Re: The Great Distilled Water Debate

Perhaps the best research I have seen against the use of drinking distilled water is this report by the WHO. However, several researchers don't believe it's a credible report, at least not enough to disprove the use of Distilled water. One of the best rebuttals to the article was done by the Canadian Water Association, which follows.

WHO
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutdemineralized.pdf


Canadian Association
http://www.cwqa.com/faq.php?section=cwqa&subsec=faq&question=3A


Cybernook
http://www.cyber-nook.com/water/DistilledWaterWHO.htm


Another take on this is given by a guy who I think has been behind the 8 ball for quite some time, but he has also yet to find anything completely definitive in researching Distilled water. However, these papers are pretty compelling.

I had also read the same report a while back. It's the most robust attack I have every read against distilled water based on research papers and such. I'm still on the fence about distilled water cause nobody seems to know for sure if it's really safe to drink, at least not by solidly backed research, but by experience many have claimed to drink it for years without problems while others say it really screwed them over royalty.

I have some first hand accounts from my Dad. He was in the Navy for 8 years during Pearl Harbor, WW2, Korean War. He spent many months out to sea, and they drank distilled water for months on end. Everyone on the ship drank it from the highest ranking on down. It was used for cooking too, everything from drinking to cooking. What the Navy reported on the surface in general for that 40 year period is very suspect, cause obviously they are not providing all the truth about distilled water. If they did, they would of reported that some seaman had trouble with their teeth from drinking distilled water according to my Dad who had first hand accounts of those times.

He was there and took photos when Eisenhower boarded some of the Cruise Ships. I got some swell color photos that are in excellent condition that are from that time, very old indeed. My Dad said this, and I questioned him a lot about it. He said the Navy was correct in what they reported in a general sense. That is that nobody really got ill, sick or had any problems or health problems drinking distilled water onboard Navy vessels during the 8 years he was out to sea. He drank a lot of distilled water for many months made from an onboard distiller using sea water. However, he did note that some navy crewman did have problems with their teeth and had to get them fixed, or treated.

What he doesn't know, is was it from a poor diet or from the actual physical contact of distilled water in your mouth, as I guess Seaman used it as a mouthwash too. Obviously what he meant is they lost minerals or calcium from their teeth, and probably had to get caps or crowns to protect those teeth.
I don't know if it was from using distilled water as a mouthwash or just from coming in contact with the teeth when they drank it. I am assuming they drank a lot of it, as they were very active onboard plus there was very few other things to drink, no luxuries. I am assuming more then likely, the problem with their teeth came from a lack of minerals in their diet.

I have seen photos of my Dad and other seaman from that period on those ships and they were extremely thin, skinny. Solid meals were a big problem back then. My Dad said they ate powdered eggs sometimes, and often the food was sparse and not very good, bad at times. Obviously their diets were also lacking out to sea when the good supplies ran out. Combined with drinking distilled water most of the time, I am guessing this was a lack of minerals in their diet that affected their teeth along with drinking distilled water. To what extent distilled water played a role, that is a mystery, but it seems to have a role.

I too wish I knew to what extent your body uses inorganic minerals in water, although we learned in basic biology that our body uses organic minerals from food. So yes, when you boil it all down, it’s about how much and how efficiently our bodies use minerals from water, including trace minerals.

The Electrolytes argument is an interesting one in the sense of if distilled water triggers a change in the way the body metabolism reacts to the displacement of those Electrolytes. I had read it diverts them to the stomach for digestion since this water has none, but I'm not sure what that actually means. I always thought electrolytes could be easily be replaced by drinking gatorade or various sports supplements like that which contain everything which typical athletes use.

The acidity argument is not really important it seems much anymore since those solutions are easy enough like adding baking soda, but the water is less acidic then a Pepsi and some of us drank those often enough. I have read those arguments about having to drink tons of water to get a days value of minerals for the RDA, but for some reason, there seems to be some connection there, and other sources say we get around 10 to 15 percent of our minerals from water, which is a pretty good slice especially for people on Navy Ships eating crappy food and drinking only distilled water.

I studied this quite a bit, and it seems that we don't understand distilled water well enough to drink it full time. However, it seems like a reasonable solution as a part time alternative source of drinking water. I suppose you could even mix it half and half with your filtered water, and that would at least cut the TDS in half, perhaps not a bad idea. My water is extremely hard, and it’s filtered before I drink it, although I have a distiller and was drinking distilled water part of the time.

I can't see myself drinking it full time, until I get solid Science to back up this mineral/electrolyte debate. On the teeth, sure that concerns me. I haven't used Fluoride toothpaste in 15 years, and my dentist says my teeth are in better shape then most people my age. However, I have never drank water treated with either Chorine or Fluoride, since I always lived in the country drinking only well water.

Cheers!
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