...positive effects; with the reasoning about acid levels being improved by bicarbonates and the longevity of the livestock[*] on those NSW farms, and so on, I'm not saying it doesn't do more or less exactly what they're saying it does. I agree, there's no saying how much of the anecdotal evidence illutrates the benefits of just drinking more water in general, minerals or no minerals. But for all I know (as I said, next to nothing), that particular salt could very well be very beneficial to your health.

It's just the way they're *marketing* it, with "thermodynamic balance of life forces" or whatever the voodoo phraseology was; with patenting it in stead of (OK, they're claiming "as a prelude to") doing some peer-reviewed research[**]; and with the generally confused New-Age-sounding drivel on their Web site[***], that makes me think their way of *marketing* the stuff points to them being at least a bit whacko.

Anybody know the wholesale price of chemicals? I'm still thinking, if you buy your magnesium bicarbonate, perhaps not from your local pharmacy but from the place where they buy theirs from, and your distilled water (this is optional -- if your tap water is OK, use that!), perhaps not from your local filling station but from the place where they buy theirs from -- then you'll get this stuff at a price comparable not to "other bottled water", but to TAP water.

Get some of that salt, put it in water, stir, and drink. WTF are they going to do -- have they PATENTED the process of *dissolving a salt* in water?!? Or of *drinking water* with minerals in it?!? I DON'T THINK SO!!! There's PLENTY of prior art, for both ideas! (Ever heard of a place called Vichy, in France? Before it became the seat of the collaborationist government of a rump of France in WWII, it used to be known for something *else*... :-)

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[*]: So, why are there no reports about the *people* on those farms living 'til they're, oh, about 120? (="Normal" life-span + 50%) Or of those farmers' wives being fertile into their seventies or eighties? Don't they drink their own local water?!?

[**]: And no -- I'm sorry, being in the IT business and having followed international news about diverse intellectual property controversies, I may be rather more jaded with patent offices than the average Joe, but still -- no, "patent examiners" do NOT count as "peer review"!

[***]: The bit about "Why increase the human life-span?" in the FAQ, for example, lists (in a rather jumbled fashion, I might add) some *possible concequences* of longer life, but not the *reasons* for it. (Which is fucking obvious, like, "Who the heck *wants* to die?!?")