Dear Peter, and Anyone Else, If it wasn't obvious, let me be more plain here: we're not making any health claims about copper bottles. They're just good looking, and work well as a water bottle.
Big Diffy has been drinking out of one for a while now, and I've never seen a more healthy human. Cheers, John at Rivelo in Portland, where not everyone has a beard or a tattoo On Friday, November 13, 2015 at 2:25:53 PM UTC-8, Peter Adler wrote: > > Why am I not surprised that a bike retailer in Portland is carrying copper > water bottles for large money, and spreading claptrap about unspecified > health benefits? Has *Portlandia* become a documentary? > > > Copper was one of the first metals used by humans, after gold. Neither of > them were used because of any virtues as elements; they were used because > they were easy to work: low melting temperatures (easily reached by wood > fires) and soft (workable with stone tools). Plus: Shiny! > > > People have been making cooking vessels out of copper for as long as > they've been working copper, but raw copper was rapidly replaced by copper > alloys (bronze and brass) and by raw copper pots lined with tin. Although > copper is an excellent heat conductor, it is also highly reactive, > especially with acids. It puts nasty poisonous stuff into your food. > > > There are unlined copper food vessels, but they're all for very limited > food exposure. The primary ones are copper bowls for whipping cream or egg > whites; the chemical reaction between the liquids and the copper gets the > whipped cream/egg whites stiffer faster. Unlined copper is also used for > high-quality plumbing, because copper is antibacterial. But the water isn't > supposed to sit around in the pipes forever. > > > You need dietary copper. But all the copper you need is in your diet. It > is perfectly possible to overdose on ingested copper (especially if the > container has developed that decorative green verdigris), in which case the > symptoms are quite nasty: Cirrhosis, kidney failure, Alzheimers, low blood > pressure, brain necrosis. As a counter to the Ayurvedic claim (shhhhhyeah, > right), let's note that there's a condition called "Indian childhood > cirrhosis" (i.e., cirrhosis in kids who aren't old enough to have bashed > their livers in with alcohol); this condition has been linked to boiling > milk in unlined copper cookware. Call me a Western medicine bigot; but if > Indian moms have been cooking milk in copper pots for centuries, watching > their kids get sick, and not putting two and two together, then it's hard > to appreciate the diagnostic rigor of of Ayurvedic medical practice. > > > I am a big fan of copper decorative items. Wilier Triestina's copper > *chromovelato* is a stunning color. I've got copper bike tchotchkes of > all sorts, including a plated copper travel mug that makes it onto the bike > fairly often, and the copper version of the Crane Karen bell (actually > copper-plated aluminum: more expensive and cheesier-sounding than the brass > bell. If anyone's got the solid copper bell Jitensha used to stock and > they're willing to sell it, let me know). I have actively fantasized about > copper-anodizing a set of centerpull brakes to mount on my dark green > Raleigh, for the *City of Lost Children* look. But aesthetics shouldn't > be a suicide attempt; I wouldn't use copper in ways that endager my safety > or impair my health. I wouldn't carry my water in unlined copper, just as I > wouldn't have brakes made out of solid copper. No matter how pretty. > > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper#Folk_medicine > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_toxicity > > > Peter "saw a couple of *chicas* in downtown Oakland yesterday with Mason > jar beer mugs, and nearly crashed as I rolled my eyes" Adler > > Berkeley, CA/USA > > > On Friday, November 13, 2015 at 12:23:41 PM UTC-8, Beth H wrote: > >> Rivelo (Riv dealer in Portland) is carrying a water bottle made of copper. >> It looks gorgeous. Does anyone know anything about the rewards or risks >> of drinking water from a copper bottle? >> It looks an awful lot like the one pictured here: >> http://www.amazon.com/Travellers-Copper-Bottle-Ayurvedic-Benefits/dp/B00XTQM7FI/ref=pd_bxgy_79_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1HV10VSKRVP66797WN2H >> Beth in pdx > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
