I was called on this week to give my expert advice for an article for one of Australia's major health magazines. I pride myself on being the moderate voice of reason in this space, and after the interview, I thought I would give a more in-depth explanation on our own blog.

Alkaline Water Filters

What do they do? They change the alkalinity of your drinking water by adding minerals in to the water. They work on a two step process. ONE - to remove contaminants from the water. TWO - add minerals back in to your water.

The most important thing to know here is that drinking alkaline water DOES NOT change the alkalinity of your body. Anyone who is telling you drink alkaline water to make your body alkaline does not understand basic chemistry or how the body works. This theory was debunked a long time ago.

So why have minerals in your water? Well, at a bare minimum they make the water taste nicer. Secondly, they have beneficial micronutrients in the water that are a good part of any natural and healthy diet. Minerals that can be added to your mineral water include calcium, magnesium and many others depending on which water filter you own.

Our favourite option is to use a water filter jug. We have two options in store. The Waters Co jug removes the regular group of contaminants and also 99.99% of the fluoride in your drinking water. The other filter jug from Enviro Products (the company who bring us our favourite 2 litre water bottle) does the same job but leaves the fluoride in your water. Choosing a fluoride water filter is a personal choice and we don't advocate one way or the other.

Aroma Diffusers / Ultrasonic Vaporisers

An aroma diffuser is a way to disperse essential oils in to the air without heat or naked flames. They are safer to use because there's no need to have candles burning in an oil burner, and over time, it's certainly cheaper to buy a unit once and use it over and over again for years to come.

The diffusers in store are using ultrasonic vaporiser technology, using vibration to create the mist and not heat. There is some information to suggest that by heating essential oils you lose some of the therapeutic qualities. By using cold vibration technology, you're not destroying the integrity of the oils. I am not sure this is 100% true, but aside from that, it's cheaper not to be using a consumable and safer not to have a naked flame burning. Using the steam vaporisers in small rooms also leaves behind condensation, which, if not dried correctly, will cause mould build up over time and small children can burn themselves on the steam if left unsupervised with them.

We like the doTERRA Petal Diffuser as it has a timer built in, switching itself off after 1, 2 or 4 hours. Use doTERRA or any brand of oils in these diffusers that you like. The range from Lively Living use the same technology and are quite beautiful.