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Comment by johan_larson | Hacker News Reader

I'm wondering why people who are unsatisfied with municipal tap water don't just buy "spring water" or "distilled water", both of which should have less weird stuff in them. And they are standard products available at most supermarkets. Distilled water in particular should be pretty much pure H2O.

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This is just the continuing misconception among "trendy" consumers that anything "natural" is better for you in every capacity. It bears mentioning that if cynaide were marketable in any capacity, it'd be fully legal to bill it "all-natural".

Bitter almonds are good for cooking and more natural than benzaldehyde.

> It bears mentioning that if cynaide were marketable in any capacity, it'd be fully legal to bill it "all-natural".

That pretty much exists already and is even sold through amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunfood-Apricot-Kernels-Sweet-Organic...

I'd imagine the appeal is the interaction with our gut biome, which is not only turning out to be one of the most important biomes in our body - but also one of the most poorly understood. We evolved on many things that we now consider unhealthy, which would include running freshwater as a drinking source. And while our life expectancy has increased (though in the US, it is now in decline) that's largely been an issue of reductions in childhood mortality. Ancient Greeks had next to no clue about medicine, relative to what we have today, yet oddly enough many lived comparably long as we do today. Socrates died at 71 by execution. Plato 80, Pythagorus 75, Hippocrates 90, Eratosthenes 82, etc. There's not much survivorship bias there. These individuals made their legacies decades earlier. Aristotle, would be the exception on longevity, having died at a 'young' 62, though we are certainly still familiar with him! Imagine we took our medicine (but not our cultural values) to Ancient Greece. What would their life expectancies have become?

It's not exclusive enough. Anyone can buy spring/distilled water or install an RO system.

Only the true elite can afford to flout death with "Raw Water" and the possible health consequences. It's like tanning beds for the 20-teens.

Do them a favor, laugh, and embarass them before they get sick.

>they are standard products available at most supermarkets

I guess that's the problem? Not novelty enough? I suppose this is what happens when you start to worry too much about who/what touches what we ingest. We are almost full circle.

Err, isn’t distilled water bad to the point of being toxic? I think you mean purified.

Not toxic although it does lack minerals which could potentially be an issue over time.

This is a common misconception. It's been debunked many times. It stays around because it sounds interesting.

https://www.finishing.com/156/65.shtml

What is rain water? It is water distilled by the sun. Are there electrolytes in your spring water that you can't get by eating food... no.

Can you get enough electrolytes just from normal water (e.g. Total Dissolved Solids of 200ppm, not Gatorade) without food that will prevent you from dying of an electrolyte imbalance... no. Eventually, only drinking water will kill you for a variety of reasons (starvation), but you have so much salt already in your body that it will take weeks to kill you.

Err, no. Distilled water is perfectly safe to drink.

Yes, it's also called rain water.

Joe Mercola claims that, and he’s usually wrong.

Distilled water increases the rate at which the body loses essential minerals. You can negate that by ensuring your mineral intake is enough. It's much easier to just water that has minerals in it though.

Distilled water/pure H2O is NOT healthy. It lacks electrolytes.

The amount of electrolytes in spring water is so small compared to a peanut, or a raisin, much less a banana that it's relevant.

Unless you're talking about Gatorade or Brawndo, which of course has "what plants crave".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFD2ggNxR1g

The amount of electrolytes in non-distilled (e.g. spring) water is negligible. Any minerals/salts your body needs are easily satisfied by the food you eat.

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