Why Should You Know How to Remineralize Distilled Water?
There are a few reasons why your drinking water might be distilled. Distillation is one of the oldest water purification process used to make sure your drinking water is safe. The distillation process involves boiling water until it evaporates and condensing it back into a clean jug.
This method effectively removes hundreds of trace contaminants from any source of water. While it’s a healthy choice to remove unnecessary impurities commonly found in water, your water supply also contains vital trace minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorous that your body needs to maintain good health.
Fortunately, there are ways for you to add these trace minerals back into your distilled water. In our article today, we will be talking about the benefits of adding natural minerals as well as how to remineralize distilled water.
What Minerals Get Removed From Distillation?
Existing water treatments can remove up to 99.9% of all total dissolved solids (TSS) found in drinking water, including all potentially harmful contaminants, heavy metals, chemicals, and even pathogens like bacteria.
While this process leaves you with completely pure, impurity-free distilled water, it also removes important minerals that are good for your body. Unfortunately, there’s no smart distiller that can recognize the difference between healthy minerals and unhealthy contaminants.
Some of the natural minerals found in drinking water that are removed from distillation include calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorous, zinc, and potassium. The human body needs these natural minerals in trace amounts for good health. A lack of minerals can lead to brittle bones, heart problems, behavioral changes, impaired muscle function, as well as problems with your body’s cells.
Benefits of Storing Distilled Water
The benefit of distilling water is that you can save it for use later since the distillation process means that the water is void of bacteria and pathogens, resulting in a reduced opportunity for you to contract foodborne illnesses from consuming it. Furthermore, since the water is free of any source of food, any residual bacteria or fungi present in the water will die off eventually.
Since there’s nothing perishable in distilled water, it does not require refrigeration or any special storage method. You just need to make sure to keep the water in a sealed container and you can trust that it’s safe for drinking whenever you need it.
Essential Minerals with Health Benefits
If you drink only purified water or reverse osmosis water that’s not re-mineralized, you run the risk of denying your body important trace elements that your body requires. This is even worse if your diet does not compensate for these deficits. Here are some of the healthy minerals that can be found in mineralized water:
Calcium – Calcium is important for maintaining bone density as well as ensuring your heart is healthy by keeping your blood pressure low. Low blood pressure will severely reduce the risk of a stroke.
Magnesium – Magnesium is important for regulating body mass and for keeping blood sugar low. Not only will this element reduce blood pressure and lower triglycerides, but it will also ensure your muscles are functioning properly.
Potassium – Potassium regulates the effect of sodium in blood pressure. Potassium is needed for muscle contractions and nerve signaling.
Sodium – Sodium is an essential mineral to keep water balance in our cells. Having too much sodium will cause our cells to shrink and swell if there’s too little present. On top of that, sodium is also necessary for muscle and nerve function.
Why Is it Important to Reintroduce Minerals into Distilled Water?
Before we continue on with this section, you need to first understand that minerals removed by distillation don’t actually need to be consumed back in your drinking water. In fact, these minerals can be found in abundance in your diet from food like fruits and vegetables. Comparing the amount of minerals present in drinking water with natural food, it would barely make a difference whether you’re drinking distilled water or tap water.
Nonetheless, a medical report by World Health Organization (WHO) was released recently that stated a few worrying concerns on drinking demineralized water – whether distilled or RO. The article mentions how our medical health is at particular risk of mineral deficiency from pure water. Poor hydration has also been linked to increased intake of certain toxic metals while drinking distilled water was proven to have an impact on the body’s metabolism.
The article released by WHO comes from a legitimate source and contains information backed by valid data. However, it is worth noting that the health concerns mentioned in the report can be avoided by eating healthy, mineral-rich foods daily. Still, many opt to remineralize their distilled water to improve its taste.
