Short-term YES; long-term NO

“I now choose to drink water, where I used to drink anything (usually Coke or DR. Pepper) to avoid water.”

Soda is made using distilled water!

Perhaps simply charcoal filtering your tap water would have been enough!

My concern with distilled water is that the water structure is altered and may negatively react in the body. I firmly believe that distilled water is hazardous unless it is returned to its proper molecular structure. Furthermore, I think it would take more than simply adding minerals or alkaline greens to make it safe to consume.

In your case, I imagine your body had a build up of minerals from years of hard tap water ingestion, and switching for 6 months may have been required to leach out the excess mineral build up, but I would think after that time frame a switch to filtered tap water would be better in the long run.

In closing, short-term use of distilled water is fine, but not for long-term use!