One of the best parts about being a blogger definitely has to be attending events that really fill my mind with knowledge. Beauty events aren’t just about putting on make up, sometimes, they tell all about the founder, the brand story and the science/inspiration behind the product. It’s really very interesting.
Just the other day, I was gushing over to my colleagues over lunch about this “StarWater Water Ionizer” blogger event that OMY.SG invited me to. It may sound like a boring event over email but because I’ve been bothered by the rather unclean tap water at home. My mother-in-law came by and commented that the water in my house is not clean. So she went to the market and bought those very basic DIY cloth filters and tied it onto my tap. Within 3 days, this is what the cloth filter looked like:
Show you the comparison after I changed it:
SCARY RIGHT?!
Seriously? I think my usual practice of boiling tap water before drinking it is not really going to be the long-term solution now. :/
It was really time to look at how I can obtain clean water for my family. I was really looking forward to the StarWater event to learn more and boy, was I blown away by the knowledge!
Water need not be that tasteless colourless liquid just used to quench thirst. Water can be more than just clean, water can be healthy, and the right type of water can even be beneficial to health.
During this event, I was introduced to the StarWater Ionizer. It is a water filter and ionizer combined. It splits tap water into Alkaline Antioxidant Water for Drinking and Acidic Water for Beauty and Sanitising purposes, and it can also dispense Purified Water.
It’s a really beautiful machine to have on your kitchen countertop – it’s design has won the Singapore Food Design Mark award. It comes with an LCD that changes colour according to the pH level selected and a voice & melody guide.Very pretty!
The Alkaline Antioxidant Water gives you an abundance of antioxidant and electron rich medium for consumption to reduce cells damage whereas the Acidic Water is Oxidised Water which is very effective for sterilisation (cleaning) and external use.
I didn’t know but there are such huge health benefits by drinking Alkaline Water, and that Acidic water’s great for cleaning.
David the product manager from StarWater did a very interesting experiment during the product demonstration. He showed us how acidic the beverages we take in every day are by putting in a pH indicator liquid into each cup containing the usual suspects like LIFE Bottled Water, Sprite, 100 Plus, normal tap water and alkaline water from the StarWater Ionizer.
In reference to the scale on the TV, RED = most acidic and PURPLE = most alkaline.
Wow, sprite and 100 plus sure are acidic! Our home tap water are neutral side but we all know that the chemicals are added on to it as part of it’s treatment process.
(Note: In the above photo, LIFE mineral water, which I always thought was better than the tap water I boil at home turned out to be acidic! David poured some of the alkaline water into the LIFE mineral water cup and it turned alkaline instantly.)
The acidic foods and beverages we consume daily affect the body’s pH, so do the environment contaminants in the air we breathe and toxins that result from the agricultural practices. It’s also interesting to note that cancer and other harmful cells thrive in acidic environment whereas healthy cells flourishes in an alkaline one.
David invited his colleague from the audience to blow air into a cup of water with the pH indicator and it turned acidic after continuously blowing into it for 1 min. That shows that our body is detoxing to balance the pH levels in our body. Woah.
I won’t go in too deep because there’s a lot of research on google on why our body needs to have a properly balanced pH so that we can be healthy and be more likely to lead a disease free life. If you are interested, you can read more here for a start.
So after all that talk, I figured this alkaline water must taste weird. To me water that comes from the tap directly, and some brands of mineral water tastes weird. But we were all given a cup and to my surprise, it tasted like my usual boiled tap water. Soft and very drinkable.
In Japan, the use of water ionisers are highly popular.
It was such an enlightening talk for me personally to learn all about the water that we drink. I knew the water we were drinking could be better but I didn’t know it could be this much better.
StarWater also kindly organised a cooking demonstration by Chef Anna Phua who also shared with us how her life has changed for the better after drinking Alkaline water. Here were the dishes she whipped up:
Top left, clockwise:
1) Korean Pear Salad
Omg I love this dish. She used ingredients which I never thought would go into a salad like red dates, goji berries and even Korean Yuzu Honey. Very nice! The only problem with preparing this at home is having the time (and patience) to slice the pear into such thin strips.
Ingredients:
a) The Salad
– 1 Korean Pear
– 2 pcs Red Dates
– 50g Mixed Salad
– 1 tbsp Goji Berries
b) Salad Dressing:
– 2 tbsp Yuzu Salad Dressing
– 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
– 1 tbsp Korean Yuzu Honey
2) Herbal Chicken Soup
This was very delicious, stuff that I am used to consuming at home. Preparing this with Alkaline water didn’t make it taste any different than normal but the water used has so much more health benefits in it than normal water!
Ingredients:
– 1 pkt Herbal Mix
– 10g American Ginseng
– 12 pcs Red Dates
– 8 pcs Mushrooms (fried before adding into soup)
– 6 pcs Sliced Ginger (fried before adding into soup)
– 600g Chicken
– 2500ml Alkaline Ionized Water
Suggested Seasoning:
– Mushroom Powder
– Sea Salt
– Rice Wine
– Sesame Oil
3) Black sesame seed brown rice
Oh this surprisingly yummy – good even on its own. You may make this even more tasty by adding Japanese Rice Seasoning which can be easily purchased at Daiso / any Japanese supermarket!
Ingredients (for 2):
– 200g Organic Brown Rice (wash & soak overnight)
– 300ml Alkaline Ionised Water
– Toasted Salted Black Sesame Seeds
4) Ice honey peppermint lemon
This was way too easy to prepare and seriously packed with ingredients that are great for your health. Be sure to wash the lemons properly since the lemons’ skin will be added into the drink as well!
Ingredients:
– 1 Lemon
– 3 stalks Peppermint Leaves
– 3 tbsp Raw Honey
– 600ml Alkaline Ionized Water
– Ice Cubes
– A spoonful of Chia Seeds (super high in omega 3)
All of the above food were prepared using Alkaline Ionized Water – washing, soaking and cooking. Chef Anna also shared with us through a demonstration that the water molecules of Alkaline Ionized Water are so tiny that when you make tea, the flavour from the tea leaves are able to penetrate better and faster into the water. That’s the reason why the food and drink you prepare using Alkaline water are more flavourful.
I learnt so much from her in that 1.5 hours! :)
So inspired to cook healthily now! I really like how StarWater Ionizer transformed normal tap water and gives me so much more in every drop of water. If you’re health-conscious like me, do consider the StarWater Ionizer as an investment that will benefit your family’s health in the long run.
I am looking at buying one for my grandparents in Kuala Lumpur (the tap water in Malaysia is definitely not as clean as Singapore’s) and another for myself. While I may not have any health problems now, I’m going to help my body maintain itself as much as possible!
The Star 5 product pictured in this post is $2188. They have very good discounts from time to time so you may want to check with them. I do know the current offer is $490 off (National Day 2014 promotion) when you trade-in any filter/ionizer (even the simple cloth one I use at home!), valid till 31 Aug 2014.
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If you are interested, you may check out Star Water’s product on their website or download the brochure here. Whatever you read on the website and on my blogpost here isn’t as good as a demonstration and explanation by STARWATER’s own salespeople. Do contact STARWATER for a product demonstration if you’re inclined to find out more.
There are quite a few brands out there but you’ll want to know that StarWater is the only company that assembles and produces their own Water Ionizers in Singapore unlike others who merely distribute or act as agents. They source their components and technology from a top research and development unit in Korea that has medical certification for its products.
All product images are credits to StarWater.