Hi All,

I've have also been seeking the truth about distilled water. I have found the subject to be more then a formidable opponent and also akin to something like who shot JFK! I see the billion dollar water industry has really muddied the waters with this debate leaving average folks in no mans land. With Billions to be made, there would indeed be a war of misinformation between bottled, tap, filtered and distilled water.

Since I am not a scientist, I like many can only research endlessly as many written reports, read countless water forums and try to sort through all the good points on both sides of this argument. However, while one size doesn't fit all, I know there are certain scientific facts about water that cannot be denied. I am more into the Science thing, and not the divine order water camp. For me, it's a huge waste of my time cause I am more like Sergeant Friday, just the facts Mamm.

We know for a fact that water is not perfect in nature, in fact in many parts of the world it's unfit to drink in wells, rivers, springs, etc. Not because of pollution totally, but because water is not subject to the exact same geology worldwide. For instance water lakes or streams around volcanoes can be very acidic. In other areas like certain deserts and such like where great salt beds are, water can be extremely alkaline. Both of these are provided by nature, yet drinking either would surely kill you.

I have been building and collecting the best links I can find on my distilled water page. I am not a fan or advocate so to speak. Distilled is just a word, nothing more. I built a homemade distiller so that I could make some at home. I have found other uses for it too like for dry runs through coffee pots and it's a good mouthwash among other things. It has many uses. However, I am a fan of the truth about water, and my goal is to just use or create the best water I can from scratch. In the old days nobody cared so much, but today with pollution the way it is, I believe learning the truth about water is critical. We never grew up thinking we needed to learn about water, we took it for granted.

My water is very hard, and this is the way it is in its natural state out of the ground well. Anyone who would tell me this is ok to drink because it is the way nature intended must be like Dubya, (Check my photos out - http://www.procyclingwomen.com/Distiller/Distiller.html
I'm am not duped easy, I went to college and I know how to study and be patient and persistence about finding the truth about things, if it's humanly possible. When I was a kid I remember going to a cousins house and seeing orange water come out of his faucet. I sure in the hell wasn't going to drink that!

This is one debate I would love to get to the bottom of and find the truth about once and for all. I realize some people do well on distilled water and others don't but that has more to do with their condition and how their body responds to distilled water. I know people who have grown up in many different parts of the world, and distilled water works great for some, it doesn't work for others. There might be something about the human condition and those who have evolved in certain geographic locations, but by pure science, I think we can find the truth about distilled water and it general effects on our overall health. I know in India westerners can get Deli Belly, but the locals seem to be immune and used to this tainted city water. In Bolivia westerners has also gotten quite ill, while locals have no problem drinking the same water.

However, I only have to learn enough to know water will affect me personally, since I am not responsible for anyone else, just me. It's my health to gamble with, so I have to sort this out with a fine toothcomb. Personally I have never drank city water or chlorinated water all my life, only well water which was much cleaner in the valley then my well now here in the mountains. I also stopped using Fluoride toothpaste over 15 years ago and my dentist said my teeth are in outstanding condition. However, he peddles theFluoride soapbox for the status quo, dentistry association, etc.

This is what I have boiled it down too. The acidic equation is the least of my concerns. I have done quite a bit of reading on that one. Distilled water is not acidic until it reacts with carbon dioxide. I have tested it many times after I have made it and indeed its runs anywhere from 4.8 to 6 on the PH readings. There is a chart of acidic foods on another page, and I believe things like sodas are even worse. I think soda like a Pepsi would run around 3, I believe without doing some checking to confirm, but we sure in the hell have drank a lot of Pepsi all our lives. For the soda crowd over 40 years old, how many Pepsi's have you drank? Scary to think about, and since my athletic days, I don't drink that much water anymore.

They say drink 8 cups of water a day, bull, I never drank that much water except during my days as an athlete. If you want to count everything that has water in it, then yes possible 8 cups, and also in the heat of summer outside, we will drink more. If I get up and drink a cup of coffee and two cups of OJ, that is three cups right there, and if I drink a Pepsi or another cup of coffee later after dinner, then I already have 6 cups of things with water in it. However drinking 8 cups of water a day in the winter without much physical activity, never. That's nuts! You body calls for water and you will know usually, but I do agree when exercising one needs to be ahead of the game in drinking water and electrolytes.