Advantages of Adding Minerals into Distilled Water
Better Taste
Alkalized mineral-riched bottled water has a slightly higher pH and an appealing taste. On the other hand, a demineralized water with lack of mineral content will taste flat, flavorless, and simply unappealing to most. Hence, adding minerals back into distilled water will raise its pH level and improve its overall flavor for better taste.
Improves Hydration
If something tastes good, obviously you’re going to want to consume more of it. Which is why better tasting water will also mean increased water hydration. Ensuring sufficient hydration of the body is an important factor for human health, which is why it is important for us to drink plenty of water daily.
Health Benefits
While your body doesn’t necessarily need the minerals in your faucet to survive, getting a few extra nutrients like calcium and magnesium from your drinking water can help be good for your body, especially as we get older and need more minerals. Just make sure to also include plenty of mineral-rich foods in your diet instead of just relying on distilled water for added minerals.
How to Remineralize Distilled Water?
In the section above, we have discussed why it’s a good idea to remineralize distilled water, now we move on to how you can add minerals to distilled water.
Trace Mineral Drops
Adding mineral drops or electrolyte drops is an affordable, low-fuss method to quickly add minerals back into your distilled water.
Trace mineral drops contain a measured amount of trace minerals that will help you bring back great tasting water that’s also healthy. Just make sure to follow the instructions carefully to add only what you need, you don’t want to overdose your water with minerals.
If you’re looking for a product that’s manufactured by a wellness company with decades of medical research, you can consider the Quinton Wellness mineral drops. There are also plenty of other options available on the market that can help you introduce trace minerals into your distilled water. However, keep in mind that not all brands are legitimate. Do your own due diligence and don’t be so quick to believe a marketing claim.
Using trace mineral drops or electrolyte powder is very easy, all you need to do is to put them into a glass or pitcher of distilled water according to the dosage recommended. They’re also fairly affordable, costing around $20-40 on average and can last for weeks to months.
Alkaline Water Pitcher
If you don’t like the idea if physically adding something into your drinking water, then you can consider getting an alkalizing pitcher filter instead. Alkalizing water pitchers may look like any other water jug or pitches, but it comes with a built-in filter. Distilled water added into the jug will flow pass the remineralizing filter to add a balanced amount of minerals into your drinking water.
Alkalizing filter pitchers are very simple to use with minimal effort, which is why it is the top choice among so many homeowners. Not only are they easy to use, they’re also portable, making it a great choice for those who like to ensure they get healthy water while traveling. However, the minerals in the filter will get depleted eventually and you’ll need to replace the filter. Depending on how often you use, the filter may need to be replaced after 6 weeks to 3-6 months.
One drawback to using an alkaline water pitcher is that you’ll need to give it a few minutes for your water to filter through. The typical time it takes is around 10-20 minutes, which might be a lot for those who are in a rush or do not have the patience to wait any longer after waiting 4-6 hours to produce 1-gallon of distilled water.
Alkaline Water Bottles
An even more portable option for those who are always on-the-go is an alkalizing water bottle. These bottles work to increase the water’s pH level by adding measured amounts of essential minerals like calcium and magnesium as drinking water flows through the straw.
The most obvious advantage to getting akalizing water bottle is that you don’t need to worry about any setup. All you need to do is just add distilled water into the bottle and drink through the straw as you would normally. Alkalizing bottles are also much smaller and secure compared to filter pitchers, making a good choice to be carried around in a rucksack while traveling or hiking.
Just like with alkalizing pitchers, the filter cartridge will run out of minerals eventually and will need to be replaced. The alkaline water bottle cartridge will typically need to be replaced after 6 weeks in order for you to continue enjoying purified water with added minerals.
Pink Himalayan Salt
While it might seem strange to add salt into your water, Pink Himalayan salt is a type of sea salt or rock salt that’s rick in natural minerals and relatively lower in sodium compared to table salt. This makes it a great solution for adding trace elements to your distilled water.
