Kangen Craze: Revolutionary Water Filter or Over Priced Gadget?

Have you every heard of Kangen water?  It's something of a craze out here in LA. People keep raving about the benefits of this "miracle" water.

Water is a topic that interests me. I believe drinking lots of great water keeps me at maximum health, and my skin clear and vibrant. The more water I drink, the more energy I have. That said, I'm always trying to find out which water is healthiest.  Should I drink the kind they put in large dispensers which have to be delivered to the house each week?  Should I drink water cleaned by a filter installed under my kitchen sink? Is there a bottled water that's somehow worth polluting our environment? 

Several of my friends are high on water made from a Kangen, pronounced "kong-gin."  The top-of-the-line, flagship machine is the Kangen Alkaline Ionized Water System - model SC-501.  It comes with a 5-year warranty and costs a whopping $4000 (I can see my in-laws back in Maryland rolling their eyes. Their son and daughter-in-law have finally become nutty, fruity Californians living in the land of excess!). 

 

My friend Tanya raves about the Kangen, "It's improved my skin so much that I've completely stopped wearing make-up." Another Kangen-loving girlfriend is impressed by what it's done to her garden.  She sends me photos of freakishly large veggies, exclaiming, "Our garden has never, ever grown like this!"   Another person I know claims he's lost 25 pounds, not from changing his diet, but from drinking Kangen water.  "I was so bloated from all the acid and contaminants in the water I was drinking that switching to Kangen water completely slimmed me down." 

My curiousity was piqued. I invited Mita del Fierro, a local Kangen representative, to my home to give me a demonstration. The most amazing thing that happened was captured on the video below.  To illustrate the "power" of Kangen water, Mita cleaned cherry tomatoes with Kangen water (she selected a ph of 11.5 on the machine) and then cleaned some with my tap water.  Check out what happened. 

 Here at the basic benefits of Kangen water, according to Mita, which are echoed on the company website:

• Unlike city water, which if full of chlorine and other unhealthy chemicals, and well water, often contaminated by run-off and pesticides, Kangen water is alkalized and ionized - so the nasty chemicals are removed and your body's ph can be restored to it's proper balance. 
  
• Kangen water is the purest water you can find and acts a powerful anti-oxidant because, by running water through the system, it goes from being positively charged to negatively charged.
  
• The Kangen makes 11 different ph levels - so you can use one ph level that's best for drinking, another for washing fruits and vegetables,  and another, say, for washing your face. There's even one you can use to do your laundary.  It has a ph level aimed at reducing the surface tension of water, so stains can get lifted out of clothes, and acts in place of detergent. 
  
• The water goes through a carbon filter to remove the contaminants.  It then goes through a process of electrolysis which ionizes the water and creates a new ph level.  That level can be anywhere from 0 - which is very acid - to 7 (neutral) - to 14 - which is very alkaline.  
  
• The Kangen machine reduces the cluster size so water can permeate the cell membrane to really hydrate and detoxify the body.

I've got to say, given the price tag, it sounded like a bunch of bull. My practical (Maryland) side said, "you don't have to pay 4 grand to get healthy water. However, when Mita did her demonstration, seen in the video, not since I tried the Nu Skin Galvanic Spa (see my blog on this : A Skeptic's Review) have I eaten my words so completely.  I did not want to like this machine - but the results, seen with my own eyes, and tasted with my own mouth, made me love it.

For starters, the water, which I later shared with several people (Mita left me a couple of gallons) is unparalleled in terms of taste. It tastes like the kind of water I used to drink at a natural outdoor spring back when I was at a summer sleepover camp in Pennsylvania.

Secondly, I watched the ph tests Mita conducted in my kitchen.  No other water -  and we tried several varieties including Smart Water and Dasani (tested high in acidity) -  even came close to Kangen in terms of alkalinity.  All the other beverages tested high in acidity.     

Also, if you believe that negatively charged water is preferable because it acts as an anti-oxidant, as the Kangen reps stress, none of the six beverages tested was negatively charged, except the Kangen water.   

But the thing that really blew me away was what was captured in the video - when she put several of the cherry tomatoes in the Kangen water to "rinse" them off.  First, she set the Kangen machine to create a water ph level of 11.5 - which is on the alkaline side. She dipped some tomatoes in the Kangen water and others in the water that had been filtered by the Everpure filtration system I have under the kitchen sink.  It was indisputable. The cherry tomatoes that had been rinsed in the Kangen water "stripped of all their nasty chemicals by the high alkaline water" were sweeter.  The ones that were rinsed in my tap water - apparently still contaminated with chemicals - had a more average, almost bitter taste. 

                          
  Residue left in glass after cleaning cherry tomatoes - the 2nd and 4th cups were Kangen water 

The other thing that was interesting: what was left behind in the glass after we cleaned the cherry tomatoes.  You can see in the video how much dirtier (yellow) the Kangen water was than the tap water. 

