A dangerous wind is sweeping through Silicon Valley - at least according to the media. Technology executives drink raw water, which can contain contaminants and pathogens, and believe it is healthy. "Lenta.ru" tells how the rest of the world is surprised at the incredible fashion of startups, and whether this is actually the case.
Entrepreneur Doug Evans is not a poor man, so he easily survived the bankruptcy of his startup. Just a few days later, he posted on Instagram about a new hobby - raw water. Evans claims that he stopped drinking from the tap long ago and now uses only untreated and unboiled water. He is convinced that it is good for health.
Getting such water is a whole quest. There is a spring near San Francisco, but the path to it is cut off by a landslide. You need to make your way through private territory, where outsiders are not allowed. Evans went to fetch water at night when there was less chance of getting caught. “You need dexterity and ability to act blindly. And a willingness to experiment, he says. "You have to carry bottles literally in the dark."
After the closure of his company, Evans declared a "cleansing post" and went without food for five days - just raw water. “I know when it comes to health, I'm an extremist,” he admits. - But I'm not alone. There are many people who do the same. You never know who you will stumble upon near the spring."
Ketones and cocoa
This is easy to believe. At one time, Silicon Valley went crazy for a ketogenic diet, which is high in fat and low in protein. Then the local bigwigs were carried away by medical fasting. It is one step from it to a raw food diet or belief in the supernatural qualities of untreated water.
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Evernote CEO Phil Libin told The Guardian last year that he knows about two dozen investors and business leaders who periodically skip food. He considers fasting to be one of the most important things in his life. “My mood has improved noticeably, it is easier for me to concentrate, I have a constant source of energy,” he says. - I feel healthier. And it helps me to better manage the company."
For every wellness trend that everyone in Silicon Valley knows about, there are dozens on a smaller scale. A good example is the story of former Google employee Sena Schellenberg, who helped develop Google Glass augmented reality glasses. She told Business Insider that she tried cocoa for the first time in 2016. The drink made an unexpectedly strong impression on her. “It felt like my whole old personality was crumbling,” she says.
Cocoa drove Schellenberg crazy. She came to believe in its healing power, quit her job at Google and went to South America to meet shamans and participate in cocoa ceremonies. After returning to California, she opened paid courses where she teaches how to get rid of bad habits, strengthen bonds with others and find joy through drinking cocoa. There are not many followers yet, but this is a profitable business. A year ago, no one heard of raw water either.
Raw water
America learned about the raw water trend in late December from an article in the New York Times. The newspaper spoke to Evans and found other people who hold the same views. They are convinced that there are no valuable minerals and microorganisms in tap water, and instead of them, chlorine and fluoride, which are hazardous to health.
“Think of me as a conspiracy theorist, but fluoride is a brainwashing drug that doesn't benefit your teeth,” says Muhande Singh, a colorful character with shoulder-length hair who prefers to walk barefoot and take pictures with a naked torso. A few years ago his name was Christopher Sanborn, but then he got carried away with cheese drinking, took an Indian name and opened Live Water, which carries glass bottles of spring water to San Francisco. For one liter, Live Water charges up to $ 30. It's expensive, but Californian startups have money. They pay and don't complain.
Singh believes that decontamination makes the water dead. The "real" water that his company sells is supposedly tastier and leaves a pleasant sensation in the mouth, but it lasts no longer than a month. “It stays fresh for one lunar cycle after delivery,” Singh explains. - If it stays too long, it will turn green. People don't even know about it, because they drink dead water, which never turns green."
Live Water has competitors, such as Tourmaline Springs, which charges $ 2.99 per liter. And in San Diego, there is a whole raw water store - Liquid Eden. The New York Times claims that by the end of 2017, it was selling 3,500 liters a day at $ 2.50 a gallon (about four liters). The store's sales double every year.
Vibrion for breakfast
The response to the New York Times article was swift and merciless. Nobody likes dull-witted moneybags who waste money and do not think about the consequences. In this case, both the closeness and the consequences are obvious to everyone who knows what kind of "minerals and microorganisms" are found in raw water. "The sensation in the mouth is from lamblia, and the good taste is dysentery," author Caterina Valente said on Twitter.
“When water is untreated, it can contain chemicals and microorganisms that can send a person to the hospital or cause an outbreak,” Vince Hill, head of waterborne infections at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Time magazine. "In fact, raw water can be anything you want."
“All of this is great until a ten-year-old girl dies in agony from cholera somewhere in Montecito, California,” Business Insider quoted food safety expert Bill Marler as saying. This is more than a real prospect: thousands of people die from cholera in third world countries.
Critics say turning up their noses at modern water treatment standards that are saving the US from the same fate is irresponsible to say the least. “The proliferation of skepticism about water infrastructure or the importance of water treatment is worrying - and could have real implications,” comments Vox.
Water treatment plant.
Where does the water come from
Opponents of raw water didn't stop at media complaints. “We've received hundreds of messages,” Tourmaline Springs co-founder Seth Pruzanski told The Guardian. - From direct insults to statements that we deliberately bully and rip off people. In two of them there were threats that they would come and shoot us."
Prusanski believes Tourmaline Springs did not deserve such hatred. According to him, water from the source of the company and without purification meets all sanitary standards. “There is a huge difference between water that is drunk from a river somewhere in the forest and water from a spring with a centuries-old history that has been carefully tested and meets government requirements,” he says.
The situation with Live Water and its founder, Muhanda Singh, is more complicated. The company claims it draws water from a canyon source near Madras, Oregon. In fact, it is controlled by a non-profit organization that deals with the water supply of Madras. Men's Health magazine contacted her and found out that Live Water does not take water directly from the source, but from the mains.
On the one hand, this is a plus: cholera is not scary. On the other hand, why then pay that kind of money?
Blown sensation
The New York Times article quotes several raw water advocates, but Doug Evans is the only person with a name. And that's not a very good name. He founded Juicero, a company that made expensive, smart juicers that required special fruit pulp cartridges. Bloomberg News found last year that cartridges can be easily squeezed out of juice with bare hands. Juicero and Doug Evans himself have become a laughing stock.
Juicero juicer.
If the New York Times writer hasn't been able to find a less controversial raw water drinker, the question arises: Are there so many? At a popular startup forum supported by the famous investment company Y Combinator, the news of the new trend was greeted with disbelief. It is read by the very people who, according to the press, should get carried away with raw food, but none of them have met adherents of this fashion.
"These are all sold at Rainbow Groceries, a store that has been supplying California hippies with hippie products for decades," wrote one user. "Although the circle of techies often overlaps with the circle of hippies on the Venn diagram, they are definitely different people." “Everyone I know in Silicon Valley drinks either tap water (straight from the tap or filtered) or soda,” comments another. “It looks like a hyped sensation,” he summed up.
Oleg Paramonov
