Is distilled water good for you?

"I have done well over 3000 mineral evaluations using a combination of blood, urine and hair tests in my practice. Almost without exception, people who consume distilled water exclusively, eventually develop multiple mineral deficiencies. Those who supplement their distilled water intake with trace minerals are not as deficient but still not as adequately nourished in minerals as their non distilled water drinking counterparts even after several years of mineral supplementation."

"The ideal water for the human body should be slightly alkaline and this requires the presence of minerals like calcium and magnesium. Distilled water tends to be acidic and can only be recommended as a way of drawing poisons out of the body. Once this is accomplished, the continued drinking of distilled water is a bad idea."

Zoltan P. Rona MD MSc
The Joy of Health

Drinking only pure distilled water over the long term is probably not a good idea. However, the proper use of pure H²O will not lead to mineral deficiencies, but will improve ones mineral absorption. The body needs a rich balance of organic calcium compounds. Distilled water may be made into tea using calcium rich herbs in which you can dissolve vitamin C tablets to make great "pick me up" drinks. Even more nutritious are the juices from live fermented foods like our homemade sauerkraut. Cabbage is a great source of the organic calcium complex needed for dissolving fats, neuromuscular activity, and calming the brain.

Please try our homemade sauerkraut, the effect on your mind and body is immediate, you feel good! Animals have always eaten fermented fruits and vegetables in the natural world, Man has too. Live fermented food restores the digestive track to the enzyme producing system Mother Nature intended. Proper absorption of nutrients makes a person calm, more able to resist the temptations of eating bad food.

A water distiller can produce the fundamental ingredient for making healthy food and drink anywhere.
We have a link list, Aqualover Lifeforce Links, my favorite site is by Dr. Stanley S. Bass.
I hope that some of these ideas may improved your health and brighten your days.

Mark Adams
Aqualover Webmaster

"Water hardness (inorganic minerals in solution) is the underlying cause of many, if not all, of the diseases resulting from poisons in the intestinal tract. These (hard minerals) pass from the intestinal walls and get into the lymphatic system, which delivers all of its products to the blood, which in turn, distributes to all parts of the body. This is the cause of much human disease."

Dr. Charles Mayo
Mayo Clinic

"Distillation involves the process of vaporizing water by boiling it. The steam rises, leaving behind most bacteria, viruses, chemicals, minerals, and pollutants from the water. The steam is then moved into a condensing chamber where it is cooled and condensed to become distilled water. We believe that only steam-distilled water should be consumed."

Prescription for Nutritional Healing
James F. Balch, M.D. & Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C.

"Let me classify the nine kinds of water. They are hard water, raw water, boiled water, soft water, rain water, snow water, filtered water, de-ionized water, and distilled water. All are kinds of water - but remember this: only one of these nine kinds of water is good for you. Distilled water is water which has been turned into vapor, so that all its impurities are left behind. Then, by condensing, it is turned back to pure water. It is the only water which is
pure - the only water free from all impurities".

The Choice Is Clear
Dr. Allen E. Banik

"Distillation provides us with the purest water obtainable . . . by all means make the smart choice in the type of water you drink. There should only be one choice - PURE! And pure means distilled."

Fit For Life II: Living Health
Harvey & Marilyn Diamond

"Even tap water invariably contains a variety of poisons such as chlorine, chloramine, asbestos, pesticides, fluoride, copper, mercury, and lead. The best way to remove all these contaminants is by distilling."

How To Save Your Teeth: Toxic-Free Preventative Dentistry
Dr. David Kennedy, D.D.S.

"The home distiller is the best method and also the best way to get distilled water. It is the only reliable home water purification for taking fluoride out of the water."

Fluoride: The Aging Factor
Dr. John Yiamoyuiannis, Ph.D.

"The greatest damage done by inorganic minerals - plus waxy cholesterol and salt - is to the small arteries and other blood vessels of the brain (75% water). Hardening of the arteries and calcification of blood vessels starts on the day you start taking inorganic chemicals and minerals from the tap water into your bodies."

The Shocking Truth About Water
Dr. Paul Bragg, N.D., Ph.D.

"The only type of water that seems to be fit for consumption is distilled water, which is water that is absolutely free of any minerals or chemicals. Distilled water is made pure by first being heated to the point of vaporization, so that all of the 'impurities' are left behind. Then, the water vapor is condensed. The process results in water that is in its purest form. Distillation is the single most effective method of water purification."

A Diabetic Doctor Looks at Diabetes
Peter A. Lodewick, M.D.

sci.med.nutrition

Subject: Distilled water
Date:     1999/09/10

Hi,
I regularly drink distilled water rather than tap water because the idea of
drinking chlorine and fluoride doesn't appeal to me.  For a while, I had been
drinking 'spring' waters, like Volvic and so on, but after hearing on the news
that many of these bottled waters had been found to have something wrong
w/them (I can't remember the specifics), I switched exclusively to distilled
water.  What I am wondering is if anyone knows if I am losing a significant
amount of minerals by drinking distilled water or causing any sort of
nutritional deficit.  I do take a multi-day vitamin.  Thank you.

 Michelle and/or Jason <mjsmit@gte.net>

Here in Ontario the Niagara Escarpment draws a heart attack line on the
epidemiological map: people on the uphill side drink softwater, and have high
rates of heart disease; people on the downhill side to the east drink hard
water, and do better.

Drinking distilled water is unhealthy, unnatural, and just plain nuts.

      David Lloyd-Jones <icomm5@netcom.ca>

Hogwash. Provide some scientific evidence for your statement that drinking
distilled water is unhealthy.

