Distilled Water

[Johnny_L.A]

Is it safe to drink distilled water? Why, or why not?

[Yossarian]

Distilled water does make some nasty coffee. So, from personal experience, I’ll testify that it won’t kill you.

But, it has been my understanding that it is probably a little unsafe to drink distilled water (though I suppose it depends on how much you drink). Water is a powerful polar solvent, and natural waters that have been in contact with Earth materials have chemistry that reflects this: possibly high levels of Ca, Na, Mg, CO[sub]3[/sub], Cl, SO[sub]4[/sub], etc. So, if you drink distilled (i.e., ion-free) water, it may seek to achieve equilibrium with your innards and cause you some problems.

Mostly, though, I think it just tastes bad… which is because of the lack of dissolved ionic species.

[Spritle]

you can drink distilled water. It’s just tasteless (as in no flavor) and gets boring. You get lot’s of ions from what you eat, so you don’t really need to worry about ion loss. Further, you have active transport systems that work to keep some ions in dis-equilibrium. As before, it has very little taste and doesn’t even quench your thirst as well as tap water or filtered water.

If you drank distilled water only and ate nothing for a while (a few days or so) as in using distilled water for a water fast diet, you might encounter some of the problems that Pantellerite mentioned.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Okay, I found a cite for the source of the “drinking distilled water can kill you” Urban Legend (because it is a borderline UL, you know).

http://dencity.com/bombina/Distilled.html

According to the Longman Illustrated Dictionary of Biology, 1985:

“Osmosis is the process by which water passes through a semi-permeable membrane from a solution of low concentration of salts to one of high concentration …”

This applies to distilled water in that you have an extremely low (if not zero) concentration of salts and other minerals in distilled water. A frog’s cells, on the other hand are chock-full of salts and enzymes and minerals - in short, highly concentrated. The cell membrane of a frog cell, and indeed, one of any animal, is water-permeable, allowing the distilled water to cross over into the cells in an attempt to equalize the concentration of substances on either side of the cell wall. The pressure will build up more and more until the cell pops.

If a frog is exposed to distilled water on a consistent basis, then it will eventually die.

http://www.solarsolns.com/Aqua_Cones/Distillation/body_distillation.html

Both claims hinge on the fact that distilled water is pure, and pure water is a gentle but potent solvent, easily absorbing a wide variety of substances. Some claim that drinking distilled water flushes your system of toxins, while others say that over time it depletes your body of essential minerals by flushing those out, as well.

In our view, distilled water is fine for drinking under normal conditions. Our only concern is the circumstance of drinking only distilled water and not eating for an extended period. It is known that drinking any water in large quantities without adequately replacing electrolytes (through eating food) can result in the brain being starved of the ions it needs to function.

Okay. So frogs die if they are kept in distilled water because the water they’re kept in is their only access to certain minerals, and if the water doesn’t have those minerals, they’ll die. People jump to the conclusion that this means drinking distilled water is deadly for people, too. However, it’s only dangerous for people if you drink only distilled water and don’t eat food, too, such as if you’re fasting for religious reasons.

Lots of people buy jugs of distilled water at the grocery store to drink, and I have yet to hear any kind of consumer alert telling us that that’s dangerous in the long term.

And I don’t see anything on the Web that says so, either, at least, not from people who don’t have health food axes to grind.

[Patty_O_Furniture]

I have a distilling machine at home, the teat of which I regularly suckle. Because distilled water lacks that unique petro-chemical flavor of my tap water, I would indeed say that it “tastes” better by virtue of having no taste at all.

After distilling one gallon of water, opening the distilling chamber releases a noxious cloud of gasses & there is crusty sediment all over the bottom of the chamber. And that is what I am supposed to drink?