A friend of mine has a roomate in college who is majoring in some kind of science “thing” and told me something very interesting. He told me his friend did an experiment in which distilled water was placed in the same container as blood and, under a microscope, watch as the red blood cells proceeded to pop. So what I’m asking is can distilled water be bad for your body?
[quote]jakewnet44 wrote:
… He told me his friend did an experiment in which distilled water was placed in the same container as blood and, under a microscope, watch as the red blood cells proceeded to pop. So what I’m asking is can distilled water be bad for your body?[/quote]
If that information is true, then I would say yes, distilled water is bad for you if injected directly into your bloodstream.
[quote]jakewnet44 wrote:
A friend of mine has a roomate in college who is majoring in some kind of science “thing” and told me something very interesting. He told me his friend did an experiment in which distilled water was placed in the same container as blood and, under a microscope, watch as the red blood cells proceeded to pop. So what I’m asking is can distilled water be bad for your body?[/quote]
Distilled water is of course not bad for you. The experiment in question is one that just about any introductory biology or anatomy and physiology lab course will use to demonstrate key points of osmosis. In that case, simply that placing cells in a hypotonic solution will result in lysis or popping as your friend put it.
Yeah it’s bad for you esp when you drink alot of distilled water. It has no minerals at all making it more acidic (less than 7 pH). The greater over 7, the better. I’m sure Beradi went over the importance of keeping the blood more alkaline in one of his articles which involved eating alot of veggies. From what i read, virus and bacteria thrives in blood where it’s more acidic which is common in typical american diets these days.
Umm, just try not to INJECT it?
Seriously, it may be a topic worth discussing, but lets at least start with the assumption that it’s going in your damn mouth, not what happens in a petri dish under conditions that have no relation to the way humans consume water.
Nick
Wow. Yeah, the popping thing has nothign to do with “ingesting” water via the mouth but there are some concerns associated with drinking distilled water. The main of which is due to the lack of minerals in the water, but it is not an “acidity” question. Instead, simple science suggests that solvents move from areas of greater concentration to lower concentration and thus… if you are drinking water with no minerals, your body with a relatively high concentration of minerals, will lose some as the water passes through as it diffuses. Nothing exciting and not a major threat but uh… I wouldn’t sneak distilled water out from the lab and drink it on the go…
Well I’ve read that if you leave distilled air exposed to air, it turns acidic at around 5.5 pH. The mineral water is over 7 pH. Soda (sugar or sugarless) is made out of distilled water and other crap can disolve tooth in short period of time. I don’t think alot of people realize that diet soda are just as bad because they draw out minerals out of cells, etc to neutralize the blood pH. It largely depends on the diet. I see a lot of people trying to lose weight drink diet sodas. Oh well…
I wouldn’t drink it in large quantities. Remember - water isn’t “comfortable” in a distilled or deionized state…it always seeks to dissolve ions.
Drinking distilled or deionized water is a sure-fire way to get it to dissolve YOU…meaning leach salts and minerals out of your cells.
A little won’t hurt, but I wouldn’t recommend living on the stuff.
Best wishes.
Okay, I think folks are going overboard here. Water in general, even tap water, is going to be very pure.
You body is built to deal with water. Among other things it is used to eliminate waste. Many soluble nutrients such as vitamins and minerals will be present during elimination.
However, on the other hand, we happen to be eating foods that contain these nutrients.
It is possible to drink too much water, but it isn’t easy. It’s also possible to eat poorly and not get the nutrients you need, which is easy.
Stop freaking out over minutiae folks.
[quote]Tungsten wrote:
Yeah it’s bad for you esp when you drink alot of distilled water. It has no minerals at all making it more acidic (less than 7 pH). The greater over 7, the better.[/quote]
First of all, as Cy Wilson stated elsewhere on this thread, “Distilled water is of course not bad for you.”
