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Distilled vs. Spring Water
Distilled water harmful?

Distilled vs. Spring Water

Landlady
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Posted 05/23/08 - 06:11 AM: Subject: Distilled vs. Spring Water	#1
There is a notion held by some people (with science background) that distilled water can be harmful to human body, due to its “leaching” properties. It is believed that drinking distilled water (basically pure, pH neutral water) will rob your body of minerals, via diffusion (particles of higher concentration wanting to move towards lower concentration to reach equilibrium). The problem is that I’ve never heard of people being hurt by drinking distilled water (which is basically pure water). I’ve never heard of people either dying from it or having teeth and hair falling out because it leached minerals from their body. I would quickly dismiss this claim as being either factitious or overly exaggerated were it not for the fact that it is being presented in prescriptive terms (basically, that distilled water is harmful to your health and that you should stick to drinking spring water, or water with added electrolytes if you're exercising). Any thoughts?
There is time to laugh and there is time not to laugh, and this is not one of them. - Insp. Clouseau. From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all. But whether or not one can live with one's passions, whether or not one can accept their law, which is to burn the heart they simultaneously exalt--that is the whole question. � Camus.

Kwalish Kid
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Posted 05/23/08 - 06:37 AM:	#2
In some cases, adding things to water (sugar and salt) can make better use of the processes of our digestive tracts in order to stave off malnutrition and starvation, but I can't believe that distilled water is any worse than ordinary water. All the water that we drink is lower in concentration in almost every chemical than our cells are; this is why we drink water. Our cell membranes have gates that regulate the flow of particles with or against concentration, so I really can't see how anything but a gross excess of drinking distilled water could be harmful.
"Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive nature of things." - KM, V, P and P "A fishnet is made up of a lot more holes than strings, but you can't therefore argue that the net doesn't exist. Just ask the fish." - Jeffrey Kluger "…Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people." -Ben Stein [This is included for the irony.]

Reformed Nihilist
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Posted 05/23/08 - 06:49 AM:	#3
Out of curiousity, why wouldn't one drink tap water instead of spring water or distilled water?
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Kwalish Kid
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Posted 05/23/08 - 06:59 AM:	#4
Reformed Nihilist wrote: Out of curiousity, why wouldn't one drink tap water instead of spring water or distilled water? Because of the Communist plot to sap our precious bodily fluids, of course! Purity of essence.
"Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive nature of things." - KM, V, P and P "A fishnet is made up of a lot more holes than strings, but you can't therefore argue that the net doesn't exist. Just ask the fish." - Jeffrey Kluger "…Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people." -Ben Stein [This is included for the irony.]

Prime_Mover
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Posted 05/23/08 - 07:38 AM:	#5
It's not the case that purified or distilled water takes minerals away from your body; it's that it doesn't put any in, which is a function of normal tap water, which usually contains strong concentrations of Mg⁺⁺, Ca⁺⁺, and Na⁺ ions. This is the main concern for people like me that have reverse osmosis devices for drinking water; these distillation systems make the water taste considerably better, but without mineral supplements, drinking only distilled water means being insufficient in the way of nutrition. Of course, tap water wouldn't be your only source of these minerals through the day, but they make up a sizeable portion besides what one consumes as food. As for distilled water "leaching" minerals from your body and having a bad effect on one's teeth, such are myths. Distilled water acts almost like a magnet, picking up rejected, discarded, and unusable minerals and, assisted by the blood and the lymph, carrying them to the lungs and kidneys for elimination from the body. The statement that distilled water leaches minerals from the body has no basis in fact. It doesn't leach out minerals that have become part of the cell structure. It can't and won't. It collects only minerals that have already been rejected or excreted by the cells. So to suggest that distilled water takes up minerals from foods so that the body derives no benefit from them is incorrect.
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Landlady
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Posted 05/24/08 - 10:46 PM:	#6
Reformed Nihilist wrote: Out of curiousity, why wouldn't one drink tap water instead of spring water or distilled water? The quality of tap water is different in different places. In some places tap water is recycled sewage water and in other places one's person tap water ends up as another person's bottled spring water. I do drink my tap water, I just don't care too much for chlorine taste (and whatever else is in there). The local Water Treatment Plant treats my tap water with chlorine, fluorine and ozone, but it doesn't filter it. The_Rational_Animal wrote: ...but they make up a sizeable portion besides what one consumes as food. The_Rational_Animal wrote: ...drinking only distilled water means being insufficient in the way of nutrition. At this point I am still skeptical of claims like these. I don't believe that water provides such a significant amount of minerals to make a difference in body's nutrition levels. (And I don't ever remember seeing marketers claiming that their bottled spring water is a good source of minerals essential to health...something that I'm pretty sure they would have taken advantage of). Most of the minerals we get we get from food (with bio-available/organic minerals). The minerals found in water are inorganic (inert) and are not used by the body. It is these inorganic minerals which cannot be absorbed by the cells that often get transported and deposited somewhere else, and eventually become culprits behind formation of gall/kidney stones and hardening of arteries.
There is time to laugh and there is time not to laugh, and this is not one of them. - Insp. Clouseau. From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all. But whether or not one can live with one's passions, whether or not one can accept their law, which is to burn the heart they simultaneously exalt--that is the whole question. � Camus.

unenlightened
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Posted 05/25/08 - 04:07 AM:	#7
Even undistilled water is far too strong to be drunk neat, and should always be taken well diluted with whiskey or a similar spirit.
The observer is the observed. J Krishnamurti "Philosophy, to the Philistine, is an evolutionary process, watched over by some sort of brisk dynamic Providence, and culminating in the supreme insight of modern thought." John Cowper Powys

keda
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Posted 05/25/08 - 10:35 AM:	#8
I've been looking for the same thing but not found any studies on it either (yet there is no shortage of baseless claims on each side), however considering that only a small percentage of your daily intake of minerals is from your water, it seems absurd to me that it would leech minerals from your body as it would only lower the mineral concentration in your blood slightly to drink destillated water. Anyways I've settled for the ceramic solution; destilled water doesn't taste like water should taste, and boiling water isn't a very cheap method either. However if you want to get that fluoride out of the water (which I would, as there is quite a lot of studies coming up indicating that its harmful in many ways, especially your brain, but also your bones and teeth) destillation may be better.
All about making money Free Europe Now How to fix your country The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. -Benjamin Franklin If my sons did not want wars, there would be none - Gutle Rothschild It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes - Josef Stalin

Kwalish Kid
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Posted 05/25/08 - 06:55 PM:	#9
I recently heard a scientist speak about a new technique for finding the recent origin of humans (dead or alive) from the ratio of certain chemicals in parts of the body that get there through tap water. Even people who drink bottled water show this trace evidence because of water used in preparing foods.
"Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive nature of things." - KM, V, P and P "A fishnet is made up of a lot more holes than strings, but you can't therefore argue that the net doesn't exist. Just ask the fish." - Jeffrey Kluger "…Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people." -Ben Stein [This is included for the irony.]

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