Distilled Water for drinking

[calicojack60]

Hi All,

I've have also been seeking the truth about distilled water. I have found the subject to be more then a formidable opponent and also akin to something like who shot JFK! I see the billion dollar water industry has really muddied the waters with this debate leaving average folks in no mans land. With Billions to be made, there would indeed be a war of misinformation between bottled, tap, filtered and distilled water.

If you have anything solid knowledge of distilled water, then read my post that is on this page below. I would be very keen to hear anyone with solid knowledge about drinking distilled water.
http://www.procyclingwomen.com/Distiller/Debate.html

thanks,
CJ

[Debmrshll]

Thanks so much for that detailed report...
I accidentally drank a bottle of distilled H2O about a week ago. I've experienced stomach pain, diarrhea, and just general ill feeling. Hopefully it's a coincidence and I've contracted some kind of virus or something.
Anyway, your report helps ease my "fears" if nothing else. Thanks for going to the trouble.

[gurney100]

Just to add to this, I have been drinking distilled water for 18 months now. I have not noticed any side effects, I am in good health. The only major difference has been the almost complete removal of plaque from my teeth.Heavy build up of plaque has always been a problem since my young years. I am 70 years old, and in excellent health.I distill my own water, and it costs me nothing. If you wish to know how, just ask. George.

[Dadoc]

First, allow me to apologize for this really long post.  Here we go...

Ships at sea, such as freighters, tankers, military vessels, etc, use distilled water for everything from cleaning, cooking, propulsion (for steam powered engines - yes, we still use them, just a different means of heating the water to make the steam), and finally drinking.

How do I know?  I worked on a ship such as these for nearly 4 years running the distilling plants that did exactly that as well as storing that water in our tanks.  Ships this size use so much water per day (you'd be amazed how much just one distilling plant made per day and we had several) that it is impossible to store all this water for a cruise in between port visits.  Besides the engines also need it to operate the ship (and are probably the biggest reason why we needed so much.  We would make ultra pure water and add chlorine tablets to minimize the risk of any contamination while the water is in the tanks.  Nothing else was added.  Since I had the "luxury" of producing the water and didn't like the idea of drinking chlorinated water, I would just take my water from the sample valve right out of the plant.

Yes, distilled water alone tastes horrible but baking soda and some additional carbon filtering can make it taste great.  After much consideration through the years I've found that all the arguments against distilled water are pretty much bunk....here's why:


"Distilled water has no minerals and can not help the body to replace the minerals that it needs"  -  If you run a lab test on spring or even well water, you will find that the amounts of minerals in it compared to food and juice are so low as to be considered negligible by comparison.  Your body should not be relying on this water to replace them.  Food and/or juice should be your source of necessary minerals and nutrients and they are quite capable of handling this on their own.

"Distilled water is so pure that it will extract minerals out of your body"  -  Before you have swallowed distilled water, regardless of it's purity, it has mixed with your saliva and in effect is not distilled anymore.  If that is not convincing enough, when it enters your stomach it mixes with your stomach acids and essentially becomes diluted stomach acid.  Your body digests this as it would any other water you drink (without any of the unnecessary pollutants or additives).  When it enters your blood it is not distilled water, it is now blood.  It will not extract any more minerals than your blood would.  But it makes it easier for your kidneys to extract waste since certain levels of water is needed by the kidneys to extract a certain amount of waste depending on the type...and remember that you added no pollutants or toxins when you drank the water.  It accomplishes this more efficiently than any other water can.

"Distilled water is acidic"  -  So is orange juice...and every other citrus juice for that matter.  If this is still a concern, it can easily be fixed with a tiny bit of baking soda (don't overdo it though...I really mean tiny, test the ph if you must because this is water you are drinking daily, not a dose).  I personally do not use baking soda to make the water alkaline, but rather just to improve the taste.  This will improve the alkalinity some without worry of overdoing it.  The water shouldn't taste salty, but at the worst have only a tiny hint of salt.  I do not add salt as some people do because I believe food should replace necessary minerals and I believe there is a difference between minerals from an organic source and minerals from an inorganic source.

"Distilling water does not get rid of VOCs (which, simply stated, are pollutants that boil at lower temperatures than water)"  -  Carbon filters are quite effective at eliminating VOCs and can be easily used either as a final stage of the distilling process or on the water before you place it in your distiller.  I like to use it at the final stage as it seems to enhance the taste somewhat, although baking soda does a significantly better job.  To be honest I'm probably effectively using it at both stages since I prefer using bought filtered water in my distiller.  I do this though primarily to significantly reduce the amount of times I need to clean the tank over time.

