This Kangen Water review is an opinion.
When I first posted about Kangen a few years ago, I immediately received a flood of mean, angry messages from Kangen sellers and devotees (but mostly sellers). Most wanted to tell me how wrong I was and that their uncle/mother/neighbor/whoever cured their cancer/can now walk/cure their autoimmune disease with Kangen water from their Kangen water machine.
People in my comments have told me that Kangen water has kept them from getting the flu for 10 years and cured their friends of AIDS and cancer.
Many of them sound like this:
Have you ever tasted the water??
Did I ever give you water to drink?
How dare you give your opinion on something you haven’t even tried
Do you know how many people drink the water and the water helped them to cure themselves from cancer even from many other diseases
This is a medical device and has been approved by more than 7000 doctors
So. Test the water before wasting your time not writing real articles
That’s fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
But what everyone is NOT entitled to is their own science. And in my opinion, Kangen water sellers and users have really missed this fact.
Let’s talk about Kangen, water and science.
What is Kangen Water?
Kangen water machines are produced by a company called Enagic. These machines change the pH of water by passing it over metal plates in a process called ‘electrolysis’. The company can then say that their water is “ionized” and “alkaline.”
The machines are very expensive – like thousands of dollars. And the claims made for them seem to justify the cost of a Kangen machine. Apparently.
Kangen water claims
Kangen advocates and sellers say that Kangen water hydrates our bodies better than regular water and can improve health, detoxify and keep us younger for longer. They say it can make our hair thicker and help us sleep better.
They also believe that Kangen and other ionized waters are antioxidants, which can help prevent and treat disease. That’s a huge claim, especially when we’re talking about water…and incurable diseases that make people desperate and vulnerable while looking for some kind of cure.
Without a doubt, Japan has offered a ton of incredible things to the world. Cutting-edge electronics, beautiful ceramics, martial arts, the best chef’s knives ever, even general anesthesia was developed by a Japanese scientist.
With Kangen, Japan has created a water purifier and ionizer with a cult following.
But one thing the country hasn’t done is change human physiology. This is an important consideration when considering Kangen water’s effectiveness at doing what people claim it does: physiology, especially our acid-base system, is unreliable.
It is what it is and, ultimately, we have to work within its limits.
What is pH?
Acidity and Alkalinity or pH, are measured on a scale of 0-14.
The pH of pure water is 7 and Canadian tap water is between 7-10.5. US tap water is probably about the same.
Types of Kangen water
Kangen water machines produce 5 different “types” of water, also known as pH options:
Powerful Kangen water
Strong Kangen water has a pH of 11 (highly alkaline) and is not intended for drinking.
According to the company, this type of water is best for food preparation (“removing rawness from vegetables”) and cleaning.
Kangen water
Kangen water has a pH of 8.5-9.5. Kangen’s claim about this type of water is that “this electrolytically reduced, hydrogen-rich water works to return your body to a more alkaline state, which is optimal for good health.”
Clean water
Pure water has a pH of 7.0, which is neutral and “easily absorbed by your body” (their claim, not mine).
Kangen says this water is best for making baby food and taking medicine.
Beauty water
Beauty water has a pH of 4.0-6.0. Apparently, “this slightly acidic water is recognized for its astringent effects. It’s great to use for gentle cleansing and beauty care.”
Strongly acidic water
Strongly acidic water, with a pH of 2.7, is for disinfection.
According to Kangen, “This water has disinfectant properties. Use strong acidic water to sanitize cookware, countertops, and more to prevent cross-contamination.”
Let’s use hospitals as an example here. These facilities have strict infection control standards and disinfection of all surfaces in a hospital is essential. As someone who has worked in hospitals in both the US and Canada, I will say that I have never seen a facility use acidic water to disinfect anything.
Is Kangen water healthy?
I have a lot to say about all of this.
Let’s start with the alkaline water and health theory, which, I’m sorry to tell you, is rubbish. But unfortunately for them, much of the sales pitch for Kangen water machines hinges on the assumption that alkaline water can promote health.
Although some Kangen representatives will tell you that there are numerous studies proving the health benefits of drinking alkaline water, this is false. Many Kangen sellers have sent me the same Japanese ionized water studies. Well, yes, I have seen them and if you are a Kangen representative reading this, these studies are inconclusive. So no, I don’t need to read them again.
In one interaction I had with a Kangen salesperson, I was led to “check Google” for such studies, which is a sure sign that
1. the studies do not exist and
2. the person has zero clue about science.
If you’re going to sell something that you claim is backed by research, the onus is on you to produce said research upon request. Telling me to look at the studies myself is a huge red flag.