Truly purified and deionized water has a pH level of exactly 7. Period. It is absolutely neutral. Of course, it’s also very difficult to get, and quite expensive, as that kind of purity is generally only needed in science experiements.
Adding ‘minerals’, depending on the type, can chance the pH level of water to either higher or lower than 7. Please note that typical US tap water will range from about 6 to 8.5.
Also, for anyone who skipped chemistry class, please note that pH is a logarithmic function of measurement, so that the farther you get from 7, the bigger the increases get. In fact, each step increases by a factor of 10. So if you go to 6 or 8, you’re dealing with something 10 times more acidic or alkaline than neutral. If you go to 5 or 9, you’re dealing with something 10 times more acidic or alkaline than you were at 6 or 8, making it 100 times greather than neutral, or 7.
Generally, anything between 5 and 9 is usually close enough to neutral to have a minimal affect on you. As you go farther away, though, you should possibly pay more attention. For additional perspective, here’s some common things and their pH levels:
Apple Juice: 3.4 - 3.8
Human blood: 7.35 - 7.45
Human saliva: 6.3 - 6.6
Lemon juice: 2.3
Normal rain: 5.7
Stomach juice: 1 - 3
Sulfuric acid: 0.3
Tomato & tomato juice: 4.2
Vinegar: 2.4 - 3.4
White bread: 5 - 6
Baking soda: 8.0
Milk of magnesia: 10.5
Lastly, because water is naturally at or around pH 7, it is realatively easy to raise or lower it’s pH level by adding very small quantities of material. Remember, the closer to 7, the smaller the smaller the difference between pH values.
The ‘lack of minerals’ noted above usually amounts to a range of 250-600 ppm, or Parts Per Million. That’s a very tiny quantity of added material. Anyone who thinks that drinking ‘mineral water’ is healthier because of the added minerals is wasting their money. Pick up a multivitamin, and you’ll get thousands of times greater concentrations on important minterals. Also, regarding the ‘leeching’ of minerals, the quantities here are so minute that your body will generally not notice it, and if you’re eating food on a regular basis, or better yet taking a multivitamin, then it’s completely negligible.
Water is generally too close to neutral to have any major affect on the acid/alkaline nature of your body.
If you leave very pure distilled watter exposed to the air, it will absorb some carbon dioxide from the air, and it’s pH level will drop slightly to a range of between 5.6 and 7. It is still perfectly safe to drink, even in large quantities.
If you’re truly that concerned about it, add a little baking soda to it. 
The pH level of pop has nothing to do with distilled water, and everything to do with the carbonation process and flavoring ingredients. Again, distilled water has a natural pH of 7.
First of all, you’ve got the carbonation process. Straight carbonated water has a pH level between 4.2 - 4.8, due to the higher level of carbon dioxide, which in turn adds a small level of carbonic acid. However, that isn’t enough to balance out the sweetness, so they add something more.
Soft drinks are additionally acidified either by the addition of fruit juice or by the inclusion of an acid. The three most commonly used acids are citric acid, malic acid and phosphoric acid. Citric acid is found naturally in citrus fruits, blackcurrants, strawberries and raspberries. Malic acid is found in apples, cherries, plums and peaches. Phosphoric acid is generally used in cola drinks.
The end result is a beverage with a pH level between 2.4 - 3.6, for most common brands of soft drink.
You’re mixing up two different things, both of which are realatively negative, but are separate. One is the sugar quantity in regular pop. The second is the acidity of all pop.
Diet pop is not just as bad as regular pop. While it is still highly acidic, you have removed the sugar, and that’s a big step forward. Especially for people who drink a lot of pop (one of the T-Mag authors recently mentioned that 3 cans of regular pop a day will give you nearly 2500 additional pure sugar calories per week), going to diet pop can make a big difference.
Now, while diet pope isn’t as bad as regular pop, it most definitely isn’t good for you, and anyone interested in optimum health should generally avoid it. A little bit isn’t going to hurt you, but large quantities are a bad idea.