Well? Tap? Bottled? Filtered? Reverse Osmosis? Distilled?
There are some interesting articles at www.e-caps.com touting the benefits of drinking distilled water.
What about lake water? I drink lots of that during a race.
It may sound a bit odd, but I take water out of a tap, put it into a plastic water bottle, and drink it. I run it through a filter on a good day. I drink lots of it. Seems to work, but maybe you might be better off with some designer water. Then again, maybe not.
Keep in mind they are advocating using their supplement caplets with distilled water, not just drinking distilled water. Drinking distilled water alone is actually not a healthy idea. Distilled water can actually pull electrolites out of the body, the opposite of what you want to happen.
Ryan
Bottled in the summer and tap water in the winter. Tap water is about 120 in the summer out here. New marketing slogan: Get hydrated get scalded Drink tap.
H2O is H2O is H2O.
Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen per molecule seems pretty optimal.
Of all the water you can drink, distilled is just about the worst. We get a huge proportion of our daily minerals from water, and distilled has none.
Tap water was fine when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. After all, it comes out of a high Sierra canyon right into a pipe and down to your kitchen tap.
Here in San Diego, tap water is mostly a nasty combination of Colorado River sludge and ground water. Not drinkable.
This is not true. It is an old wives tale.
Show me where you found this out.
Thanks
jaretj
I’ve been looking on the web for about an hour for any information saying that distilled water pulls useful minerals from your body and have found none. I’ve found a lot of the sites have the exact same article as e-caps does but most of them are trying to sell either water purifyers or distilled water. Still I haven’t found one that said it is harmfull.
I’m not a nutrianalist (sp?), I have no background in human anatomy and would like to know more about this from someone that is or has access to someone that is.
thanks
jaretj
I am 100% with AJ…I turn the knob on the right side and when the water is cool I fill er up.
My background is as a chemist, not as a nutritionist. Distilled water has no minerals (or anything else besides H2O) in it. When you urinate you excrete some minerals, therefore it “pulls” minerals from your body. Whether this is harmful has more to do with your mineral intake, but I doubt its harmful as long as you eat a healthy diet.
My opinion is that the only reason to avoid “normal” water is to avoid the possible contamination from various pollutants which may be present, typically in well water.
I installed an undersink filter. It has carbon it so it removes the bad taste and other teenie meenies that might be in there. We were filling the brita jug about 10 times a day before I did it. Now we change that filter every few months.
Craig
I got a kick out of reading the articles at the e-caps site. I’ll refer to them as “directed science” to be kind, as in directed to make a sell. No knock on their products, as many people swear by them, but whether one drinks distilled water or not will quickly be swamped by the rest of one’s (hopefully balanced) diet (unless you’re a seed growing in inorganic ash :-). There are some areas of the world where I wouldn’t drink the tap water, but as long as I live in upstate New York I’ll reinvest the saved water money in my disc fund.
Dan
Unless you have kidney problems, your body will regulate how much sodium and other minerals it will excrete vs. readsorb. While distilled water will certainly not contribute any minerals to your diet, it won’t pull them out of your body.
I agree completely with your second paragraph though.
“Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen per molecule seems pretty optimal”
Recent research has shown at the quantum level where chemical reactions take place the effective ratio is more like 1.5/1. Just depends on how you look at it.
I use a Doulton water filter under the sink. I wouldn’t worry about it but with a kidney transplant I am like a canary in a coal mine and I can’t wait for the local municipality to announce 3 days post facto that the water is contaminated.
My favorite is Evian: It tastes good, I’m sold on the hype of it coming out of a beautiful French mountain and I like the bottle. Aquafina tastes like skank.
Fact: Per gallon bottled water is more expenisve than gasoline.
Fact: Per gallon bottled water is more expenisve than gasoline.
But not as expensive as Whiteout. 
Very true. Please wish Cheryl the very best Ironman Florida from all of us here at Bikesport. Have a great trip guys!
Ever price the cost of a gallon of Milk?
I have found that the only capsulated product I use during my races is buffered salt tablets. I also use excellerade instaed of pure water.
Kamalator
I always take a few packets of dehydrated water with me when I travel, so if I don’t like the local variety I can just rip open a packet … Just add water and you’re set! …