Distilled Water Association

Water Education through Science and Engineering

DistilledWaterAssociation

Using Distilled Water with Food Preparation

By

If you are familiar with cooking in the kitchen then you already know that water is an essential ingredient when preparing most foods. For example, when you boil spaghetti in a pot you have to use water. When you drink tea or coffee you have to use water as the base and then mix it with the grinds or leaves from the extract. Water is everywhere in the kitchen. What many people may not realize is that the type of water you use can actually affect the way your food will taste. A layman chef will use ordinary tap water most of the time by just turning on the sink. One could argue that the bacteria in the tap water will get cooked out from the extreme heat it will be under; however, there may still be impurities left in the water. Distilled water will be free of all impurities, bacteria, waste and anything else that could inhabit water… making the food taste better!

For all of you that care about eating foods that tastes good, you are in luck because distilled water can actually make the food taste better. When you boil vegetables, they will taste fresher while preserving more of their natural color. This also applies to when you can fruits and vegetables for later consumption. If the can is filled with distilled water then the food won’t spoil as fast and will preserve a lot longer. As for coffee and tea, the flavor will taste nearly as rich as the gourmet beverages you buy at Starbucks. Not only that, but you won’t even need as many coffee grounds or tea leaves to make your beverage when you use distilled water. Then when it comes time to clean your dishes and cups, washing them all with distilled water will make sure all the germs are washed away without adding anymore new ones, and you need less soap to wash dishes too.

When it comes to preparing a mixed alcoholic beverage, many people don’t realize that mixing a drink with distilled water won’t require as much alcohol to make it taste great. That means people will have less of a chance of getting drunk after a few mixed drinks. If you are planning a party with your friends or family, then using distilled water is a great idea. You can even make ice cubes out of distilled water, which will look crystal clear and shiny because of its pureness. As you can see, distilled water should be a necessity in the kitchen for any chef or homemaker.

Benefits of Drinking Distilled Water

By

Distillation is the cleanest type of water purification there is. For awhile, there have been rumors that distilled water drained your body of minerals to make up for the water’s own lack of minerals. However, this myth is not factual and people need to understand that there are only benefits from drinking distilled water. There is no magic force that will drain your body. In fact, there is really nothing in the water at all, which means it is virtually impossible for it to hurt you in any way.

The best part about distillation is that it removes all of the toxins, waste, and other impurities from the water. It also removes the minerals, but you can get these from eating foods and vegetables. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about having a lack of minerals in your water. Besides, mineral water is a type of “hard water” that can damage your cardiovascular system if it is consumed too much. Distilled water is softer and lighter, which means it doesn’t cause any negative health effects or weigh you down. This results in having an increase in cellular energy and better lung function for proper breathing. Also, distilled water will help you digest your food faster than mineral water because it is lighter and will pass through you faster. You will notice an increase in weight loss and even a lower amount of stress than you are used to. People often don’t think about how their nutrition affects their mood, but they really do coincide with each other. If you drink distilled water then you will feel better than you ever have with any other water.

Distilled water has been used by people for cosmetic purposes as well. The idea is that when you take a regular hot shower, the hot temperature opens up the pores of your skin and lets in all of the impurities from the regular tap water. If you use an automatic distillation machine, then it will make all the running water in your house turn into distilled water. That way you can take showers using distilled water, which will allow only clean water to hit your skin. The results will be less acne, rashes, and skin irritations. Distillation machines only cost a few hundred dollars, while some of the bigger ones cost a few thousand dollars. It really depends on the size of your home, but the money is well worth it if you think of it as an investment into your health. If you have old pipes (over 30 yrs old) distillation for your entire house is not recommended because old pipes are made out of Iron, and distilled water can cause serious damage to iron.

Is Distilled Water Better than Deionized Water?

By

When it comes to drinking water, you will always want to choose distilled water over deionized water. Distilled water is a purification process that kills almost all of the bacteria and viruses that may exist in the water. Deionization only removes the ions and minerals from the water, but not the viruses and bacteria. Obviously, you don’t want to drink water with viruses in it or you else will get very sick. Besides, you cannot buy deionized water in your general supermarket anyways and it’s hard to even make it at home. Deionized water can likely be found in a home improvement store because it is more of an accessory than a food product. Scientists like to use it as a cooling agent in their experiments, but most people just use it for washing things. So, there is no doubt that distilled water is the better choice when it comes to choosing your drinking water.