Some of you may ask why do I use distilled water when I can just use filtered water since I buy it anyway.  The answer is distilling water in this manner is the only way to ensure the water is in fact pure.  Filters used for filtered water may not have been maintained properly.  They do not remove all pollutants.  They could be faulty.  Boiling water is the only method that truly kills 100% of pathogens.

Finally, if you run lab tests on distilled water and filtered water, you will find that the filtered water, if it is good quality, may be within "acceptable levels" of particular pollutants but still have a certain amount of them.  Unfortunately in many cases, you will find that it may be over acceptable levels with regards to certain pollutants but maybe under with others and overall balance out to be "acceptable" over all.  Distilled water on the other hand will be free of these pollutants or "unable to be detected" within the ranges detectable by that particular lab.  This just makes me feel a bit better about what I'm drinking.

As a bonus, if I opt not to add baking soda to some batches, I have a host of other uses for my water that are ideal for distilled water (i.e.: ironing).

[Mrcall]

fergawdsache, you post is spot on, If they heavily, supress natural cancer cures, why would the government, what to highlight the benefits of distil water?.  

[Mrcall]

I totally agree with you calicojack. I also believe that there is a lot scaremongering going from the industries that have self interest.

Its like the natural cures for cancer, which is heavy, suppressed by the medical industry and any doctor healing anyone with natural cures for cancer, is likely to find themselves in jail.

[Paxiled]

I should add, the taste of spring water differs a lot as well in how it's regulated -- certain disinfecting technology will take the spring water taste out of the water and others don't, and in the US different states have different regulatory requirements.  Maryland spring water generally doesn't taste as good as that in Virginia because of what Maryland requires for making sure the water is safe to drink, for example.

[Paxiled]

If your "Alpine" water tastes like distilled water, I feel sorry for your water supply.  Spring water has a definite taste, but each spring has a different taste.  By the way, you don't see municipal water labeled as mountain spring water, that would be illegal in the US, what you do see is bottled water labeled as purified water, meaning it's not spring water and comes from the water treatment plant.  And there's no virtue in spring water being from a mountainous area or a flat area as long as it's clean, meaning no industrial waste being poured into it. The sun doesn't distill water -- it's not at high enough heat.  Distilling doesn't energize water, it cooks it to get rid of things.  It's main purpose is to put in machinery that will be fouled by minerals.  There is also no particular virtue in himalayan salt that I know of -- it's sea salt that's useful because it's naturally iodized and some believe it helps digestion because it still has the minerals from the source of all minerals in life on Earth, the ocean.  

[moniquemonicat]

p.s. "Tangy Tangerine" is the name of a mineral supplement for liquid colloidal minerals, made by a company called Youngevity.  And I left out "HYDRATION" in my capped comment above "WATER IS FOR PURIFICATION AND OXYGENATION."

[moniquemonicat]

i really appreciate what you wrote and your quest for the truth.  there are so many things being said against distilled water and not one iota of proof, however Dr. Wallach, an expert on minerals, specifically trace minerals says distilled water does NOT leech out necessary minerals from our bodies and the notion that it does is nonsense.  He's healed thousands of people using minerals, trace minerals -- specifically all of them were sick due to mineral deficiencies, so I believe he would know.

Now, what I do know is that I live in the Italian Alps, we have 300 people population, our alpine forest is pristine and clean.  Our water is unfiltered and comes into our taps directly from our mountain about 200 yards from our house.  It is pure and clear like diamonds, real authentic mountain spring water.  And tastes very different from the crap here in usa labelled "mountain spring water."  One of the readers said she thought distilled water tasted bland or something like that.  I find that odd because she went on to say how mountain spring water was wonderful.  I question whether she has ever had real mountain spring water, or if she is referring to the municipal tap water sold in america labelled "mountain spring water."  The fact is that when I come to America I am always looking for water that tastes like our water in the Alps.  I've tried them all.  In fact one water that boasts that it is alpine water (Evian) was one of the worst I tried, tastes like regular bottled tap water to me, and frankly I could not bear to even drink it.  France is not known for having good water in the first place, quite the opposite, but besides that it is apparent to me it is a clever marketing ploy because I know pure alpine water and Evian is NOT.  

The closest water to taste to our alpine water I found WAS DISTILLED WATER.  It is crystal clear and has the same pure taste as our pure alpine mountain spring water.  

The Romans used rain water in their aqueducts for hundreds of years, which is basically naturally distilled water, however, with one difference:  sun energy.  So instead of looking for water with added minerals, perhaps it is best to sun energize pure water.

