Here is an excerpt from a peer-reviewed article by Dr. Eugene A. Thiers on drinking pure water:
Is Pure Water Harmful to Your Health?
Arguments against drinking purified water fall into two major types of categories. In the
first category, the argument can be summarized as follows:”Essential minerals are removed from
pure water—and that’s bad.” This is the nutritionist argument. The second type of argument
typically states that “pure water leaches minerals from the body—and that is also bad.” This is
the pseudo-medical argument. We’ll briefly examine the merits of each.
The nutritionist argument rests on the premise that minerals that are dissolved in natural
water are essential for the body, and that is false. What is true is that humans require certain
minimum nutrients (e.g., over 2,000 calories for the average adult) which include trace elements,
such as calcium, magnesium, as well as certain vitamins that are not synthesized by the body,
such as vitamin C, among others. These nutrients are normally ingested in our food through the
process of digestion.
For example, the recommended daily requirements of calcium and magnesium are about
1,000 to 2,000 mg and 300 to 400 mg, respectively, although specific requirements vary by
gender, age, and other factors. Water may provide a small fraction of these requirements. Thus,
if one lives in areas with hard water (which is defined as having 48 to 72 mg/l of calcium) and
one drinks eight glasses per day, which is about 2 liters, one would absorb less than 144 mg
of calcium, or less than 14% of the daily requirements. Drinking one glass of milk contains
between 300 to 350 mg of calcium, which is more than twice as much as the 8 glasses of water,
and a few slices of cheese could provide even more. The point is that the food we eat provides
most, if not all of the daily requirements, and not the water we drink. In fact, since most water
sources are not hard (the range goes from less than 7mg/l for soft water to more than 72 mg/l for
very hard water), the amount of nutrients and essential elements provided by water is rather
insignificant.
The second argument is more difficult to dismiss because it appears grounded on
“scientific” principles, hence its pseudo-medical label. While it is true that relatively pure water
(remember, there is no such a thing as totally pure water) dissolves practically everything, and
that is why it is labeled “aggressive,” it does so only in minute quantities. Yet, numerous
opinions from medical doctors (who have forgotten their chemistry lessons) suggest that pure
water can leach minerals from the body in the same way that pure water leaches various
materials under laboratory conditions.
Fouling is the progressive degradation of membrane surfaces due to particle occlusion.
There are two ways of assessing the above opinions. One way is to point out that there is
hardly any evidence in the scientific literature about such leaching of minerals from the body
(i.e., no clinical data or peer-review articles in respected journals). The second, more effective
way is to point out that the moment the water enters the mouth, human saliva renders it nonaggressive.
Human saliva contains numerous organic compounds that are grouped into 9-10
different classes (e.g., histatins, statherins, lysozyme, amylases, etc.) all of which are highly
soluble in water. The moment water enters the mouth, saliva dissolves and the mixture could not
possibly qualify as pure water. Furthermore, the mechanism for leaching “essential” minerals
from the body is most commonly stated to be through the small intestine, as water and nutrients
are absorbed by the body. Again, this does not make any sense because prior to getting to the
small intestine, any water would have to pass through the stomach, and the stomach adds
substantial quantities of gastric acid and other chemicals as part of its digestive function. To
consider that any water is pure or aggressive after passage through the stomach requires
unbridled imagination, particularly if one considers the effect of mixing such water with pieces
of hamburger or a banana.
Conclusions
Ultra-clean water contains ions, although few of them. The minerals that we need come
mainly from the food we eat, not the water we drink. And pure water does not leach minerals
from our body because as it enters the mouth it mixes with our natural fluids and ceases to be
aggressive.