Let's get back to the acidic thing. I have read a number of people and even a bio-chemist who says he makes distilled water for himself and his family. He puts a quarter of a teaspoon of baking soda into a gallon of distilled water to bring it up to a neutral 7 PH or higher. That's what I do too. However, also he puts electrolytic solution of trace elements in his water and Potassium citrate. I have heard other use a small amount of Sea Salt , Celtic salt or Himalayan crystal salt to their distilled water to add back in trace elements. Also for those who worry about conductivity or the electrolyte argument, this adds some back in and I believe Sea Salt is noted to have trace elements and is much better then processed table salt . Now of course, now you argue it is no longer distilled water. Yes, but I already said it's only a word applied to water. I am not hung up on the word distilled.

The argument that distilled water is not acidic enough to make any difference is a good one. I would like to hear more on this from expects. It is true while distilled water is anywhere from 4 to 6 PH, you stomach acid is like zero and if you ever burped bigtime and got a nice shot of that, it really burns. Compared to that, acidic distilled water is very mild. When it hits you stomach, it changes before it goes into your intestines. I would like to hear more about what happens to this level of acidity when it hits your stomach from a scientist or expert which would put to rest this acidity argument once and for all.

I am inclined to believe that if your diet leans more toward alkaline foods and not acidic foods, then this intake of acidic water would have little effect, but if we have taken that out with baking soda to start with, then I would think this acidic argument would be one of the least to worry about. When people talk about their bodies becoming acidic over time from drinking distilled water, I wonder if their diet leans towards acidic things or towards alkaline foods?

However even my doctor doesn't believe the tiny amount of acidity in distilled water would matter since your stomach is much greater in that regard, and it's not adding much. However drinking acidic water doesn't make sense if you drink Pepsi and other things that are acidic like coffee. So why add to it? Right, so then just use some baking soda to bring to a neutral PH, but also distilled water that is a bit on the alkaline side might be good to buffer out some acidic things like when you make OJ from concentrate or your Coffee for instance. These are just my thoughts on it.

The biggest argument seems to be the minerals and electrolytes. However electrolytes are some of the minerals, although there are other minerals to be considered. On the Electrolytes, the arguments go that in time the body will be depleted of electrolytes, and that they are harder to replace them, once lost. That sounds like Bullcrap to me. I used to be an athlete, and regular mineral water only lasted for about two hours before they body starts to scream for electrolytes. However, all I have to do is pull out the water mixed with Cytomax and like magic, I feel better almost immediately. I also read accounts of athletes using distilled water with these cutting edge electrolyte mixes that are powder like Cytomax or various newer electrolyte supplements. They claim the distilled water speeds the assimilation of those products for performance. That would be a positive point it seems.

That seems to jive with doctors who say that distilled water allowed the liver or kidneys to function more efficiently, but I need more Science to prove these claims. They are only claims so far that I read. However, are these supplements powders organic or considered inorganic? However, these were scientifically produced in the lab on the bleeding cutting edge to work with water to assimilate into the body very quickly for performance. Obviously while nature provided some minerals in water, it's far from perfect as we have seen from various water sources and you can judge my well water is far from perfect by the photos on my distilled water page. http://www.procyclingwomen.com/Distiller/Distiller.html


So perfect water for drinking would involve investigation and Science to match our bodies, since water in nature is often far from perfect. You have heard of the healing water of Lourdes or other parts of the world like in England and such. It's got to be rather obvious that in some instances nature provides some pretty decent water fit for human consumption but in many instance, nature does not create perfect drinking water, or else the ocean water might be fit to drink! See, this argument about nature's water seems stupid to me. Sounds more like crystal worship then science. Don't ask me what time it is, I live for that!

So back to the argument that we lose electrolytes over time? So big deal? What's the point? If those electrolytes can be replaced very quickly on a regular basis, then what does it matter? I had read that you body diverts electrolytes for digestion since distilled water doesn't have any, suggesting a change in metabolism. In other words the way your body deals with water and food. I would like to hear more science on this, and no divination talk please. I am fed up with divination talk, so chill on that stuff. Sergeant Friday just wants the facts Mamm, please! How important or critical is the electrolyte argument?

