On 05/05/2011 06:50 AM, Allan Balliett wrote:
> This is probably irrelevant, but I read somewhere that there are no
> traditional people who take water straight.

Push it to the extreme, and we hear of Marathon runners dying of plain 
water.
According to Wallach N.D. possibly in his book "Dead Doctors Don't Lie", 
farmers' wives sent them pickle juice or such  to keep them hydrated - 
this was long before air-conditioned tractors.
The pickle juice would have been salt and lactic acid from natural 
fermentation.

William