Hundreds of years after the spring from which Evian water is drawn was discovered, the bottled water industry is now one of the biggest, most lucrative shams hoisted upon modern man. Not only is bottled water wasteful and bad for the environment (all those plastic bottles result in literally tons of trash), the fact is that most people can’t even tell the difference between bottled H20 and the stuff that comes out of their tap. To put it simply: Nobody who has all the facts should be drinking bottled water. And yet people continue guzzling the stuff at alarming rates, Blacks especially. If you don’t know, now you know: Bottled water is yet another swindle being perpetrated directly on the African-American community. Don’t fall for it.

New research shows that minorities now consume bottled water at much greater rates than their white counterparts. They also spend more money on the useless good, giving up a full one percent of their income for it annually while whites spend only .4 percent of their income. And this trend starts early: According to a study from the Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, Blacks and Latinos are three times more likely to give their children bottled water when they’re thirsty.

Why are Blacks falling so hard for bottled water? Because advertising has been devised to target them specifically. This is from Forbes:

"Over the last two years, Coca-Cola and Nestle have both rolled out campaigns aimed at minority moms.… Via radio, print and in-store advertising, Black women were sold on how drinking Dasani was just one step to a happier, more beautiful, more fulfilled, and more balanced them."

Blacks, and Black women in particular, are being tricked into thinking that bottled water is much healthier for them than tap water, which is a baseless lie. In fact, according to research, nearly 50 percent of all the bottled water consumed in America comes from municipal water supplies, otherwise known as the very same water that comes out of your kitchen faucet at home.

These are the facts: Bottled water is not healthier for you, and it won’t make you feel any better than drinking water from your own tap. Next time you go to pick up that bottle of Evian or Aquafina, remember that they’re just marketing gimmicks packaged to look like a healthy drink. Don’t drink the water.

(Photo: Arko Datta/Landov)