Is It Harmless For Humans To Consume Distilled Water?

By Author: Jo Alelsto
Total Articles: 405
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Water is an essential substance on earth. You can come up with a very thick book just discussing the importance of water in industries and life systems and entire civilization as a whole. In fact, what makes earth a hospitable place is water. About three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered in water like the oceans, seas, and lakes. Then again the bigger concern is the unavailability of potable water. Water exists freely in the environment, but much of it is not suitable for human consumption.

When humans began to discern the need for safe drinking water, water purification became a vital process. Much of water that exists in nature is locked within life-sustaining systems like streams and oceans, and it is impossible to extract pure water from these systems. Water being an effective solvent would dissolve minerals and organic matter that even the purest water can quickly become contaminated upon exposure to the environment with inorganic minerals, organic substances, particulates, dissolved gas, sediments, and microorganisms. All these impurities make water inappropriate for any form of human use.

Archeological ...
... evidence has it that water treatment dates back as early as 2000 BC when ancient Egyptians heated water under the sun or had glowing iron dipped into it. There was also filtration process involving sand back then. From the crude ways of the past to the inclusion of sophisticated purification systems of the present, water treatment has always been an important process. While general filtration and sterilization systems make water safe for general consumption, the need for high grade water in many industrial sectors demand the need for state of the art procedures. Today, we have a number of pure water in form of laboratory, autoclave, distilled, ultra pure, and demineralized water.

Water distillation is one of the popular processes of water treatment involving removal of trace minerals. Hence, distilled water is not only devoid of organic substances but also does not contain minerals. It is in the league of pure and deionized water.

However, there are experts that say drinking water that does not contain minerals is not safe. According to them the body fluids hold electrolytes, ions that come from minerals, which are important for normal functioning and fluid balance in cells.

Distilled drinking water is more expensive than typical bottled water and it is advertised to be the safest, most germ-free water but does not receive approval from some health-wise experts because of the very quality it possesses, its pureness. According to them, very pure water can cause mineral deficiency by leaching minerals from the body. They say that water without minerals would dissolve minerals in the body and flush them out of the system efficiently. This thing does not happen when taking in ordinary water.

There is also a question of the sterilization of water. Even though companies can successfully remove bacteria during the intricate process of treatment, containers and bottles may not have undergone the same thorough process. What happens is that contaminated bottles render the water treatment process useless. According to experts, this is a possibility.

But are these claims even plausible?

Let's get this one straight. You may not buy distilled water because it's a little more expensive and not because it is going to drain you of minerals. Distilled water does not leach your body of important minerals and it is no better and no worse than mineral water. You can drink distilled water without becoming ill and it is perfectly safe. Anyway, you don't acquire minerals from water you drink but from the food you eat. But you may opt for less expensive forms of processed water.

Nonetheless, there are applications that particularly need high grade water. Automotive, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological applications require water that is devoid of microorganisms and minerals.
Jo is a writer for 'The-Water-Company.com' (http://www.the-water-company.com), a reputable UK based high quality water manufacturer for over thirty years, producing products like deionized water and demineralized water to a wide range of customers in Europe, UK and the rest of the world. If your business has a distilled water supply needs or if you would like to obtain more details on the different water products then have a look at The-Water-Company.com.