Is Distilled Water Safe? Can We Drink Distilled Water?

Distillation is one method of water purification. Is distilled water safe to drink or as good for you as other types of water? The answer depends on a few different factors.

In order to understand whether distilled water is safe or desirable to drink, let's take a look at how distilled water is made:

What Is Distilled Water?

Distilled water is any water that has been purified using distillation. There are multiple types of distillation, but all of them depend on separating components of a mixture based on their different boiling points. In a nutshell, water is heated to its boiling point. Chemicals that boil off at a lower temperature are collected and discarded; substances that remain in a container after the water evaporates also are discarded. The water that is collected thus has a higher purity than the initial liquid.

Can You Drink Distilled Water?

Usually, the answer is yes, you can drink distilled water. If drinking water is purified using distillation, the resulting water is cleaner and more pure than before. The water is safe to drink. The disadvantage to drinking this water is that most of the natural minerals in the water are gone. If these minerals are desirable (e.g., calcium, magnesium, iron), the distilled water might be considered inferior to mineral water or spring water. On the other hand, if the initial water contained trace amounts of toxic organic compounds or heavy metals, you might want to drink distilled water rather than the source water.

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