Current studies on alkaline water are small and inconclusive, but I guess if you can’t interpret the research or don’t bother to look into it in the first place, you might believe someone’s claims that “there’s good research” on a product.
Don’t make this mistake!
Do we need alkaline water to detoxify or balance our bodies?
No!
Human physiology is a wonderful thing, involving complex processes to ensure homeostasis within our bodies.
pH balancing is one of those processes, done entirely by the kidneys and lungs and has ZERO TO DO WITH WHAT YOU EAT, OR KANGEN WATER!!
OMG do I need to say it again for you guys who are behind?
YOU CANNOT CONTROL YOUR BODY PH WITH FOOD OR WATER!!
Our blood is strictly controlled at a pH of 7.4. Period.
Many alkaline water pushers will argue that a poor diet can cause “systemic acidosis,” which is another crazy scare tactic that I absolutely cannot stand.
Systemic – or metabolic – acidosis will put you in the ICU and is not caused by eating “acidic” foods.
Here are the most common causes of metabolic acidosis:
Ketoacidosis from type 1 diabetes.
Renal failure.
Excessive accumulation of lactic acid due to shock.
Fistulas and other conditions cause gastrointestinal leaks.
Notice you don’t see “eating acidic foods” listed. This is because the concept of “systemic acidosis” as it relates to acid-alkaline diets is completely fabricated.
If you could control your body’s pH by what you eat, we’d all be dead by now. Having an imbalanced body pH does NOT cause all kinds of horrible diseases because no one walks around just living their life in that state. They are in the hospital being treated…and not with ionized water.
The important points of acid-base balance are simple and there is no excuse to ignore them or not understand them just to make money.
Also, there is no science behind the claim that alkaline water is better absorbed and that it hydrates “at the cellular level” better than plain water. “At the cellular level”? Just marketing nonsense.
Everything we do affects us at the cellular level, because WE ARE MADE OF CELLS.
Your regular tap water does a pretty good job of hydrating us, otherwise we’d all be walking around dehydrated.
Can acidic water disinfect or disinfect surfaces?
Another misleading claim made by Enagic is that “acidic” Kangen water can disinfect and disinfect surfaces.
This is not only impossible, it is downright dangerous.
Let’s put it this way: Kangen’s “strongly acidic water” has a pH of 2.7. To put this number in real terms, lemon juice has a pH of 2 and orange juice has a pH of 3.
Thus, Kangen’s “strongly acidic water” is somewhere between lemon and orange juice in its acidity.
Would you use lemon or orange juice to sanitize a contaminated counter?
I dare you to pour raw chicken juice on your kitchen counter, wipe it with lemon juice, and then make a salad on the same counter.
You don’t want to do that, do you? Why not;
BECAUSE 2.7 pH DOESN’T DISINFECT ANYTHING, AND TO TELL PEOPLE THAT IT DOES IS COMPLETELY NEGLIGENT.
And here we have Kangen’s site which actually says: “Beauty salons, hair salons, restaurants, agricultural colleges, daycare centers, pet stores and nursing homes all benefit greatly from the use of strongly acidic water.
Kindergartens and nursing homes? I think just making that claim should be illegal. Do not use water of any type to clean contaminated surfaces.
And while I’m at it, Kangen water is not an antioxidant. It doesn’t even make sense.
Kangen users post all kinds of crazy fear-inducing garbage online, such as:
The common denominator in all of these is that they are everything is based on fear, talking about toxins, government conspiracies and chemophobia. None of these marketing tactics are ethical or helpful.
Mixing meat and starch is safe (although it’s not surprising that someone on an alkaline social-feed diet would make that claim) and that is NOT colon cancer in that disgusting photo.
Also: Kangen water does not cure cancer. No food or drink will do. If they did, cancer wouldn’t exist.
There is nothing about Kangen water that will help your hair, your sleep, your risk of disease, your skin, or anything else, any more than regular water.
Despite their “toxic” claims, tap water is not poison. It’s heavily regulated, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably using scare tactics to try to sell you something… like a $5000 Kangen Water Ionizer that does absolutely nothing.
Oh, did I mention Kangen is an MLM company? This is not at all shocking.
Kangen Water Brief Review
If you want filtered water, Kangen water machines can do that for you. But you can get cheaper water filters and NOT buy into Kangen grift.
The health claims made by both Enagic and its users about acid and alkaline water do not appear to be accurate and there is no conclusive research on the benefits of ionized water.
Using fear tactics to sell a product is never okay, and spreading assumptions about physiology and “research” isn’t okay either.
All the alkaline/ionic water should be gone now.
