Eternal Water is a perfectly fine drinking water. It’s naturally alkaline with a pH between 7.8 and 8.2, sourced from underground aquifers, and free of common plastic contaminants. But the health advantages over regular water are modest at best. For everyday hydration, it does the job, though you shouldn’t expect dramatic benefits from the higher pH alone.
Where Eternal Water Comes From
Eternal Water is drawn from deep artesian aquifers, where it filters naturally through layers of ancient rock and sandstone before collection. During this slow underground journey, the water picks up trace minerals that raise its pH above the neutral 7.0 of most tap water. The rock layers also act as a natural barrier against surface-level pollutants, which is why the company markets it as naturally pure rather than industrially filtered.
The bottles themselves are made from PET-1 plastic, which is BPA-free, phthalate-free, and fully recyclable. That’s the same food-grade plastic used by most major bottled water brands, so there’s no added concern about chemical leaching under normal storage conditions.
What “Naturally Alkaline” Actually Means
Eternal’s pH sits between 7.8 and 8.2. For context, pure water is 7.0, and most tap water falls between 6.5 and 8.5 depending on your municipality. So Eternal is slightly more alkaline than average, but not dramatically so. This is worth noting because many of the health claims around alkaline water come from studies using water at pH 8.8 or higher, which is a meaningfully different product.
There’s an important distinction between naturally alkaline water (which gets its pH from dissolved minerals) and artificially alkalinized water (which is run through an electrolysis machine). Most clinical research on alkaline water uses the electrolyzed version, so those results don’t translate directly to a product like Eternal.
The Case for Alkaline Water and Acid Reflux
The strongest piece of evidence in favor of high-pH water involves acid reflux. A study published in the Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology found that water at pH 8.8 permanently deactivates pepsin, the stomach enzyme responsible for the burning damage in reflux disease. That same water also buffered hydrochloric acid far more effectively than regular water.
This sounds promising, but there’s a catch for Eternal Water specifically. The study used water at pH 8.8, while Eternal tops out around 8.2. Whether that lower pH produces the same irreversible effect on pepsin isn’t established. If you’re dealing with reflux symptoms and want to try alkaline water as a supplement to other treatments, water closer to 8.8 would better match the research.
Hydration After Exercise
One area where alkaline water shows a measurable edge is post-exercise rehydration. In a randomized, double-blind trial of 100 healthy adults, participants exercised in a warm environment until they lost about 2% of their body weight through sweat. Half rehydrated with high-pH electrolyzed water, the other half with standard purified water.
The alkaline water group saw their blood viscosity (a measure of how thick and resistant to flow your blood is) drop by 6.3% during recovery, compared to 3.36% in the regular water group. Thinner blood flows more easily, which in theory supports faster oxygen delivery to recovering muscles. However, three other hydration markers, including plasma osmolality and body composition changes, showed no difference between the two groups. So the overall hydration picture was similar, with one specific cardiovascular measure favoring the alkaline water.
Again, this study used electrolyzed high-pH water, not naturally alkaline spring water. The mechanisms may overlap, but they aren’t identical.
Are There Any Downsides?
An eight-week clinical trial on alkaline-reduced water found no adverse effects among participants. The main theoretical concern is that consistently raising stomach pH could interfere with digestion or nutrient absorption, since your stomach relies on its acidic environment to break down food and absorb minerals like iron and calcium. In practice, the amount of alkaline water most people drink isn’t enough to significantly alter stomach pH for a prolonged period. Your body tightly regulates gastrointestinal acidity on its own.
The more concrete downside is cost. Eternal Water typically runs several dollars per liter, depending on where you buy it. Over weeks and months, that adds up significantly compared to filtered tap water, which provides equivalent hydration for a fraction of the price.
The Bigger Environmental Picture
Bottled water sourced from aquifers carries an environmental cost that’s easy to overlook. Florida’s aquifer system, which supplies numerous bottled water brands, has seen groundwater extraction increase by 400% between 1950 and 2010. Rivers fed by these aquifers, like the Santa Fe River in Florida, are officially designated as threatened due to declining water flows. Environmental groups have documented visible ecological damage: algae blooms replacing native vegetation and wildlife migrating away from degraded springs.
Eternal sources from specific aquifer locations and not necessarily from the most stressed systems in Florida. But the broader pattern of commercial aquifer extraction is one that environmental scientists consistently flag as unsustainable. If you’re drinking bottled spring water daily, that’s a factor worth weighing alongside any personal health benefits.
The Bottom Line on Eternal Water
Eternal Water is clean, safe, and mildly alkaline. It hydrates you. The minerals it picks up from natural rock filtration are a small bonus, and its BPA-free packaging is standard for the industry. But the health benefits that get marketed alongside alkaline water generally come from research on water with a higher pH than Eternal provides, often produced through electrolysis rather than natural mineral contact. For most people, the functional difference between Eternal Water and a good home water filter is negligible. Where you’ll feel the difference most is your wallet.