Having clean water is a privilege that we often don’t realize, but clean water is essential for us to survive and remain healthy.
Drinking dirty water can cause harmful bacteria to enter our systems, so making sure that our water is clean will improve the quality of taste and make sure that we do not become sick or unwell after drinking water.
Water is an essential component of our lives, so how can we make sure that we are drinking the best quality water?
There has long been a debate about whether purified water or distilled water is best for your body, but which one should we be drinking?
Drinking the right water is important for keeping our bodies safe and hydrated.
This article will help you to understand the difference between purified and distilled water, so you can see which is better for your body.
Find out more about the differences between purified and distilled water below!
What Exactly Is Purified Water?
Purified water is safe to drink as it does not contain any harmful or toxic chemicals.
This means that purified water is available for most people and ensures that they can consume clean water.
Purified water goes through a process where it is filtered, and the filtering process removes harmful chemicals, parasites, and fungi from the water, so it is safe for you to drink.
For water to be considered pure and safe to drink, it needs to be lower than 10PPM.
In order to be lower than 10PPM, at least 99% of impurities need to be removed from the water.
The filtration process gets rid of the impurities in the water, as well as disinfection, coagulation, and sedimentation.
What Exactly Is Distilled Water?
Distilled water is different from purified water as it is entirely free from any impurities or bacteria.
It is taken through the distillation process, so it doesn’t come into contact with anything that could contaminate the water.
The distillation process involves collecting the steam from boiling water. The steam then becomes distilled water.
This process is extremely effective in getting rid of harmful toxins and bacteria in water, making it popular to drink by lots of people.
As it doesn’t contain any contamination or impurities, it is completely safe to consume as it won’t harm your body at all.
Is Purified Water The Same As Filtered Water?
As pure water goes through a filtration process, it often gets confused with filtered water.
Both purified water and filtered water are different due to the purification processes that they both go through.
Lots of people believe that filtered water is cleaner, but purified water has more impurities removed during its purification process.
When purified water goes through the purification process, a minimum of 99.5% of impurities are removed from the water.
With filtered water, the source of the water determines how much of the impurities will be removed from the water. These makes purified water a lot more popular than filtered water.
Advantages Of Drinking Purified Water
Drinking purified water has a lot of benefits for your body, but what are they?
Lots of people are happy to drink tap water, but they might be unaware of the benefits that drinking purified water can have on your body.
Find out more about the advantages of drinking purified water below!
Harmful Chemicals Are Removed
As purified water goes through a lengthy purification process, lots of harmful chemicals that are found in unpurified water are removed, so your body doesn’t come into contact with them.
One of the chemicals that is removed from the water in the purification process is chlorine, which has been linked to causing cancers such as colorectal cancer.
The process also removes metals like copper and lead from the water. If ingested, these substances can be toxic, so drinking purified water eliminates this risk.
As harmful metals are removed from the water, this also improves the taste of the water.
No Harmful Bacteria
When the water is purified, harmful bacteria are removed during the process.
If this harmful bacteria are ingested, it can cause sickness, diarrhea, stomach pains, nausea, and other illnesses.
When you drink purified water, you can be sure that there are no harmful bacteria present in the water as it has all been removed in the purification process.
Helps Your Skin
Drinking water is healthy for your skin, but drinking purified water can help to form a protective barrier in your skin.
This protective barrier can help to keep impurities away, so it is a lot healthier for your skin to drink purified water than tap water.
Disadvantages Of Drinking Purified Water
Although purified water is healthy for you to consume, there are still some disadvantages to the purification process.
It is important that you know about these disadvantages before you drink the water to make sure that you are aware.
Maintaining The Purification System
To purify water at home, you can purchase water purification systems.
These systems take a lot of maintenance to keep clean and hygienic as you need to make sure that you regularly replace the filter.
If you leave the old filter in for too long, your water will become contaminated, and it won’t be purified.
Overusing Plastic
When purchasing purified water to drink, it often comes in plastic bottles.
Purchasing so much plastic, is very harmful to the environment, especially if you are not recycling.
You should always try to cut down on your plastic use, and purchasing purified water in plastic bottles could cause a lot of plastic waste.
Doesn’t Always Get Rid Of All Impurities
Although water purification systems are efficient in getting rid of harmful impurities in water, it cannot be guaranteed that the water will be 100% clean.
Some chemicals may not be removed entirely from the water, meaning that the water will not be as pure as you think.
Some purification systems remove fluoride during the purification process.