Well, if one puts a tiny amount of Sea Salt in his distilled water, then when it enters your body, that would make null and void the metabolism argument, and also give you trace elements, but again I am not sure any of this really matters since especially those who are active and athletes drink stuff like Gatorade and Cytomax which delivers a big load of electrolytes to sustain the body conductivity. The electrolyte argument might be akin to something like the acidic argument in the sense that it's not a big factor or a significance amount to make much difference. Reason seems to be by common sense and logic is that if you are very active, then you will need more then water like Gatorade.

You body will cry out for it or like in cycling, you will hit the wall or get the bonkers. However, if you are not athletic anymore or more sedimentary like working behind a computer in an air conditioned office, it's likely you are not drinking much water either, but rather drinking juice, coffee, Pepsi and a number of other things but not much water. In that case, the argument is still moot it seems cause you are not drinking enough distilled water to be missing many electrolytes. If you don't drink it much, then you don't miss much, right?

Some of this stuff, common sense applies, although one must allow for science, investigation, testing, and results. I have read Kennedy, Zona, Mercola and a few others, but there are only a handful of these guys who have denounced the use of distilled water, while many, many more experts seem to support it including the Andrew Weil, guru of the Wellness institute and the Mayo Clinic. However, clearly I would like to hear more testimony and science about 4 things concerning water, and that is ionization, pH, polarization, and oxidation potentials.

I do know bananas contain potassium, and many foods carry various electrolytes, so it seems when one is active and eats a good diet, distilled water would seem less of a problem in this regard. Perhaps it's more important to someone who doesn't eat much or drink much of anything. Then it's not about quantity, but about quality, exactly what goes into your mouth and down the hatch! Athletes crave junkfood, they need the salt, chips and such beside those sports drinks. I've got a hunch the electrolytes equation of distilled water can be addressed either way, by diet or by adding to the water like some do, those tiny amounts of sea salts. In fact athletes probably put even more in their water for drinking when just working outside or something like that, anyone who is really active.

Let's move on to the minerals, oh the minerals! Praise be the minerals, and don't forget the trace elements, minerals? Ha! Ok, Electrolytes are stuff like sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate. Minerals are stuff like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, and iodine. How much do we get from water and does it really matter? I have read over and over that we can't get enough minerals out of water to meet the daily RDA needs of a typical diet. Consider that many of us don't drink much water anyway, that really seems true since we would probably be spending all our time drinking water and getting water intoxication sickness.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I don't drink a lot of water, but if I eat right, I can almost eat anything I want on occasion. When I used to work out a lot, beside replacing electrolytes with stuff like Cytomax, eating good is what made me feel good, and I always used a juicer too, which also made me feel really good at times, although its a huge hassle, but a great way to get vitamins and minerals, even some electrolytes.

The arguments about TDS, inorganic and organic is interesting. First there is the argument about if we need inorganic minerals in our water, and the argument about how well your body assimilates organic as opposed to inorganic. The distilled water camp says that we don't get anywhere near enough minerals from water, and this makes sense to me. Also they say the body does not assimilate minerals from water as good as from food because they are inorganic. This one i am still on the fence with, cause I wonder about that. They call them rocks, well, we don't need the rocks, I agree, just the minerals, but not the junk, dirt, or excess. However I see there is little discussion or science presented about how well the body assimilates dissolved inorganic minerals.

If the body does indeed assimilate inorganic minerals from water just fine, then so what? Would that really matter? I know that science makes these powders to easily assimilate in water for sports drinks which contain some of the same electrolytes found in water along with some minerals, but I am not sure if that matters much, or if that is considered inorganic too, of a type since it was concocted in a lab somewhere. Its not natural either, but it works very well for athletes.

Reason I say it doesn't seem to matter is again, if we are not drinking much water, then clearly we are not getting our RDA even remotely from water, but from food. Even if you body does assimilate minerals from water just fine, it doesn't seem to have much bearing on the argument, neither for athletes or sedimentary drinkers of water. I have talked to lots of people, doctors, druggists, and none of them say they drink much water, but they like most of us drink the same crap like coffee, juices, milk, Pepsi, and other things. We drink more of that then water.