The function of water is a solvent, to purify our bodies, hydrate them, and to bring in oxygen.  I would say the only thing about distilled water would be to sun energize it.

The mineral deficiencies people are experiencing are most likely due to the fact that our soils do not get rested every 7 years, they are depleted of minerals, and our produce is mineral deficient, and therefore our livestock as well.  So focusing on getting minerals from our water and not our food seems a bit ludicrous.  Food is food, water is not food nor nourishment.  Water provides OXYGEN and CLEANSING and HYDRATION, that's where our focus should be on water.  For minerals we should be focusing on our FOOD, minerals are for nourishment.

As for the notion of alkalizing our water?  The minute water hits our stomach acids it cannot remain alkaline, and if it is too alkaline it can cause our bodies to send out a signal for more acid to neutralize it because our stomachs are SUPPOSED to be ACID.  You really want alkaline in your stomach when alkaline will not digest food?

Anyway, when I am in America I drink distilled, it is the only water closest to true pure alpine mountain spring water.  As for the trace minerals, get them from Tangy Tangerine, a bit costly, but the only way I have found to get all of them.  BTW sprinkling Himalayan salt in water is ok, however, it is not going to provide all the trace minerals in the levels we need.  Best to use that salt on your food.  

FOOD IS NOURISHMENT.  WATER IS FOR PURIFICATION AND OXYGENATION.

I would suggest focusing on ozone water if you are looking for more in water.  But get your minerals (nourishment) from food, but in today's depleted soil, it is imperative we get those from supplementing our minerals and colloidal minerals are superior for that.

ciao ciao!

[Paxiled]

This is an argument with no possibility of complete validation because another problem in the world is that research follows money and there's no money in distilled water, at least not enough to do the kind of research you're looking for.  I can tell you viruses don't pass in water, and chlorine is great to get rid of but it does get rid of the bacteria.  Bacteria can get in the water after distilling, during transport, in your home, so there's no real way to get rid of bacteria.  Before he died, and you'll seldom see this, Louis Pasteur, who is credited with the germ theory of disease, changed his mind and said we'll never kill the germs, they'll just mutate and learn to survive, so the answer is in our immune systems.  The only thing I can say is, if you drink spring water, you get rid of the chlorine and the fluoride other than what's naturally in the water, and that people obviously weren't born to drink distilled water, but getting clean water has always been a problem.  As much as we all hate chlorine, modern water treatment is credited with the vast majority of greater life expectancy we enjoy today.  Nothing's simple, as you can see.  Sometimes things are murky and hard to clear up without the resources to do so.  

[fergawdsache]

it is strange that still all this time on,no real answers have been found.i am drinking distilled water as its an easy cheapish way to remove fluoride, chlorine,viruses and bacteria. are the health benefits of doing this negated by acidity/lack of minerals ?.there are supposed experts on each side of this argument,who to believe, i know there is a lot of deliberate misinformation out there and am no longer convinced that the government can be believed on matters pertaining to our health,the amount of crap they allow businesses to force upon us borders on the criminal.so it seems we must try to find out for ourselves, and even use ourselves as guinea pigs, still, no need to reinvent the wheel, what have the people whove been doing this for a long time found out?, i mean this threads been going since 2010, anything new?

[fergawdsache]

it is strange that still all this time on,no real answers have been found.i am drinking distilled water as its an easy cheapish way to remove fluoride, chlorine,viruses and bacteria. are the health benefits of doing this negated by acidity/lack of minerals ?.there are supposed experts on each side of this argument,who to believe, i know there is a lot of deliberate misinformation out there and am no longer convinced that the government can be believed on matters pertaining to our health,the amount of crap they allow businesses to force upon us borders on the criminal.so it seems we must try to find out for ourselves, and even use ourselves as guinea pigs, still, no need to reinvent the wheel, what have the people whove been doing this for a long time found out?, i mean this threads been going since 2010, anything new?

[winterhell]

As far as the leeching goes, maybe the truth is a bit different. I read somewhere the body sees the lack of minerals and does its best to give it its own minerals to compensate, even if they are already part of the body structure.  

Some sites recommend distilled water only for week-two detoxification, but claim its harmful for longer.
Maybe that is the case until it gets the calcium carbonate/lime and other inorganic useless TDS that have accumulated in the body since the kidneys couldnt filter them all. And then the harmful part starts when the body begins giving off its own minerals? Both claims that the body gives voluntarily and that its no good for more than 2 weeks at a time seem to support each other in this respect.