Fluoride is a mineral that helps to protect your teeth from tooth decay, so having this removed from the water could affect your teeth.
Advantages Of Drinking Distilled Water
As distilled water goes through a long distillation process, it is very healthy as it is clean from contamination.
Find out more about the advantages of drinking distilled water below!
Gets Rid Of Harmful Bacteria
During the distillation process, harmful bacteria are removed from the water. If you ingest these harmful bacteria, they can cause illness, such as diarrhea or stomach pains.
To ensure that you don’t get sick from consuming these bacteria, it is best to drink distilled water.
If you have a weak immune system, drinking distilled water can keep harmful bacteria away from your body.
Clean Water At All Locations
If your hometown doesn’t have strict water regulations for taps, drinking distilled water can ensure you that you are drinking water that is free from harmful chemicals.
When you go to different locations around the world, you may find that some places do not have safe tap water.
If you want to avoid being exposed to harmful chemicals when traveling, you should consider drinking distilled water.
Disadvantages Of Drinking Distilled Water
Although distilled water is healthy, there are some disadvantages to constantly consuming distilled water.
Find out more about the disadvantages below, so you can decide if distilled water is suitable for you to drink.
Electrolytes And Minerals Can Be Removed
When distilled water goes through the distillation process, electrolytes and essential minerals can also be removed from the water.
These minerals and electrolytes are important for maintaining a person’s health, so having them removed can deprive your body of receiving them.
Calcium and magnesium, which are essential for maintaining good health, are removed in the distillation process.
Which Water Should You Choose: Purified Or Distilled?
When you are deciding between purified and distilled water, it is essential that you consider what you are consuming.
As both purified and distilled water are clean and rid of impurities, it is vital that you consider the nutritional value of the water.
The Nutritional Value Of The Water
As purified and distilled water both go through processes to get rid of impurities, the nutritional value of the water is essential for deciding which one you should drink.
As essential minerals like calcium and magnesium are removed from distilled water, you shouldn’t solely drink distilled water.
If you do, you need to make sure that you are getting the minerals that you are missing out on somewhere else in your diet.
It is essential to make sure that you are drinking clean water, but it is also important to make sure that your body receives all the minerals that it needs to survive.
If your body doesn’t receive these minerals, you could experience tooth decay or deficiencies.
Babies
When you are giving your newborn baby water, you don’t want them to be consuming water that contains lots of impurities and harmful chemicals.
You can serve your baby distilled water with their formula to make sure that they are drinking pure water, but you don’t want to stop them from getting the essential vitamins and nutrients that they need to stay healthy.
Purified water still contains minerals that are needed to keep your baby healthy, but they are not present in distilled water.
However, it is essential to make sure that your baby is exposed to all the vitamins and minerals that they need to make sure that they do not grow up with a deficiency.
Make At Home
If you are interested in having either purified or distilled water, you may be wondering which is easier to make at home.
To make purified water, you can purchase water purification systems that will purify your water for you.
It can be expensive, but it easily purifies the water for you without you having to keep going out to buy purified water.
To make distilled water at home, you can collect steam from boiling water, but that might take you a lot longer than you want for a glass of water.
Instead, you can purchase a distillation kit that will distill the water for you. This is a lot easier as it isn’t as time-consuming.
It is always important to regularly change filters to make sure that your water isn’t contaminated.
Having a dirty filter is extremely unhygienic, so you need to make sure you change it to avoid drinking contaminated water that hasn’t been filtered properly.
Personal Choice!
At the end of the day, it is entirely up to you if you would rather have purified or distilled water.
Distilled water keeps your water clean by getting rid of any harmful chemicals in the water, and purified water gets rid of harmful bacteria while making sure that healthy minerals remain in the water.
It is down to you which water you would rather have as they are both clean, but minerals are essential for you to consume.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, purified and distilled water are both clean to drink, but they go through different processes to achieve this.
Purified water still contains essential minerals, whereas distilled water gets rid of them in the distillation process.
Although they are both clean and do not contain any impurities, they both lack essential vitamins and nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy.
Purified water still contains essential minerals after the purification process, but distilled water doesn’t have any nutritional value.
That is why it is important to make sure that you are receiving the right vitamins and minerals from other areas of your diet as you won’t be getting them from purified or distilled water.
Overall, it is your personal preference on which water you would rather consume.
Both purified and distilled water are clean and do not contain harmful bacteria or impurities, and they lack essential vitamins and nutrients.
Although purified water does contain some minerals, it is important to make sure that your body receives the right amount to remain strong and healthy.