered water (especially if remineralized with sea salt: organic, bioavailable minerals), kidneys work without overload from inert elements.
- Reduction of heavy metals. In documented cases with blood tests, lead and aluminum levels dropped after months of consuming reverse osmosis or distilled filtered water. Heavy metals enter little by little, drop by drop, year after year. Filtering them is an investment in your neurological and renal future.
- First week: Your digestion improves. Clean, structured water facilitates intestinal transit and nutrient absorption.
- Second month: Your skin is more luminous. Real cellular hydration shows first in your largest organ: your epidermis.
- Third month: More energy, less inflammation. Joints hurt less, you sleep better. Your body remembers what being truly well-hydrated is.
The Connection to Our Kitchen
When I cook the Spanish omelet, the water I wash the potatoes with, that I boil the eggs in, matters. When I prepare broth for clams, water is 80% of the dish. It's not a detail; it's the matrix that holds everything.
In our kitchen we have an activated carbon filter attached to the water. It's not reverse osmosis, but it removes chlorine and notably improves taste. When I taste a sauce made with filtered water vs. straight tap water, the difference is tangible. It's not magic. It's sensory chemistry: less chlorine = cleaner, more defined flavors. The taste of sea salt expresses better in clean water. Aromas don't compete with residual chlorine.
At the bar, when a customer asks for water, we serve bottled. Much to our regret, we don't have a filtration system installed there. It's a space and logistics limitation we acknowledge. But at home, where you can control, you have the power to filter.
This Isn't an Ending Either
Salt and water. The two pillars of internal balance. I talked to you about salt first because without it, water doesn't know where to go. Now I talk about water because without it, salt is an inert crystal.
Together, they form the primordial plasma you were before birth. The amniotic fluid that nourished you for nine months was salt water, mineralized, structured. Your body never forgot that balance. It's your mind that lost sight of it.
I grew up drinking stream water in a Galician village. That water no longer exists, or at least not in most places. But what we must not do is resign ourselves to drinking dead water. Times have changed, pollution is real, but we have tools. Filters, osmosis, distillation. And then, remineralization with natural sea salt. It's the complete cycle: cleanse and restore.
Next time you go to drink a glass of water, ask yourself: does this nourish or just fill? You don't need to buy expensive bottled water (which also comes in plastic and is often filtered tap water). You need to transform what you have. Filter, mineralize, structure. Five minutes a day. It's your choice.
Your body isn't plumbing. It's a living river. Don't resign yourself to filling it with dead water. Give it the water it deserves to flow through it.
With the clarity of water and the strength of salt,
Susana, from the kitchen at Hamburguesería Señarís.
If this knowledge resonates with you:
Share it with someone who needs to reclaim their health. And if you ever pass through Santiago and want to see how we apply this philosophy in our small neighborhood bar, you know where to find us.
But your real power isn't in visiting us, it's in transforming your home water, today.
This article, like the one about salt, has one goal: that you empower yourself and take control of the basics entering your body. What makes the difference between a healthy life and a life bouncing between doctors and hospitals isn't expensive treatments or trendy supplements. It's the water you drink, the salt you use, the food you choose.
We can't take care of your health. Even in our own burger joint we have limited means. But you, in your home, have total control. And with that control comes the responsibility and power to change your future.
And by the way: If this resonates and you feel you need to reclaim your health more deeply, check out our section for pilgrims. You don't have to come all the way to Santiago. Put on your sneakers and go for a walk.
Walking is the oldest and most powerful way to reset your body. It's free, it's accessible, and it works. The Camino de Santiago has existed for a thousand years not by chance: it's an ancestral health laboratory for body and mind. But your camino can start today, at your doorstep.
Clean water, sea salt, and walking. The three pillars that don't need a prescription.