To determine if the low TDS water actually leeches our bones and how, there are 2 relatively simple tests that could be done.
1) Take a real bone, and wash it with tons of distilled water and check its weight every 10 liters or so. If calcium carbonate can take up 500mg/Liter or more in the tap water, then the bone could get dissolved pretty fast. Even if it leeches only 20mg/Liter, that would make 20 grams per 1000 liters, which is pretty detectable. Even if every wash leeches mirenals from the bone after thousands of liters, both the average and the peek leeches could turn out to be negligible with respect to the recommended daily intake.
2) See in the urine of a person what type of calcium is peed, not only the volume. If only inorganic one is present, there is that. How long has the distilled water intake been in effect would be important. Maybe at least a month?
In the case the body really is giving off its own minerals, could it be converting the organic into inorganic?

Of course both 1) and 2) would be reinforced with a control groups of tap water, maybe also alkaline and reminiralized distilled water with higher pH.

Sorry if this post was hard to follow or does not make any sense. I believe both tests are cheap to do, the cost boiling down to producing the 100s or 1000s liters of distilled water and testing the urine. Can someone academic do this?

[wildkrafter]

Hey There

You want to talk to somebody that knows his distilled water? look up Andrew Norton Webber on facebook. This man is the King of distilled. I think you can utube his talks as well. He knows his stuff.

[jackmack54]

Hi

the link in the original post goes to a 404 error page, is there another link I can read your findings on? thanks

[drread507]

I drink distilled water and add liquamins drops even though i read it might have some bad metals in it, cave man drank ground water for thousands of years but it was much cleaner back then

[lrbnx3]

Yes, I also agree with you that water leaches. But what happens in the body once you drink water? How is it digested and does the somewhat acidic distilled water (or any water) really matter once it hits the acidic stomach? Cell level and minerals is something you might consider looking into because (from my understanding) it is at the cell level where minerals and nutrients are transported and used in various parts of the body. Some say that the more "alive" or organic minerals and vitamins are, the easier it is for our bodies to use and assimilate them. Some say that spring water has minerals that cannot be used very well by the body, as they are inorganic. This means the body would store them and they become like toxic in our bodies. And as bigbralover mentioned, a point his Dr made, "it's silly argument that distilled water leeches anything from the body, because it's the liver and kidneys that does the filtering. Water is simply an aid..."

My thoughts are that when water gets to the stomach, it is broken down and digested by the enzymes and acids, and then pure water is taken where it needs to go and the minerals or anything else is taken in other places. If, in fact, this is the case, it leads me to think that no water leaches anything. Perhaps the purer the water, the more it can be used in the liver and kidneys to filter out toxins and materials unusable by the body. It seems to me that the cleaner the water, the less "junk" or "toxins" the body would have to deal with. If water is not broken down in the stomach, then what does happen? I'd like to know......

I think perhaps the acidity level of distilled water is what might be a more important thing to look into. Does it disrupt ph levels in the body? I mean, we eat things that are acidic, don't we? Like tomatoes. I don't think I've heard anyone say not to eat any foods that are considered acidic. My next search I think will be to find out what happens when we eat acidic things and alkaline things. This might shed some light on the acidic levels of food and water/drinks and how they affect our bodies. Just some things to consider, unless you are not open to learning and are sticking with your belief no matter what...... =)

[Paxiled]

Of course water leaches.  All water does.  That's how spring water gets to be spring water, by coming down without much in the way of minerals as rain and then, through a long period of percolation (leaching) through rock it comes up as mineralized spring water.  Now, does it have time to leach in the body?  Got to leach some, that's what liquid does, but I don't know the exact amount.  If you say food stays around a long time, that gives water more time for leaching.  Don't know what the cellular level has to do with it, we're talking about minerals, and we know water leaches minerals.  As to Navy studies, anyone believing studies from the military, which can't possibly admit harm for fear of liability and protecting military toughness (see Agent Orange, radiation, lead, etc. the military has decided didn't harm the troops).  So we're still at square one, no good long-term research if one drinks distilled water regularly.  But again, I knew people who did it and they didn't seem the worse for it as they ate very well, but again, who knows how it would have been different had they done otherwise?  These were people who, for health reasons, were forced to use distilled water as they had to avoid certain minerals in spring water.   Interesting stuff, but don't know that there's a definitive answer out there.

[bigbralover]

Things i agree on by reading up to this point...

