Drinking Distilled Water

Any water that has gone through purification by distillation is referred to as distilled water. Distillation is done by different methods, but one thing they have in common is that they separate water’s components depending on the respective boiling points. So basically, the water is brought to a boil. Once the water’s chemicals are boiled off they are rounded up and discarded; and after evaporation any substances left over are likewise cast aside. The water that is thereafter kept is more pure than the original water.

People want to know if they can drink distilled water and the answer is that in most cases, yes you can. Seeing that it has been purified, it is obviously cleaner than it was in its initial state. So yes, distilled water is safe to drink. However, the downside is that this water has been stripped of its natural minerals. So if you want the minerals present in water then you may wish to drink something other than water that has gone through distillation. But if the water initially had toxic compounds in it, such as heavy metals, then you may want to opt for the distilled form instead.  It is therefore better to still drink distilled water and if you want the minerals, then you can easily add them to distilled water for very cheap (less than a penny per glass).

If distilled water is purchased from a grocery store, seeing that it was derived from drinking water, it should be considered safe for drinking. But be careful of any distilled water that comes from other sources as this may not be safe for human consumption. As an example; if water has been distilled that came from an industrial source it may still hold enough impurities from the cheap plastic containers to be deemed unsafe for drinking.

One dangerous situation could also be where water was distilled using equipment that was contaminated. These contaminants can seep out of the tubing or glass during distillation, causing unwanted and potentially dangerous chemicals to enter the water. When distillation is done commercially it is safe, but the same cannot be said for “home based” methods, often referred to as moonshine distillation unless of course, you buy water distiller machine. Bottom line is this: commercially distilled water such as that in grocery stores or water that has been distilled through a water distiller can be considered safe.

There are also many other uses for distilled water, however that is another article for another day.  But as stated above, if you are consider using distilled water for drinking purposes, you are well advised to only do so when it has been distilled by commercial methods , is sold in places like grocery or health food stores, or if it’s made at your home through a water distiller.

We have heard about distilled water right from our childhood but other than those that have studied science, most of us are not quite sure about either how it is manufactured or of what use it is. So, let us take a quick tour through this uncharted terrain about how distilled water is made and, more importantly, whether it is safe to drink it.

Well, distilled water, as its name implies, is manufactured through distillation which is a process where non-distilled water is boiled and the vapor is condensed to obtain distilled water. By boiling, volatile impurities and gases are removed and by discarding residue remaining in the container in which the non-distilled water is boiled, all solid and hence insoluble impurities are also left out. What we get after condensing the vapor is pure distilled water. If anyone is interested in increasing the purity of the distilled water, repeated distillation could be resorted to.

The first question that might creep in the minds of the uninitiated could be whether distilled water is safe to drink. It is, without a shade of doubt safe to drink – one would never fall sick after drinking distilled water, but, firstly devoid as it is of soluble salts present in tap water, it would taste a little insipid. However, many people cannot deny the fresh taste of distilled water and in fact, many people learn to love the taste within a day and never being able to go back to drinking regular water. Secondly, as already mentioned; distilled water, just like reverse osmosis, does not have any minerals such as those of calcium, magnesium and iron in it and would therefore be not as “beneficial” as natural water that contains those. However, there should not be any concerns about whether distilled water is safe to drink or not, especially because over 95% of all minerals consumed by humans comes from foods, not water.

There is another benefit of drinking distilled water. If a person is on a detoxification program, drinking distilled water regularly during the course of the program helps the body to get rid of toxic elements faster.