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> The reason we don’t drink distilled water is that it ends up robbing your body of minerals. The Internet has multiple opinions on the veracity of this statem

> The reason we don’t drink distilled water is that it ends up robbing your body of minerals. The Internet has multiple opinions on the veracity of this statement. They range the full gamut: from "causes harmful leaching", to "has no/neutral effect", to "generates helpful absorption". As a non-expert, I find the "neutral" explanations more persuasive. Am I wrong? Or do we just weigh plausible sources differently?

hinkley 4y ago
Either way, we are entering the Trough of Disillusionment with respect to Hydration with a capital H. Drinking liters of water a day is not the solution to all of your health woes.
- quesera 4y ago
  Indeed, there is no silver bullet.
- 11235813213455 4y ago
  It really depends on the diet. I eat mostly vegetables, rice sometimes, and almost never drink water (I just force myself with mouthwashes before sleeping, with some dilluted and clean seawater it's even better), never feel thristy because my diet is extremely low in sodium (maybe too much even) and ultra rich in fiber
  - cykros 4y ago
    https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/symptoms-causes/syc-20373711 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/... Careful going too low sodium. And high fiber + dehydration can result in constipation. That said, it sounds like you may well be getting a good amount of water from the vegetables themselves, depending on what form you're eating them in.
    - 11235813213455 4y ago
      raw only, for example today: peppers, tomatoes, dates!, grapes, mushrooms, leeks, onions. (leeks and onions, I try to let them ferment a bit). Sometimes a bit of rice (only thing cooked I eat)
revolvingocelot 4y ago
I'm no expert either, but I consider the likelihood of distilled water being neutral-to-good to be pretty poor. I can't really imagine naturally-occurring freshwater sources without minerality of some kind, and so I thus expect evolution to "expect" that minerality in water at the organism level.
- quesera 4y ago
  I'm sure that naturally-occurring water sources will have much higher mineral content (i.e. dissolved solids) than distilled water. But I'm not convinced that "drinking water" is a significant contributor of minerals to the human diet. My instinct (not a nutritionist!) is that there are far more accumulated minerals in the plant and animal "apex hydrators" that I eat than I could get directly from water. And I probably drink a lot more direct water than most people do. The anti-DW "leaching" argument is that you have the minerals in your body already through other sources and accumulation, and when you drink DW (yuck anyway), it has so much capacity to dissolve things that it leaches necessary stuff from you. The counterargument is that most of the incorporated minerals aren't coming out of your organs easily, so DW mostly sucks up bad stuff that you'd probably excrete most of anyway, but every little bit helps. These both seem flawed to me!
  - hinkley 4y ago
    You can explode a salt water adapted single celled organism by putting it in fresh water. The osmotic pressure sucks in water and the cell blows up like a balloon. I'm not talking about minerals in drinking water being a nutritional supplement. I'm talking about your kidneys not being able to block minerals from leaving in your urine. Any water coming in with absolutely no mineral content means a net loss on the other end.
  - revolvingocelot 4y ago
    >But I'm not convinced that "drinking water" is a significant contributor of minerals to the human diet. I don't think I'm claiming that. I'm sure kidney functions work so long as some salts get in 'em, whether dietary or water intake, I just suspect that the body expects the minerality to already be in the water directly, because the vast majority of non-human-curated drinking water seems to be that way.

hinkley 4y ago

Either way, we are entering the Trough of Disillusionment with respect to Hydration with a capital H. Drinking liters of water a day is not the solution to all of your health woes.

quesera 4y ago
Indeed, there is no silver bullet.
11235813213455 4y ago
It really depends on the diet. I eat mostly vegetables, rice sometimes, and almost never drink water (I just force myself with mouthwashes before sleeping, with some dilluted and clean seawater it's even better), never feel thristy because my diet is extremely low in sodium (maybe too much even) and ultra rich in fiber
- cykros 4y ago
  https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/symptoms-causes/syc-20373711 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/... Careful going too low sodium. And high fiber + dehydration can result in constipation. That said, it sounds like you may well be getting a good amount of water from the vegetables themselves, depending on what form you're eating them in.
  - 11235813213455 4y ago
    raw only, for example today: peppers, tomatoes, dates!, grapes, mushrooms, leeks, onions. (leeks and onions, I try to let them ferment a bit). Sometimes a bit of rice (only thing cooked I eat)

revolvingocelot 4y ago

I'm no expert either, but I consider the likelihood of distilled water being neutral-to-good to be pretty poor. I can't really imagine naturally-occurring freshwater sources without minerality of some kind, and so I thus expect evolution to "expect" that minerality in water at the organism level.

quesera 4y ago
I'm sure that naturally-occurring water sources will have much higher mineral content (i.e. dissolved solids) than distilled water. But I'm not convinced that "drinking water" is a significant contributor of minerals to the human diet. My instinct (not a nutritionist!) is that there are far more accumulated minerals in the plant and animal "apex hydrators" that I eat than I could get directly from water. And I probably drink a lot more direct water than most people do. The anti-DW "leaching" argument is that you have the minerals in your body already through other sources and accumulation, and when you drink DW (yuck anyway), it has so much capacity to dissolve things that it leaches necessary stuff from you. The counterargument is that most of the incorporated minerals aren't coming out of your organs easily, so DW mostly sucks up bad stuff that you'd probably excrete most of anyway, but every little bit helps. These both seem flawed to me!
- hinkley 4y ago
  You can explode a salt water adapted single celled organism by putting it in fresh water. The osmotic pressure sucks in water and the cell blows up like a balloon. I'm not talking about minerals in drinking water being a nutritional supplement. I'm talking about your kidneys not being able to block minerals from leaving in your urine. Any water coming in with absolutely no mineral content means a net loss on the other end.
- revolvingocelot 4y ago
  >But I'm not convinced that "drinking water" is a significant contributor of minerals to the human diet. I don't think I'm claiming that. I'm sure kidney functions work so long as some salts get in 'em, whether dietary or water intake, I just suspect that the body expects the minerality to already be in the water directly, because the vast majority of non-human-curated drinking water seems to be that way.