What remineralisation actually means

Remineralising water means adding minerals back into the water after purification, so the water you drink resembles natural spring water rather than distilled water. It is not about making water "healthier" than nature intended. It is about restoring what the purification process took out.

Natural groundwater and spring water pick up minerals as they move through rock. That is where the taste of good water comes from, and why bottled mineral water lists a mineral composition on the label. RO water has none of that, because the RO membrane removed every last mineral that water had.

Why RO removes minerals in the first place

An RO membrane has pores around 0.0001 microns across. Dissolved mineral ions are comfortably larger than a water molecule, so they are rejected along with contaminants and flushed away in the reject stream.

This is inherent to how the technology works, not a fault in your purifier. A membrane that let calcium through would let other dissolved solids like impurities through as well. The trade-off for clean water is the point of the design.

Three ways to remineralise RO water

1. Mineral cartridges fitted to the purifier

An inline cartridge sits after the membrane and releases minerals as water passes. It is automatic, but it is also a consumable with a fixed life, the mineral release rate falls as it depletes, and you have limited control over dosage.

2. Alkaline filters

These raise the pH of water, and often add some minerals as a side effect. Their primary purpose is pH rather than mineral content, so the two aims are easy to confuse.

3. M-Shot

A liquid mineral concentrate added directly to the glass or bottle. You control the dose, the purifier needs no modification, and it works with any water source — including water you did not purify yourself.

This is the approach M-Shot takes: a concentrated mineral liquid complex, added a few drops at a time.

Which minerals matter

The minerals commonly removed by RO and worth restoring are magnesium, calcium and potassium, along with trace minerals present in much smaller amounts. These contribute to the taste and mineral balance of drinking water.

Form matters as much as presence. Minerals in ionic form are already dissolved and dissociated in water, which is how minerals occur in natural spring water — as opposed to powdered rock minerals, which must first be broken down.

Do you need to remineralise?

If RO is your only source of drinking water, it is essential that you re-mineralise it before consumption. Most people used to get the bulk of their minerals from food, but with the depletion in soil and modern farming methods, mineral content in food has decreased a lot. Water is another contributor and is something you drink several litres of every day, thus re-mineralising it contributes to the overall daily mineral intake that the body requires.