Not all Water is Created Equal

There are so many water options out there, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed on the topic, so much to the point you may throw your hands up and say, screw it! Water is supposed to be good for you, I’m just gonna drink it. It wasn’t too long ago I was in the same mindset. Easily crippled and overwhelmed by the numerous amounts of “healthy” info out in the world, which all seemed to constantly be battling against each other. Unfortunately, that battle still continue today, but I have taken the stance to educate myself on nutrition through real, natural, foods, and pass that on to you, dear reader. Today, I am not going to get into all the different water options. As mentioned, it is seemingly overwhelming. I am simply going to share with you an option that you may want to avoid and the reasons behind it. That seems simple enough, right? In the midst of overwhelm due to multiple options, let’s take an option out!

​Distilled water is often thought to be a good source of water. Sometimes it’s recommended by your doctor, I personally have often seen it recommended via some sort of health-claiming detox correlation. Here’s what you need to know. Distillation is a natural process. It’s the way the earth itself recycles water, via condensation, evaporation, and rain. If we lived on a non-polluted planet, rain would be distilled water. We can imitate this process by boiling water, getting it to the evaporation point, and condensing the vapour. This distilled water is free of dissolved minerals, and, because of this, has the special property of being able to actively absorb toxic substances from the body and eliminate them. Studies validate the benefits of drinking distilled water when one is seeking to cleanse or detoxify the system for short periods of time (a few weeks at a time). You would not want to do this paired with fasting however, as the rapid loss of electrolytes in your system (which are the minerals known as sodium, potassium, and chloride) and other trace minerals can bring on deficiencies, particularly in the heart beat or blood pressure. Also, cooking foods in distilled water pulls the minerals out of your food and therefore lowers the nutrient value of your food. This is made possible because of that active absorbing factor mentioned above, again a reason why it has been validated for cleansing/detoxifying. However, this also means when distilled water comes in contact with air, it absorbs carbon dioxide, which makes the water acidic. The natural balanced level of pure water and our blood is neutral, not acidic, not alkaline. The more distilled water a person drinks, the higher the body acidity becomes and the more minerals are pulled from the body as well. This puts the body at higher risk of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and a long list of degenerative diseases generally associated with premature aging. Not only are the health effects scary, but the entire process is not entirely environmentally supportive either, as you can imagine, since distillation comes from evaporated water, it takes a lot of regular water to make even just a single gallon of distilled.     

Now, this is all eye-opening and maybe you’re feeling like you will stay the hell away from distilled water, but I couldn’t write such an article and not give you one single tip for what/where/how good water is found. Look for the bottles, preferably glass bottles, that say bottled at the source. Look for a label that tells you the actual number of minerals the bottle contains.  This may be labeled as parts per million. Common minerals you should find in your water include calcium, chloride, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Ideally you do not want added minerals to your water either, as they do not manifest in the body the same way as naturally occurring ones. You can always help boost your water quality, no matter the source, by adding a squeeze of lemon and teeny pinch of natural sea salt with no anti-caking agents (read your labels!). This adds antioxidants from the lemon and minerals from the salt to help the body not only stay hydrated, but stay in balance.  

For this article I reference my information from Dr. Mercola's website, as well as the lecture's and books given to me as resources through the Nutritional Therapy Association.