On water, probably many of us force ourselves to drink two cups of water a day of just straight water when its not summer of we are not working out much. So these arguments have to hold up under scrutiny and address all these conditions, and so far I can see that they do not when it comes to denouncing distilled water, although in the broader content, the word distilled is becoming of less significance.

However, the term distilled when applied to water would seem of great important if the last point here could be proven. That is one of the biggest beat downs against distilled water, and that is that it leeches minerals from your bones. I have read this debunked a million times against guys like Kennedy, Zona and Mercola. However, I have kept an open mind, and the Bogyman says this and that, but Sergeant Friday says, pleassssseeeeee Mamm, just the facts!!

The argument seems to stem from the cellular issue. Many experts say this is nonsense, and that distilled water cannot leech minerals from cellular structures, but that it does cleanse excess minerals and toxins out of the body, how convenience! This seems like a punch line and aggravates the other camp I am sure. What gets me, whoever is right about this, both sides have a winning point that is positive. If it does not leech minerals from the body, then drinking distilled water would seem ok.

However if it does leech minerals from the body, then the camp that says its great for detox has a winning argument and if nothing else, what a wondering thing to know that you can drink distilled water a few times a year, and it will rid the body of toxins, heavy metals, excess minerals, etc. If it does not leech minerals, then it should be cleared to go forward with the next argument held against it, and I don't believe there are anymore issues. So then if it doesn't not leech minerals and does not detox, and those are just bogus divination arguments, then distilled water could be safe to drink long term as alternative clean source of water in some areas like the mountains where VOC's are not in the well water, but just the mineral problems like what I have.

I have read stories of those who claimed to drink distilled water for 30 years and they said their bones are as big and healthy as younger people. I have also read distilled water has reduced the bone size on some people after five years, but from the cases I read they were drinking acidic distilled water, where the blood was acidic to some degree and the minerals being dumped into that didn't help their metabolism.

I have read about those taking vitamins and Calcium supplements and they still lost bone mass, but how much of that could be accounted for by simply ageing and the normal decrease in bone mass? Were they active, did they exercise, what was their diet like? How much distilled water did they drink? I have also heard that cooking with distilled water leeches minerals from food, but if you are cooking a stew, and you ingest the distilled water in the stew along with the stew, how is it that you are losing anything? All good questions!

I have heard of distilled water, filtered water, Ionized Water , bottled water, mineral water, smart water, raw water, and half a dozen other types of water, many are probably quackery from the divine crowd who think water has some special order to it beside H20. Since water isn't hardly drinkable anymore anywhere to be sure, creating water for consumption should not be a magic secret. We should of all learned this very well in high school, instead of it being something akin to who shot JFK! As they say, the truth is out, and the truth shall set you free!

While the electrolyte argument is interesting, the more pressings one that interest me are trace minerals and minerals in general as far as leeching from the body. Reason being, you will reach a dead end if you are not a scientist. You get to a point where you have to take what others say at face value. I think the best thing to do is keep searching and reading, and eventually you should be able to reach a safe conclusion.

Below I will provide some of the best links where either the written report or debate were interesting and compelling on both sides, although at times, I get lost in it because I don't understand the science of what they are talking about. I would hope that number of top scientists could put an end to this debate, and do it in laymen's language so we could all understand. Personally I have never found such a formidable topic as water, and I never knew I would have to go through this much trouble to find out the truth about distilled water. While I am getting closer to the truth, it still eludes me on some of these issues, or perhaps I have it, but I cannot verify it, since i am not a scientist.

Anyway here we go. If you want to read some of these excellent debates, and you have sometime to offer, I haven't found anything better out there yet on the Internet then these below. Check them out and then I would love to hear your thoughts if you have something to add besides taking sides, and attacking others. That is not productive, as Sergeant Friday says, just the facts Mamm!! If you have any links you can offer that are quite good, post them so I can add them to my pages. I like to hear evidence on either side.

Because this would be clipped for being too long, I created a page for my comments and questions. The link below..

http://www.procyclingwomen.com/Distiller/Debate.html