Will drinking better quality water improve your quality and length of life? Join Brad and his client and good mate John on Kythera Island in Greece and learn about the high quality water that the local island people drink that is attributed the high life expectancies of the population. This water most certainly has a high ‘Total Dissolved Solids’ count and is extremely good for you! John’s friends in the area had the water tested to show how highly mineralised and alkaline the water is. Let’s see what John has to say about it.

Brad:
Hey Primal people! It’s Brad here. I’m traveling with the family and right now. We are in Greece. We’re on an island called Kythera, which is south of the mainland, the Peloponnese area of Greece. Just above Crete. It’s one of the bigger islands of Greece not visited as much by tourists, but wow, it’s a pretty Primal place to be. I’m currently here now with my client and good mate John Wilson, who you will be hearing from in a sec, as his family is from this area.

You would have always heard Bex and I mentioning the Primal 6 in our newsletters and on social networking about the third most important  Primal 6 step known as ‘Water’. You would have also seen pictures of our Primal mascot drinking water from a waterfall, the way we used to drink it (instead of a tap or plastic bottle). Well as you can see here, this is the San Pelligrino water of Kythera!

ABOVE:  Our Primal mascot getting his water needs the way we used to… from rivers, streams and waterfalls.

The importance of this lies in the fact that the average life expectancy of Kythera is in the mid 90’s! This water tastes amazing too. It’s now time to hear from John about the water and the island, and why this is so important to the population of Kythera.

So John, why do you make the effort of coming down here to drink this water instead of the town water / tap water?

John:
Well Brad, there is nothing wrong with the tap water. The water is actually of reasonable quality, but these springs come direct from the mountain. It’s all ground water. It’s running through rocks, limestone and marble on this island, so the water is deeply mineralised. It’s been drunk by my family and all of my grandparents and great grandparents and their ancestry over time. All of the communities here have relied on this water for their health and vitality. In days of old before plumbing, this is the way people would collect their water. They’d come down here with donkeys and very large containers, take them back to their homes and that’s what they’d drink.

Brad:
That’s awesome.

John:
What is remarkable about this water in the community though, is the life expectancies here. The most recent statistics I have are from 2 years ago, when we had 3 deaths in this village (called Karavas). The ages being, 83, 95 and 97. People live to a ripe old age in this community, which I guess is in part diet, but my Greek grandmother (yaya) would also attest this to being because of the water keeping everyone young, vital and healthy.

Brad:
Well that’s it. Depending on what you read, we’re 70-80% water, so if you are drinking the good stuff like this, it certainly improves your health! As proved here in Kythera and by the looks of the Greek God that you have become! 🙂

John:
What can I say 🙂
The water comes down the mountain at a beautiful drinking temperature and it has a unique quality about it. Off camera before we were using adjectives like ‘silken’, ‘chewy’, it has ‘body’ to it, in other words, you can taste the evidence in the mineral composition of the water. It also has an incredibly clean smell.

Brad:
John what is this here? Is this also a ‘sleuth’ as you were talking about? Or is this too big to be a sleuth?

John:
Yes, it’s a very elaborate structure found around these springs designed to capture the water for agricultural and domestic use, so what you are seeing here is a wash pit, so the men and women would wash their clothing here. Note the size and height of it. The water would be channeled in here and drained out there (pointing to different areas) and they’d use this as a mechanism to wash their clothing, separate to where they collect their water from. This is evident in all of the springs across the island, of which there are many! Ground water is what people live on here and is a very important resource in the community, one that people are very keen to preserve. If you mention the word ‘pesticides’ here to people and they will get very very sensitive about that word. They don’t want them used, because they know it will affect the quality of the ground water. The ground water is what they drink, and in large parts what they ascribe their health and vitality to. They DO NOT want anything that can compromise the quality of the water.

ABOVE: John shows us where the locals of Kythera Island collected their water for agricultural and domestic use.

Brad:
Hence, all the things we’ve been eating here, you don’t see all the ‘certified organic’ stickers and what not here, because all the food is organic and traditionally grown. They want to keep it that way.

John:
Exactly. All the Olives for example that you’ve eaten Brad on our property, are 100% organic. There has never been a pesticide used on our land. We have no organic certification of course, nor has my cousin that is a very big organic producer here, because that’s just the way it is. It’s not a certification, it’s just a way of life. It’s embodied in everything that they do.

Brad:
Yeah right. That’s awesome. So if someone wanted to come and experience this themselves, where can they stay John? 🙂

John:
They can stay at Villa Faros (www.villafaros.com) in the picturesque mountain village of Karavas! Replent with these beautiful mountain streams and also…

Brad:
Wow, and you just happen to have your shirt on too! Villafaros.com 🙂
So as you can see guys, this is a pretty special part of the world. I highly recommend your drink the best quality water that you can get. Especially looking for real water from a natural spring, instead of tap water labelled by the big companies in bottles (eg: Dasani – Coke). Anyhow, John, thanks for your insights on the water of Kythera Island!

This Greek Island Alkaline Water Believed to Prolong Lives