You may be thinking, “What is the point of having deionization if the water it produces is not good for our bodies?” Deionization is typically used in combination with other purification methods. For example, if you wanted to turn salt water from the ocean into drinkable clean water, then you would need to deionize the water in order to remove the salt from it. Then you would need to use another purification method, like distillation, in order to remove the rest of the impurities and bacteria. Therefore, deionization does have its uses in the world of purification, but it is not meant to stand alone for producing drinkable water. However, if you like to wash your car and are tired of water spots made from regular tap water then deionized water can help. Since deionized water is very light weight because of its lack of minerals, it won’t leave any spots on your car and will wash right off. This same concept can apply when washing other objects, especially those made out of glass because they would normally show spots the most. Deionized water would make them looking spotless. By the way, Since distilled water is pure, you can also use it to wash without leaving any spots.

In a nutshell, distilled water works best with people and objectes, while deionized water works best with objects only. If you try to bath in deionized water then you still have to consider the bacteria that could get into the pores of your skin. Just because you are not ingesting the water, it doesn’t mean it can’t still get inside of you. Therefore, distilled water is what you will want to use for drinking and bathing.

Distilled Water: Glass Bottle Method

By

The glass bottle method of distillation is similar to the glass bowl method, but it has a few more advantages. For one thing, when the process is over you will already have the distilled water in a bottle and won’t have to worry about transferring it from a large bowl to a bottle. Also, the glass bottle method uses some different tools as well. Besides the stove, cooking pot and tap water, you will need duct tape, two glass bottles, and an ice pack. One of the glass bottles should have a curved neck on top, while the other can have an ordinary straight neck. You need to fill the straight necked bottle up with ordinary tap water. Leave about five inches of space from the water to the top of the bottle. Next, you need to connect the two bottles together by their necks using duct tape. Make it so the openings of the necks are interconnected in a way to where no water or air can get in or out.

Now you will want to take a cooking pot and fill it up with five gallons of water. After that, place it on the stove and turn on the burner. Let the water sit until it is boiling in the pot and then place the bottle with water inside the boiling water. The other connected bottle will be hanging off the side of the pot, which is okay. You will want to try to tilt the bottle of water at a 30 degree angle because this will help it evaporate better. You should have your hand on the other bottle to adjust the angle. Don’t let go of that bottle because the duct tape is likely going to break. Finally, take an ice pack and hold it to the empty bottle that you have already been holding. This will create a hot and cold effect that will allow the hot water to evaporate and condense into the cooler empty bottle. Continue this until you have enough distilled water inside the bottle you are holding.

The glass bottle method is not traditionally used, but some people find it more convenient using bottles rather than a glass bowl with the lid of a pot. Either method will work find because they both evaporate and condense the water, which is the basic idea behind distillation. But again, either method requires trigger work, with a lot of inconveniences. You’d be better off getting an automatic counter-top water distiller, which besides distillation, it also has a charcoal filter to help clear close to 100% of remaining pollutants.

The Rainwater Distillation Myth

By

Back in the old days, distillation would be done in one of two ways. People would either boil water over a fire or they would simply catch rainwater and then drink that. The rainwater method was a method that required the least amount of work because it involved simply capturing and containing the falling rain. The reason rainwater is similar to distilled water is because it evaporates and condenses just like in other distillation methods. The only difference is that nature does all the work on its own. By today’s standards, this might sound like a bad thing to do because of all the acid rain and contaminants in the air. But before mankind was involved in heavy industry, the air was clean and the water that fell down from the sky was pure. People would simply take large clean containers and leave them outside for catching rainwater. Once a container filled up with water, it would be left outside for an additional two days in order for the minerals to completely dissipate. Then the water would be stored in jugs or whatever containers they had available during the time period.

Rainwater can still be a good source for distillated water, but you will need to do some extra filtering in order to make sure the dirt particles and debris is completely out of the water. The minerals will already be gone from the natural raining process, so all that is left is for you to run the water through a filter after it is contained. You can choose any filtration method you want for this. You could buy a filtered mug or a filtration machine to filter water that you pour into it. Of course, the better option would be the machine, a water distiller, because it will do a more thorough job of cleaning the contaminants out of the water. Then, you will have a new source of distilled water that you won’t even need tap water or bottled water to produce. This will save you lots of money because you won’t ever have to buy water again, depending on the amount of rainwater you end up storing. If you live in a rainy area of the world like Seattle, Washington, then you can expect to store lots of water in no time. Best of all, you will be environmentally responsible by using rainwater as your distillation source. If more people around the world could learn from this method then perhaps no one would suffer from thirst ever again.