     Chris Mangum <mangumc@themangumgroup.com>

the diff between hard and soft water is maybe 15 grains of hardness(per
gallon). How can that be enough diff in minerals to do anything?

       jwwright <jwwright@livingston.net>

"Grains of hardness" is a measure for laundry use. The real question, it
seems to me, is what is the difference in particular ions. I don't have a
rundown, but it is at minimum sure to be a difference in the tens or hundreds
of milligrams per litter for potassium, calcium and magnesium.

This translates, both through drinking water and strained through vegetables,
into mineral doses as large or larger than those we take supplements to get.
And it is dosed steadily from before birth, unlike the supplements people
typically start buying in middle age.

Seems like plenty of difference to do things.

Quite apart from all of this, hard water tastes better than soft water or
distilled, and pleasure is one of the important elements of nutrition.

      David Lloyd-Jones <icomm5@netcom.ca>

Let me tell you about my tap water in Georgia.
It's from Lake Lanier, a haven for motorized water sports!
There is also the runoff and waste products.

Volatile organic chemicals (VOC) have lower boiling points than tap water, for e.g., benzene.
The small hole used in water distillers to vent VOC is actually not very effective.
The carbon filter also on water distillers works better.

I ask that you try this VOC experiment yourself:

Using a water distiller with the carbon filter removed, start a batch and put the first distilled 4 oz. in a cup.
The taste of this cup will tell you the level of VOC in your tap water.
The first boiled off 4 oz. of my tap water in Atlanta has a sickening taste.
You can discard the first portion of distilled water, improving the purity of the batch.

Starting with nearly pure H2O, you can add nutrients back for any preferred taste.
Only pure water works to grow yogurts and other cultures needed for wonderful health.

Life Long and Prosper - Mark Adams

   Mark Adams  <mark@aqualover.com>

Most tap water (at least in the US) is nasty, brown-tinged, smelly stuff with a
disgusting taste. In addition to minerals, it contains materials from rotting
water pipes and God knows what else.
We finally got a watercooler at work because the fridge was cluttered with
bottles of water - nobody can drink the smelly stuff from the tap. Except for
communities with relatively new water pipes and a good source of well or
spring water, the water industry needs not worry about losing profits.
If the tapwater is brown and tastes slimy, and the bottled water is clean,
people will always go for the more palatable stuff.

      Annette C. Hollmann <ah690549@bcm.tmc.edu>

I bought a countertop water distiller. That way I can avoid most of the
carcinogenic pollutants found in tap water. If this were 1699AD instead of
1999AD, I might go for some other kind of water, but here is the biggest
selling point for distilled water: you distill 4 gallons of water, and then you
look at the sludge that is left behind. I don't want to drink that toxic sludge.
think to myself that I have a big bottle of pure clear water, and a residue of
toxic sludge. I have a choice. I drink the pure clear water, or I take the toxic
sludge and stir it back into the clear water and restore it back to the tap
water I started with. (You have to see the toxic sludge to appreciate it). I say,
"Thanks, but no thanks." I realize that distilled water has no minerals, but
rain water has no minerals either (other than what is absorbed from the
smog). I can take a mineral supplement that does not include Cadmium,
PCBs, Dioxin, etc., to make up for the lack of minerals in the distilled water
I drink.
Bottled water is a joke, because the polycarbonate plastic bottles leech
toxins into the water that impart a plastic taste and cause birth defects. Give
me distilled water any day, and I can get my minerals (healthy ones only)
from a supplement for a few dollars a month. Welcome to the toxic sludge
era. All of the Farmer's Almanac folklore about distilled water "leeching"
minerals out of our bodies is obsolete. That whole concept is nonsense
anyway. The human body is not a block of road salt. Minerals don't get
"leeched out" by distilled water. That is a silly superstition.
I love the taste of distilled water. I love the idea that it doesn't contain
chlorine, fluoride, cadmium, PCBs, etc., etc. It is pure, crystal clear H2O, and
I can take mineral supplements to ensure that my mineral intake is optimized
without risk of pollutants.

        Michael <zoltron@netcom.ca>

 i picked this up at:
 http://wilkes.edu/~eqc/hard1.htm#sources

 Water hardness is classified by the U.S. Department of Interior.

 If the water has a hardness of 10 grains per gallon, it will contain about 80
 mg/liter of sodium after being softened in an ion exchange water softener if
 all hardness minerals are removed.

 I use distilled to establish a known lack of salt in my water.

        jwwright <jwwright@livingston.net>

 I soften my water with potassium chloride, just in case it is better for the
 environment near my septic tank.  It had 11 grains of hardness. After we
 installed the softener, I had to double my blood pressure medicine doses,
 presumably due to the magnesium it took out of my diet.
 I am now down to lower medication levels, but only after losing weight and
 supplementing with magnesium.
(Editor's Note: He is saying  potassium chloride is bad for his heart.)

        Martin E. Lewitt <lewitt@swcp.com>

Michelle,
Distilled water is safe, pure and good for you. End of story.
You get all the minerals you need from a well balanced diet.
Water is a natural flushing agent and the best of all for purifying your body, so
why try to purify your system with POLLUTED water, which is what
chlorinated and fluoridated water is.
Paul Bragg, one of the worlds most famous health professionals drank nothing
but distilled water for most of his life, and lived fit and healthy into his 90's.
(And only died due to a swimming accident. Imagine, still swimming and
active in your 90's.)

So, ignore the doomsayers and keep on doing what you are doing.
Good Luck - Balt.

       Baltazar Zane <bzane@biosys.net>