[coffeeblack]

Interesting point. Would distillation clean water from any contamination or are there common chemicals that would evaporate and then condense at similar temperatures as the water?

Boiling water for a few minutes is a common way to get rid of biological contamination.

[_aavaa_]

The most common chemical is ethanol. What you're describing is an azeotrope [1].

Aside from the ones that will boil together with water are those that will boil off before the water (methanol is the other common example that comes in practice). If you have any that boil off before water you have to know at what point it's safe to start condensing the vapour and storing it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azeotrope

[tomc1985]

I don't know, but 'distilled' water is typically sold as the most chemically pure form of water. I do know it needs to be remineralized or something, as pure distilled water is bad for you.

[Johnythree]

> pure distilled water is bad for you.

This is a particularly annoying myth. When the water passes through the gut it picks up plenty of mineralisation, as well as other gunge.

[upsidesinclude]

Your point is well taken, but if you have never witnessed it in extreme I believe you are not evaluating it fairly.

On ships, vacuum vapor distillation is quite common for drinking water production. This is because the equipment is used to generate boiler feed water, which must be high quality distillate. Acquiring additional water-making equipment is redundant.

Nutritional content can be limited and lacking diversity. Many minerals in the body are of very low concentration, they are nevertheless, necessary. Osmosis will delpete the body of these over time. The health effects of this would require a longterm study for chronic symptoms to appear. I have never seen any study of this nature. I have seen mariners after several months at sea with no other water source and, yes anecdotally, they look like hell. I will not drink distilled water for any length of time, but a few weeks would never amount to anything.

So in your day to day life, sure, you have a healthy, diverse, first-world diet and have no ill-effect from drinking distilled water. You can 'live' drinking only Coke. Appalling, certainly, but doable. In terms of cost and energy expense, distilled water is likely higher than Coke to produce, though that is an aside.

[hackerfromthefu]

You're partially correct, but missed the important point here. As a result your advice is dangerous to health.

You don't want water picking up minerals from your body .. you want it DEPOSITING minerals into your body. That's the way we evolved obtaining minerals from water from streams where the water runs over rocks to mineralise.

[p1esk]

pure distilled water is bad for you

No, it’s not. I’ve been drinking it exclusively for the last ~20 years and have no health issues.

[cvccvroomvroom]

Exactly. It's water. It's not bleach. If you take a multivitamin and eat a varied diet, there is no "magic" nutritional value lost. Water doesn't have to come out of a Voss water bottle or the ground to be "healthy".

[tomc1985]

> If you take a multivitamin and eat a varied diet, there is no "magic" nutritional value lost.

So you're substituting in the lost minerals from other sources. I don't see how that detracts from my (rather weak) argument

Why do you seem to feel so strongly about distilled water?

[paledot]

Because your statement is demonstrably false and people here are nothing if not pedantic.

[tomc1985]

I don't know what's so demonstrably false about it; there is credible evidence (cited in another comment) suggesting mineral/electrolyte loss from drinking demineralized water and GGP admits to purposefully consuming nutrients from other sources to compensate. That only helps to prove my point?

If you have to compensate from other sources than I don't understand how something is necessarily harmless, without the qualifier that it should only be used in the context of a proper diet (which many/most don't have, particularly the types that might be susceptible to quack wellness claims)

Besides, one anecdote does not a disproven theory make

[stolsvik]

Out of curiosity: Why?

[p1esk]

Because after you drink distilled water, tap water and most bottled water smell and taste bad.

[WaitWaitWha]

i think you maybe thinking deionized water?[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purified_water

[tomc1985]

I'm thinking demineralized water, of which distillation is several ways to produce it. The rub seems to be that it leeches minerals from both the body and distribution mechanisms (like metal piping)

[Johnythree]

> The rub seems to be

It isn't and doesn't. Please stop pushing this annoying myth.

[hackerfromthefu]

You are pushing (incorrect) anecdotes, with a hubris of certainty.

Please provide quality references, or even some argument, to support your statement, beyond 'you said so'. 'You said so' is always a useless information-less way to communicate that I would push back on, but this is a health relevant issue, and you are spreading misinformation that is dangerous. Provide some quality references if you're right, but you're not.

[867-5309]

>incorrect

>if you're right, but you're not

where is your evidence?

[cvccvroomvroom]

Show any scientific evidence stating this.

[tomc1985]

Why not google this yourself? Here are a few papers I was able to dig up:

http://ecoewp.com/images/nutrientschap12.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223198/

And FFS people, lighten up. The preferred way to correct someone wrong on the internet is gently.

[tekknik]

> The preferred way to correct someone wrong on the internet is gently.

Many of us have had the “citation needed” demand thrown in our face in very rude ways during the COVID vaccine debacle. It’s gonna take some years for it to settle down and be forgotten again.