The most common question asked about distilled water is about the apparent "lack of minerals" in the pure distilled water.

Our body needs minerals, but they most be special minerals, processed by the plant or food cycle. Our body then absorbs these minerals through the chelation (pronounced key-la-shun) process, when combined with specific amino acids in our body.

Minerals found in water are inorganic---simply pieces of rock, stone and dirt dissolved in water. Science tells us that only plant life can absorb inorganic materials and subsequently convert these to usable minerals which can in turn be absorbed by our digestive system.

Therefore, we obtain our mineral nutrients from fruits, vegetables, plant and animal life. The medical and scientific experts quoted on the preceding pages give adequate testimony to this fact.

Occasionally we find sincere, but badly misdirected authors making statements to the contrary. For example, Dr. Martin Fox, in his recent book "Healthy Water for a Longer Life" recommends an "ideal" drinking water which contains 170 milligrams per liter of rock lime (calcium bicarbonate), is alkaline and contains large amounts of salts, metals and other dissolved debris unusable by the body.

I doubt that few if any individuals who are kidney patients would follow such a water diet, inasmuch as these "ideal" amounts of lime and salts would block their kidneys and perhaps become life-threatening.

We need to learn from even this simple example that if the body did use the minerals in water, these kidney patients wouldn't have to worry about what type of water they used for drinking and/or dialysis.

On the contrary, tens of thousands of kidney patients are living and walking testimonials to the fact that the body does not absorb these inorganic minerals and salts from tap or even "spring" water.

Some detractors of distilled water claim that distilled water is "flat", it contains no oxygen, and has no taste. Distilled water may taste "flat" compared to water containing chlorine or other chemicals. The objective of a water purifier is to remove chemicals and foreign materials from tap water.

If a water purification system is ineffective in this job, a "taste" remains---a taste you can smell or an aftertaste which stays in your mouth. Distilled water leaves no aftertaste because it contains none of the chemicals and impurities which create the "taste".

Good tasting drinking water also contains oxygen. Pure water, H2O, contains two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. For those who say that distilled water contains no oxygen, we remind them that without oxygen, water cannot exist as water, it is simply two molecules of hydrogen.

Additionally, dissolved oxygen is also found in all types of water, including distilled water. Several milligrams of dissolved oxygen normally are found in water. Oxygen can be added by various means to distilled water, spring water or even reverse osmosis by various techniques.

One type of purified water we do not recommend for drinking is "deionized" water. "Deionized" water is processed by highly reactive chemical resins which extract positive and negatively charged ionic particles such as calcium, sulfate, magnesium, iron, etc.

Without very exacting and near continual monitoring of deionizer water purifiers, this method of water processing may leave the deionized water highly reactive. This type of reactive water is excellent for cleaning semiconductor chips, but we do not recommend it for use in food and drinking water applications.

Industry uses a considerable amount of deionized water in manufacturing and computer chip assembly areas but sternly warns it's workers not to drink the deionized water. These manufacturing operations instead bring in bottled distilled or spring water for their workers.

Yet, most vending machines and many water stores and bottlers don't give a second though to using this type of process in their equipments or products.

The deionization process does not remove toxic chemicals or bacteria. In fact, the chemical resins used in the deionizer are notorious breeding grounds for bacteria.

We recommend that you read labels on bottled water (and even vending machines) very carefully before buying any type of water for drinking purposes.

Many labels, particularly on vending machines, may say

"...for all distilled water uses".

This is NOT steam distilled water. It is usually water treated by either deionization or reverse osmosis, with total solids reduced to a level below 10 milligrams per liter. In most cases, the water purity is normally far poorer than that of steam distilled water.