In an attempt to get some perspective, I asked for the opinion of an expert.   Elissa Goodman, an Intregrative Nutritionist, and SheSez contributor, says she believe there is some value in drinking alkaline water. However, she wonders whether the benefits outweigh the cost. "A great deal of research has been conducted on the effects of alkaline water on the body’s response systems. Some studies do suggest that structured or clustered water with a high pH can help the body resist disease and slow aging. Having said that, many of the alkaline water systems are grossly overpriced electrical devices with price tags of $4000. Plus, not all of their scientific evidence is credible."

If you live in the LA area and are interested in getting a home demonstration, feel free to call Kangen rep Georgia Bell at 818-371-7994 or check out her website. 

Comments

[Georgia Bell]

I will back up Kangen in response to your 2 experts comments. The water is beyond scientifically proven, not only have Nobel Peace Prizes been awarded to scientists who have proven that Cancers and Disease thrive in an Acid environment and cannot in an Oxygen Rich Alkaline Environment, but Mother Natures, Hexagonal water molecule, has been reproduced with this water, allowing one to be hydrated and detox better. Pretty Awesome! And in regards to Nutrients being removed, on the contrary, unlike Osmosis water, where all the minerals have been stripped from the water, only the chemicals are removed with this filter and the minerals are enhanced! Price is not an issue, you cannot put a price on your health, not to mention the money you save in bottled water, and going green, saving our environment from choking on plastic bottles, literally! In addition to this machine producing drinking water, you can virtually eliminate all household cleaning products, therefore going green and taking chemicals out of your home! I could go on and on talking about all the benefits that show a Value that well exceeds the Price of this truly amazing device! In fact, Kangen is the only Machine out there deemed as a Medical device and the company has been around for over 35 years. There is nothing to prove, we already know it works!

[Georgia Bell]

Proof is in the pudding...try the Kangen water for yourself and you be the judge!

[Kangen Water]

Hexagonal or micro-clustered property of Kangen Water is my favorite. Drink 1LT bottled water and try to run. You will have a pain in your stomach or get disturbed because the water sitting in your stomach will feel sluggish.

Now do the same thing with 1L Kangen Water. You will be able to run as usual after 5 minutes. That's one of the many reasons why many NBA, NFL, MLB clubs and pro-athletes are using Kangen Water beside preventing injury and fast-recovery.

[Kangen Water]

Many pro-athletes and NBA, NFL, MLB clubs are now starting to use Kangen Water to prevent injury and recover faster. That says a lot especially about its hexagonal property.

[Gabe Hunninghake]

Enagic machines produce great water. But so do Jupiter, Chanson, Vollara, EOS, Tyent and a few others. They also do it for 40-60% less than the Enagic machine because they don't build in $1,800+ profit for the dealer and upline. Enagic dealers are passionate about the water, as they should be, but their price point keeps many who should be benefiting from it from purchasing it. Ask Georgia how many people do not buy vs. those who do.

Ionizers have been in Asia for about 50 yrs...the states for about 10. Asia is already moving to the next generation and ionizer sales there are declining. They call it a hydrogen machine and the first models will be available in the US it about a month or so. They won't offer extreme pH water, but if all the user wants is improved health and a way to filter everything out of their tap water (including fluoride), these do it for less than $400.

[alyssa b.]

Thanks for the comment Gabe.

[jordan 12]

This sounds like a terrific product. Wish it weren't so expensive.

[first resume]

I don't see anything special in it. It's a usual water filter with many unnecessary features

[Ross Alkaline]

Hi

Very interesting run through of the Kangen and the ionizer industry as a whole. I would be aware that Kangen is just ONE brand/type of ionizer - not the entire industry, as Gabe points out above.

I have 100% certainty that many ionizers do exactly what is claimed, they produce low or high pH water, that has a negative ORP (high in antioxidants) and they filter the water.

I definitely have some suspicion over the QUALITY of many of the ionizers on the market and personally also believe that Kangen machines are wildly overpriced.

It's definitely worth doing your research and shopping around as there is literally zero extra benefit for paying 2-3 times more for a Kangen machine.

Just my 2c
Ross

[Generic Cialis]

Szia, nagyon szép munkát végzett, sok embert keres a most fognak talál elegendő forrás az Ön tippeket, még várjuk a további tippeket, hogy

[water softener systems]

So, the difference between this and an R.O. system is that it negatively charges your water? I haven't heard to much about this, it seems interesting, but at the same time it seems a little shady. And 4 grand is a lot to shell out for a system...

[ドボネックス]

Great tips, I would like to join your blog anyway,

[robert samiljan]

does using high acid water help the gums or make them worse? If it helps the gums how much and how often.

[διαγωνισμοι]

Im impressed, I must say. Very rarely do I come across a site thats both informative and entertaining, and let me tell you, youve hit the nail on the head. Your site is important; the issue is something that not enough people are talking intelligently about. Im really happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this issue.

[best water pitcher filter]

4 grand is a high price tag but the videos are intriguing. how can I go about tasting this water without buying one of these machines?