Everyone knows that drinking tap water is extremely harmful. But not everyone has the opportunity to buy bottled water or use special filters. Since time immemorial, there has been one reliable way to disinfect water - boiling. In the days of our mothers and grandmothers, many had a container of boiled water in the kitchen and children were ordered to drink only from it! Using the same water, some brewed tea or coffee, boiling it again in this way.
And today, many often boil water several times, mainly for tea or coffee, being too lazy to pour out the liquid left in the kettle from the last time. This is especially true for offices, where one kettle is poured in the morning and water is boiled in it again every time someone wants to drink tea.
But will such a habit harm the body? Some supporters healthy lifestyle life argue that it is impossible to boil water again in any case. How right are they?
To begin with, we will tell you what impurities are contained in tap water.
- A considerable amount of chlorine, which is used to clean it, but can irritate the skin and mucous membranes, and in large doses can contribute to the onset of cancer.
- Calcium and magnesium salts, which, when boiled, settle on the inner walls of the kettle are well-known scale.
- Heavy metals, such as lead, strontium and zinc, at high temperatures form carcinogenic compounds that provoke the formation of cancer cells.
- Viruses, bacteria and similar microflora.
Water "living" and "dead"
What happens to all these substances during boiling water? Definitely bacteria and viruses die at the first boil. Especially if the water is taken from a dubious source. Heavy metal salts, unfortunately, do not disappear from water, and when boiled, their concentration can only increase due to the fact that a certain volume of water evaporates. How more number boiling, the higher the concentration of harmful salts. But, according to scientists, their number is still not enough to cause significant harm to the body at a time.
As for chlorine, during boiling it forms a lot of organochlorine compounds. And the longer the boiling process lasts, the more such compounds are formed. These include carcinogens and dioxins that can have a negative effect on the cells of the human body. Scientists in the course of laboratory studies have found that such compounds appear even if the water was purified before boiling. The harmful effect of such water will not be noticeable immediately, aggressive substances accumulate in the body long time, which does not immediately lead to the development of serious diseases. To harm the body, you need to drink such water every day for several years.
According to the British Julie Harrison, who has extensive experience in researching the influence of lifestyle and nutrition on the occurrence of cancerous tumors, every time water is boiled, the nitrates, heavy metals and sodium fluoride contained in the water become more dangerous.
Nitrates are converted into carcinogenic nitrosamines, which in some cases cause leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of cancer.
Arsenic it can also cause oncology, heart pathologies, infertility, neurological problems and, of course, poisoning.
sodium fluoride negatively affects the cardiovascular system, and in large doses can lead to sudden changes in blood pressure and dental fluorosis.
Useful substances such as calcium and magnesium when boiled, they turn into an insoluble form and are not absorbed by the body, and even become dangerous: they affect the kidneys, contribute to the formation of stones in them, and also provoke arthrosis and arthritis.
Especially not recommended repeatedly boiled water for children, because the high content of sodium fluoride in it can seriously harm their mental and neurological development. Another fact in favor of the inadmissibility of repeated boiling is the formation of deuterium, heavy hydrogen, in water. Ordinary water turns into "dead" water, the constant use of which harms the body. However, scientists are of the opinion that the concentration of deuterium in water, even after several heat treatments, is negligible. According to the research of academician I.V. Petryanov-Sokolov, to obtain one liter of water with a lethal concentration of deuterium, you will have to boil more than two tons of liquid from the tap. By the way, water boiled several times does not change its taste better side, so that tea or coffee made from it will not be what it should be!
To boil or not to boil?
A single boil does not cause significant harm to the body. But it is better to refuse the repeated one, since organochlorine compounds are clearly released with it, even in small quantities, and this is fraught with the body later. It is much easier to acquire a new habit: before each tea party, fill the kettle with fresh water, giving it a little “breathe” beforehand - to weather chlorine and other harmful substances. Do not bring the water to 100C, since there are more and more smart kettles on the market. And be sure to descale your kettle! And if possible, it is better to use natural artesian water without the content of harmful substances.
What kind of water is still poured into the kettle?
We will not consider filtered water now, since many articles have been written on this topic, including on our website.
Artesian natural water of low mineralization is recommended for boiling. Such water does not undergo repeated purification, which is used at urban water treatment plants, does not contain chlorine and other harmful impurities, and does not leave scale in kettles. When buying, you should pay attention to the label: total mineralization 100-200 mg / l, calcium up to 60 mg, magnesium up to 30 mg, hardness no more than 7 meq / l. It is also not important that there is a “higher” category of water on the label, since this does not indicate the quality of the water, but only means that it is most likely water purified by the reverse osmosis method and condensed in terms of salt composition. Simply put, soluble powdered salts of calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, sulfate, etc. were added to the same tap water purified to H2O. It is difficult to talk about the benefits of such “artificial” water;
