On the back of my water bottle, a label states that there is both sodium and chloride, along with some other stuff. What are these things, why do they matter, and how come my water isn’t salty?

Question

I’ve been wondering this all my life. Please help.

EDIT: I FEEL SO MUCH SMARTER NOW, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ENLIGHTENING ME!

In: 2

Answer 1

Sodium and chloride are basically salts. When you add salt to the water, it breaks down to sodium ion and chloride ion. which is why they are labeled as two separate things.

Why does it matter? because of taste. Distilled water doesn’t actually taste like nothing, but rather flat or metallic. in other words: unpleasant, so we add salt to make it more drinkable.

Every other thing in bottled water is usually metallic ions. Its there because nature demands it, and because there is metal in natural water. You could remove it, but it’s not harmful and actually quite beneficial so why bother?