What is Dr. Gundry's claim to not drink bottled water
Executive summary
Dr. Steven Gundry’s public claim about bottled water is not a blanket rejection of all bottled water but a targeted warning against plastic-packaged water and certain contaminants in both tap and bottled supplies; he says he and his wife drink glass-bottled water at home while favoring whole-house reverse osmosis systems to remove municipal contaminants [1] [2]. His core concerns include chemicals leaching from plastic (including BPA and replacement chemicals acting as endocrine disruptors), microplastics, and municipal contaminants that standard treatment may not remove, such as antibiotics and other emerging pollutants [2] [3] [1].
1. What Gundry actually says: prefer glass, avoid plastic
Gundry repeatedly frames the practical takeaway as “avoid bottled water in a plastic container” and “buyer beware in plastic bottles,” recommending glass-bottled natural mineral waters like Panna when using bottled water, while condemning plastic for environmental and health reasons [1] [3]. He explicitly states that from an environmental standpoint “nobody should be using plastic water bottles,” and that canned waters can also be problematic if lined with plastic that may leach chemicals [2].
2. The specific health mechanisms he invokes
His argument links plastic-derived chemicals to endocrine disruption and downstream health effects—Gundry warns that phthalates, BPA, or BPA-replacement chemicals that leach into water can “wreak havoc” on hormones and cause various health issues, a central scientific framing in his commentary [2]. He also raises the issue of microplastics in bottled water as an emerging concern and highlights municipal treatment gaps for contaminants such as antibiotics that he claims remain in commercial water systems [3] [1].
3. How he balances bottled vs. tap water
Gundry does not present bottled water as universally superior to tap; rather, he emphasizes variability in bottled water production—some brands are essentially filtered tap water—so quality depends on source and processing, and many large beverage corporations use different filtration methods [1]. Simultaneously, he stresses municipal treatment limitations and says many systems do not remove antibiotics, prompting his use of reverse osmosis systems at home in addition to drinking glass-bottled water [1].
4. Commercial and promotional context to note
Gundry’s water commentary appears across his podcasts and website and sometimes alongside sponsored material—one episode about water contaminants is sponsored by AquaTru even as he makes independent claims, a context readers should note when evaluating emphasis and solutions offered [4]. He also markets and links to particular products and brands in his episodes and transcripts, which creates potential incentives to favor certain consumer actions [5] [4].
5. What his claims do not prove, given the provided reporting
The sourced material presents Gundry’s concerns and recommendations but does not, within these excerpts, provide independent peer-reviewed evidence or quantify risk levels for the average consumer; the transcripts report his assertions about antibiotics, microplastics, endocrine disruptors, and fluoride/heavy metals but do not include direct citations to studies within the quoted snippets [1] [3]. Therefore, while his practical advice (use glass, consider filtration) is clear in the sources, the materials here do not establish how common or clinically consequential the harms he warns about are across populations.
6. How to interpret Gundry’s bottom line
Taken together, Gundry’s position is pragmatic and precautionary: avoid plastic bottles where possible, prefer glass-bottled or properly treated water, and consider home filtration (he uses whole-house reverse osmosis) because municipal treatments may miss certain contaminants he finds worrisome [1] [2]. Readers should weigh those recommendations alongside independent water-quality data and note the promotional context in some episodes that feature product sponsors [4].