Oxygen – it’s a drink!

I was in the checkout line at Whole Foods (well, it’s all natural and organic you know), just starting to get my groceries priced, and this woman behind me in the line leans over and asks the checker:

Woman (Holding bottled water) Is that stuff good?

Checker It tastes OK, yes

Woman But does it make you feel better?

(At this point I started to get interested.)

Me What’s in it?

Woman Oxygen

Me (Puzzled look) What?

Woman Oxygen

Me What’s the point of that?

Woman Oxygen’s good for you

Me Yes but I think you are supposed to breathe it

Woman (Puzzled) What do you mean?

Me I usually get mine by breathing.

Woman (Puzzled)

Me Through the nose (demonstrates exaggerated breathing through the nose)

(I swear it looked like this was the first time she had been given this information.)

Woman Really?
Me (Laughing now) You won’t get any extra oxygen by drinking this stuff; you only get oxygen by breathing. You know... (More exaggerated breathing through the nose.)

Woman (Stares at bottle.)

At that point my groceries were checked and I had to go.

I’m pretty sure you don’t get any oxygen into your system by drinking oxygenated water. And even if you could, our bodies evolved over millions of years to function in an atmosphere of about 21 percent oxygen, so people with healthy lungs don't need (and can’t absorb), additional oxygen anyway.

Although I do believe it’s possible this woman’s brain was seriously starved of oxygen at least once in her life.

Comments

[The Bad Astronomer]

To quote T'Pau, "Dee air ees dee air. Vot can be done?"

You're right. Drinking oxygenated water is a fad, and useless. Check out "Bad Medicine" by Chris Wanjek, a great book. He has a chapter on this. You can look inside the book at amazon.com (I think you need an account, but try anyway).

[Skeptico]

Quoting T'Pau - is that argument from authority?

;-)

[Blue State]

Another marketing fad. Soda drinks demonstrate that bottled water doesn't lose air or gas content while in the bottle - it remains as fresh as the day it was bottled.

It is true that however that stale water tastes different, not quite as good as water that is freshly poured. One may speculate that it may be due to the effects of natural selection; water with oxygen molecules still present has probably grown fewer bacteria or algae, so our ancestors that drank water from moving streams did better than those that drank it from stale puddles. So while oxygenated water may be of no nutritional value, de-oxygenated water might be an unpopular beverage. I wouldn't put it past marketers to try, though, after this fad passes.

[latibulum]

Wouldn't oxygen be inorganic,(from a chemist's point of view?)

[okaasan59]

You're lucky you weren't hyperventilating by the end of that exchange!

[loco]

If this is how the conversation actually happened, then I think the woman might have thought she needed to inhale the water through her nose to get the benefit of the oxygen. Of course, I could be absolutely wrong but it might explain her confusion.

[Saint Nate]

That's the great thing about water quackery: it's a great medium for the placebo effect. Tell someone it'll make them feel better or tastes slightly like roses and they'll believe it, whether it's Evian or distilled.

[Niket]

Isn't oxygenated water for better taste rather than health? You sure you didn't carry your skepticism too far? :)

[Joe D]

The Guardian's skeptical "Bad Science" column did the "Oxygizer" last year:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1127871,00.html

Apparently the oxygen in water "...helps remove toxins and ensures a stronger immune system, as well as assisting the respiratory system, so you recover better from exercise ... cleverly they've added something to water that's not an additive."

[Rasmus]

I hope that oxygen was produced by an organically grown plant!

[BronzeDog]

I'm beginning to think she wasn't aware one could get oxygen through their nose. Seems she's the sort to take it in through the mouth, and I don't mean by drinking oxygenated water.

[/Appeal to ridicule]

[Rockstar]

Mouth-breather...could there be a more descript word?