[quesera]

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]

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]

>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.