OT - "Water, Beer Or Wine"

Email joke making the rounds of late:

 * * * * * *

  As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom,  

  In water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controlled trials,
scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day,
at the end of the year we would have absorbed m ore than 1 kilo of
Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words,
we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. However, we do NOT run that risk when
drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor)
because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling,
filtering and/or fermenting. 

  Remember: Water = Poop, Wine =Health.Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of chit.     

  There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing it as a public service.      

That may be one reason that various teas have been common the world over for centuries.  You boil the water to steep the tea and kill off most of the bacteria.