Using pink Himalayan salt is one of the most natural ways to add minerals into pure water, but it’s more than just adding a pinch of salt to a cup of water. The recommended method to using celtic or himalayan salt with distilled water is to create a sole water beverage by introducing enough salt to fill a jar ¼ full before filling in the rest with purified water. You then need to store this sea salt + water mixture for up to 24 hours to allow the salt to fully dissolve.
Sole water made with sea salt isn’t just good for you cause of the added calcium carbonate and magnesium, the sea salt is also said to contain essential minerals that can help to balance the negative and positive ions in your body’s cell.
Pink Himalayan sea salt is not your average table salt, this sea salt has a relatively lower concentration of sodium chloride. Fortunately, you can easily purchase pink himalayan salt online. While the sodium content is lower than table salt, you still need to be precise with your measurements or you might risk adding too much sodium to your purified water.
Clay Powder
There are a few biological clays available, such as Pascalite, that contains natural minerals for you to add into your water without affecting the taste. However, clay powder can get too heavy to carry around, making them less ideal for travellers.
Limestone
Limestone is a weak rock that readily dissolves when water passes over it. Limestones are completely natural and it’s how most water contain minerals in the first place. So, if you happen to find yourself in a limestone-rich region, just pour your distilled water over some limestone and the water will be full of minerals again.
Conclusion
Distilling water will ensure that your water is safe to drink, not only that but distilled water can be stored indefinitely. However, the process will also remove essential minerals and electrolytes required by the body to function.
There are several ways available for you to re-introduce minerals back into your distilled water including alkalizing water pitcher, alkaline water bottles, mineral drops, and adding salt into your water. These are a few methods that can help you add important minerals into your water and ensure healthy, great tasting mineralized water.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between purified and distilled water?
Purified water describes the quality of the water whereas distilled water refers to water that’s been through the distillation process. Any water with less than 10 ppm of impurities can be considered as purified water. For reference, naturally occurring mineral water contains approximately 260 ppm dissolved solids like sulfate, potassium, and magnesium.
Distilled water on the other hand is water that’s created through vaporization and condensation process. The difference is that distilled water is purified water but not all pure water is distilled water. There are other processes that can also result in pure water, like reverse osmosis, ion exchange, ultrafiltration, or a combination of these.
What is reverse osmosis?
Reverse osmosis is a water purification process that uses a semi-permeable membrane and involves applying pressure to drive water through the membrane. Larger inorganic compounds like lead, chlorine, nitrates, sulfates, and detergents are left trapped in the filter.
Reverse osmosis water treatment is a common feature that many households have since it can provide clean water for both drinking and cooking.
This water treatment method is a multi-step process that uses different filters with different micron sizes to trap particles, from heavy metals to bacteria. Although reverse osmosis is one of the most thorough water treatment systems, there are still small hazardous molecules, such as pesticides, passing through the process unfiltered.
Why should I bother with a purification process if I’m just going to add minerals to my water?
This is up to personal preference and will depend on what you’re looking for. Distilling water can remove various impurities, including harmful contaminants and bacteria to result in clean, purified drinking water. Having your tap water go through distillation will offer you peace of mind knowing that your water is safe to drink.
However, not everyone will need the level of purification offered by a distillation system. This is true if your water supply is relatively clean. This is why it’s often recommended to get your water tested to know what impurities are actually present before deciding on the next step.
Once you have a list of what’s in your water as well as the concentration of it, then you’ll be able to decide on the most suitable water treatment solution.
Those whose water supply only has problems with one or two contaminants may opt to get a less thorough treatment system, such as activated carbon filters. This method will give you chlorine and lead-free water without completely removing healthy minerals in the water.
Is there a difference between remineralization and alkalizing?
Remineralizing and alkalizing distilled water is actually different. An alkalizer will change the pH balance of the water to give it a more preferable alkaline flavor without adding minerals to it. Remineralization is a process of introducing minerals into the water, which will automatically increase the pH level of the mineral water.
