Guest guest Posted February 27, 2002 Report Share Posted February 27, 2002 Hi All, I read most of the posts on this topic, but couldn't find a post that addressed the actual mineral content of tap water. I did some research (visited the EPA water sites, my own city [san Diego] water quality info sites, and the FDA for RDI's of certain minerals for comparison) and determined that I'd have to drink 450 Liters (197 8 oz glasses!) of water to meet the FDA RDI for iron. The rest of the calculations resulted in even more ridiculus numbers. Consequently, I'm not concerned about the mineral deficiency that some maintain will develop over long term use of distilled H2O. I've decided to purchase a distiller, and I'll be sure to post if I develop a mineral deficiency. Any other distilled water drinkers out here? Anybody know where I could get a good distiller (PB, Precision) without taking out a loan? Thanks, and take care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 27, 2002 Report Share Posted February 27, 2002 The amount of commonly considered nutritive minerals in water is irrelevant to whether it will leach minerals out of the person drinking it. Total dissolved solids is much more meaningful in that regard. Dissolved minerals, whether it's silica, iron, calcium, manganese, sodium, etc all reduce the capacity of the water to take on additional minerals. Distillation removes ALL dissolved solids meaning that the water is going to readily dissolve (and hang onto) most of the minerals it comes into contact with until it reaches a point of balance. Try this, figure out the total dissolved solids of your tap water. Convert that into an appx milligrams/liter figure. Multiply by the number of liters you drink per day. Ask yourself if you want to increase your excretion of minerals by that amount per day. Your tap water may not contain much iron, magnesium, or calcium, but if you start drinking distilled water, your urine very well might. In other words, I'm with Mark on this one 100%. I'd recommend a different purification option. I'd also recommend that based on taste alone. IMO, distilled water tastes absolutely foul. In fact, I think chlorinated water tastes better... -----Original Message----- From: rhizoid7 [mailto:rhizoid7@...] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 2:57 AM Subject: Water Distillers Hi All, I read most of the posts on this topic, but couldn't find a post that addressed the actual mineral content of tap water. I did some research (visited the EPA water sites, my own city [san Diego] water quality info sites, and the FDA for RDI's of certain minerals for comparison) and determined that I'd have to drink 450 Liters (197 8 oz glasses!) of water to meet the FDA RDI for iron. The rest of the calculations resulted in even more ridiculus numbers. Consequently, I'm not concerned about the mineral deficiency that some maintain will develop over long term use of distilled H2O. I've decided to purchase a distiller, and I'll be sure to post if I develop a mineral deficiency. Any other distilled water drinkers out here? Anybody know where I could get a good distiller (PB, Precision) without taking out a loan? Thanks, and take care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 27, 2002 Report Share Posted February 27, 2002 At 01:05 PM 2/27/2002 -0600, you wrote: >In other words, I'm with Mark on this one 100%. I'd recommend a different >purification option. I'd also recommend that based on taste alone. IMO, >distilled water tastes absolutely foul. In fact, I think chlorinated water >tastes better... Regarding drinking water. I'll share what I drink and how I filter it. I have a whole house water filter that is, basically, a large tank with dense carbon granules inside. It flushes occasionally to move and redistribute the granules for optimum absorption of undesirable stuff in the water (chlorine, other dissolved gases, etc.). zThe carbon is replaced about every 5-8 years or so depending on usage. Not a very robust filtration but it does remove the chlorine from the shower and bath water (main goal) and I can also fill the outdoor pond with that water without having to treat the water for the benefit of the living fish in the pond. The company that produces filters for this whole house system also had some fluoride filters but after inquiring about them they admitted that the filter used arsenic to bind with the fluoride and that some of the arsenic can leach (maybe not exactly the correct word) back into the water - so I elected to not use a fluoride filter. 4 years later, perhaps there are better fluoride filters out there - but I haven't looked seriously lately. At the kitchen sink I have an under-counter, large carbon-block style water filter that I (after many hundreds of comparisons of technical specifications) decided to purchase from AMWAY. They only have one model under-the-counter. That carbon block pulls out the most or equal to any other similar type of filter. But it leaves most of the minerals intact and it also passes fluoride straight through. It does remove many pesticides, living or dead organic things that are larger than, I believe, 1 micron and a host of other stuff that is considered bad for us to drink. It works by percentages (reducing " x " pesticide by 99.98%, for example) as it cannot remove 100% of anything (nothing short of distilling and perhaps reverse osmosis can remove 100% of, say, a pesticide). The water is produces is far better than the water from the whole house filter which is far better than the original tap water. Given the modest cost of the filter system and replacement filters, it does a fine job and produces tasty, fresh water. However - I now rarely drink that water from the sink filter. I no longer thirst for water as I eat many raw fats. When I do drink water I drink Gerolsteiner or Apolinaris mineral water. Both of these are bottled at the spa with the original gasses. Both have high mineral content. My thirst requires about 1-3 cups of the mineral water per week. I do get water from other sources. I juice celery, parsley and zucchini and drink about 1 quart of that a day (lots of water in there and high in mineral content). I also drink raw, organic milk which also has a fair amount of water and that varies from about 1 cup to 3 cups a day. So most of the water I ingest now is from foods, has a fairly high amount of minerals and doesn't have fluoride. Regards, -=mark=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 28, 2002 Report Share Posted February 28, 2002 >The company that produces filters for this whole house system also >had some fluoride filters but after inquiring about them they admitted that >the filter used arsenic to bind with the fluoride and that some of the >arsenic can leach (maybe not exactly the correct word) back into the water >- so I elected to not use a fluoride filter. 4 years later, perhaps there >are better fluoride filters out there - but I haven't looked seriously lately. The fluoride filter I have (just for my drinking tap) uses some kind of aluminum compound to filter out the fluoride, and it's also supposed to be effective at removing arsenic. Now, I'm not too happy about running my water through aluminum either, but at least it comes before the KDF and carbon stages. There are *way* better filters and purifiers than mine, I'm sure, but I couldn't afford anything more and I had an emergency situation, and at least it's making a significant improvement. - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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