Watermaker - No Trace Elements Kills?

[MarkJ]

Had a cruiser on board for dinner last night (he bought the meat, desert AND the cheese and biccies!! )...

He said that watermakers filter out the trace elements and leave a water so pure that people will get very sick / die as they can't get trace elements from food etc.

Sounds like Bull Twaddle to me!!!

Anyone heard of this and can gently debunk it, please


Mark

[GordMay]

R/O water is pretty pure, and fairly free mineral-free. In fact, Maggie didn’t like the “bland” taste of it. Notwithstaning, I think your visitor is probably exaggerating the ill effects of living on R/O water, but there’s definitely some small basis for the myth.

[sv_makai]

Most trace elements are found in all foods, not just in water eat, so eat variety. Though the trace element Ruminite can only be found in a good bottle of rum.. I differ from Maggie in that I didn't drink water until we started to live aboard drinking RO water. I love the taste, no chlorine, florine, or well water iron.

[meyermm]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Had a cruiser on board for dinner last night (he bought the meat, desert AND the cheese and biccies!! )...

He said that watermakers filter out the trace elements and leave a water so pure that people will get very sick / die as they can't get trace elements from food etc.

Sounds like Bull Twaddle to me!!!

Anyone heard of this and can gently debunk it, please


Mark

I found the visitor for dinner part of your post more interesting than the water maker question Mark.

[htraudes]

It reminds me of the dangers of washing with anti-bacterial soap, that would - and has proven to - make one weaker and more susceptible to infection.
The statement about the 'overpurity' of drinking water is not without merit. If all you drank for an extended period of time was distilled water - APD - even if you made adjustments in your daily intake you would start developing certain mineral deficiencies. It wouldn't immediately kill you, but it would affect your health. What would kill you is the failure of an organ as a result of that. Maybe licking your rusty boat might delay this deficiency? There are many trace elements that we need and that we only get from drinking milk or from clean-but-not-dead water.

[Pblais]

He said that water makers filter out the trace elements and leave a water so pure that people will get very sick / die as they can't get trace elements from food etc.

To remove salt from water is at the molecular level. Dissolved salt is smaller than a bacteria. We all get trace elements from a lot of sources. If it's animal or vegetable then you can get them from them. Salt water animals are loaded with the stuff. Eat a fish and you be good to go.

You don't need anything from water other than water. I know someone that only drinks distilled water. Has a machine in the kitchen to make the stuff. One of those purity of essence types. Just because people do it does not make it right.

[captain58sailin]

The next time you have spray coming across the deck, open your mouth and catch some sea water on your tongue, like snowflakes.

[bill good]

beer is made with pure water without trace elements soo shud I stop drinking beer?

[Captain Bill]

RO watermakers are not so good that they remove all trace elements. My RO water varies between 300 ppm and 600 ppm TDS. 1500 ppm TDS is considered fresh enough for drinking. You might notice that watermakers advertize they remove 99.5% of all salt, not 100%. Distilled water is close to 0 ppm TDS. While RO water or distilled water may taste bland it's not going to kill you unless you're not getting any electrolytes in your food. If you were drinking large amounts of water but not eating anything over several days you might hurt yourself, but not under normal circumstances. Even then I doubt RO water would be any worse than any other fresh water source. Distilled water would probably hurt you sooner as it would wash out your electrolytes a bit quicker.

[h20man]

I heard this also from a chemist. They claimed that a person can die by drinking pure RO water. I presume they are correct. If you did not eat, and did not drink anything else, then, after a period of time, you may die, due to malnourishment. I would presume that you are going to be eating other foods. Thus the RO shall not be a problem. One should always evaluate ones diet to insure that proper nutritional aspects are being met. Scurvy was a problem until it was realized that the lack of vitamins was the cause.

Enjoy your self out there.…

[martinworswick]

Originally Posted by bill good

beer is made with pure water without trace elements soo shud I stop drinking beer?

not quite true, the trace elements in water are why you find quite specific beers coming from certain regions ie stouts from dublin and pilseners from czech republic, if all beers were made with distilled water you could make any beer equally well in any location

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by bill good

beer is made with pure water without trace elements soo shud I stop drinking beer?

No, don't stop drinking beer, but it does make the spelling go downhill!

I like the licking the rusty boat idea.... I'll start with the fiberglass and move onto the anchor..,

Thanks for everyones thoughts


Mark

[GordMay]

Although Reverse Osmosis systems remove minerals like calcium and magnesium from drinking water; water is a minor source of such minerals when compared to foods. There are absolutely no minerals found in water, that you cannot find in adequate quantities in the foods that you eat.

The minerals in water are inorganic minerals (mineral salts) with a very low bio-availability. In other words, our bodies cannot use (absorb) the inorganic minerals in water. Plants convert inorganic minerals, absorbed from the soil and water, into organic forms that our bodies can use.

[Captain Bill]

There are many cities that get all of their water from RO plants. Key West for example. This story is just pure bunk. The problem with chemists is that they're not biologists. As a Biologist I can assure you that what chemists say about us is even less kind.

[David M]

For that statement to be true you would have to stop eating food. But then you would die of starvation before you die of not getting enough trace elements. Its sort of a self-defeating statement.