Answer: A: No, you do not need to bypass your water softener. It's perfectly safe to consume the water. The amount of sodium that is in the water is so minute that any health effects are negligible, according to reports and studies of both the Water Quality Association and the Salt Institute. If you are on a severely restricted diet with respect to sodium, consult your physician. And if you also have an undercounter reverse osmosis drinking water system, that's already removing virtually all ionic constituents in the water such as sodium anyway. Feel free to visit the website of either organization mentioned above— www.wqa.org or www.saltinstitute.org—for more information. For salt statistics, see the U.S. Geological Survey website: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/salt/

Hope that helps.

Return to Ask The Expert index