Once distilled water hits your stomach, the acid content is like zero on the PH scale, extremely acidic. Then what are the changes to the distilled water inside your stomach before it enters your the lower intestines and such. Sometimes food and water can stay in your stomach for a very long time, and that makes it highly suspect that distilled water would of retained any of it's leeching properties by the time it exits. This was also the point  my doctor made, is what do you think happens to distilled water when it hits your stomach acid chamber? He knows a little about bio-chemistry as a doctor and he thinks it's silly argument that distilled water leeches anything from the body, because it's the liver and kidneys that does the filtering. Water is simply an aid to digestion in his view, and he doesn't  believe distilled water can leech anything at the cellular level. If we can find out what the changes are to distilled water once it hits these chambers, then we can know what it's capable of doing, if anything.

The best research I have found are these two, one from the WHO, and other in favor of distilled water from the Canadian Water Association.

WHO
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutdemineralized.pdf

Canadian Association
http://www.cwqa.com/faq.php?section=cwqa&subsec=faq&question=3A

Cybernook
http://www.cyber-nook.com/water/DistilledWaterWHO.htm

Bascially if Distilled water doesn't leech at the cellular level, then the case is closed. All we would have to worry about is getting enough minerals from a balanced diet. The Electrolytes thing would be the lesser of the two evils in this debate, but I am always open to hear more about this. Those can be replaced quickly, as where replacing minerals in the bones and at cellular level, much longer. That part of the research is critical, IMO.

If you read what the WHO wrote, or if you read what the water association wrote by Lee Rozelle, not to mention the Canadian Water association, you would of seen it mentioned 3 times, that the official report of the US Navy from the top brass states that in 40 years of naval vessels out to see, no one ever experience long term health effects by drinking distilled water according to their records.

Reference: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Nutrition/Distilled-Water-for-
drinking/show/1251783

[lrbnx3]

I also found this site, which seems to make sense to me. However, I know you were looking for studies. It seems to me that a simple investigation of what happens in our bodies at the cell level would actually answer these questions. I believe I will be drinking only distilled water from now on.

http://www.precisionwatersystems.com/health.html

[lrbnx3]

I'm not sure if you will get this post because it looks like this thread is over 2 years old, but I am glad to see I am not alone in wanting to know the truth through the studies. My big concern is the same as yours. Have you, since 2010, found anymore evidence or research to help you get your answers?

Are the minerals from the earth usable by our cells? Or are the minerals from the earth too large and lifeless, therefore rendering them incompatible with the cells' needs? If the latter is the case, then the minerals would be rejected leaving a lot of accumulation of these minerals in our bodies. Does distilled water leach out only unusable minerals or as you asked, does it leach out at the cellular level?

I suggest you find the book "Water Can Undermine Your Health" by Dr N. W. Walker. I am going to read it because I found an excerpt from it explaining the answers we might be searching for. I hope this will help us.

[Paxiled]

I think the suggestion to put in the trace minerals was a good one.  There's a company named, oddly enough, Trace Minerals that has good quality products, but there are others, too.  Might solve your problem.  Worth a try, anyway.  You can get the macro minerals from a good diet, and adding the trace minerals would probably prevent leaching.  

[calicojack60]

I'm not that old yet, so it concerns me some. Right now, nobody down in the central valley drinks the water cause of pesticide residues and petro chemical stuff in the water. It's just crazy. Everybody is drinking bottled water. The amount of bottled water Costco sells in insane. Up where I live in the mountains, the wells are not contaminated yet, but they are often hard like mine and need to be filtered or distilled. My point also is that if I took your spring water and did a lab test of all the TDS in it, and then distilled my own water here and added the TDS levels your has, plus eletrolytes, I should have the same water as you. Science tells up that has to work. There is no divination or anything magical that comes out the ground. We should be able to create that easily with a TDS water meter and some TDS products in hand. However, I am not sure I want to drink what you are drinking. I am thinking TDS from 50 to 100 parts per million is safe and plenty as long as I have a good diet. I'm betting distiller marketing is going to be a booming business in the future, if it's get corrected. It needs to be certified by the government, and they need to research this with a grant to cover all the bases. Until then it seems distilled water will always have an asterisk. I am wondering if any universities are researching distilled water. If anyone knows, drop a post our way.

[Paxiled]

I fear you're right; no question we're running out of fresh water.  As I said, I sold five gallon jugs of distilled water for years to people who had sensitivities, and they were still alive and doing well.  Obviously they found a way to compensate.  We need a lobby of regular humans who want to know the basic things in life.  But as long as I can get regulated spring water, that's my choice.  Since I'm old, I'll be dead before we run out of water, but it would be nice if we were just a tad wiser about what's important.  Maybe you're the person to solve this.