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[Bevanron <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Tim Oppenheim wrote:

> Bev,
>
> I have read somewhere that distilled or reverse osmosis water can 
> actually leach minerals from your body.

Weeellll.....
RO works on ions...minerals in the body circulate as ions...technically,
I can see this happening, but I don't think it's something to lose any
sleep over.
RO filtration takes various ions and minerals out of the water supply,
so the water you drink is 'more pure' than say, typical well water,
which is full of ionic minerals.  Drinking RO water will wash out
minerals from your body, but really no more so than mineralized-ionized
water.  The minerals in water give it its taste and value.  Bottled
spring water became famous simply because of the minerals.
Basically, it's all a matter of size of the particles you are trying to
filter.  Ions are smaller than bacteria, for the most part, even smaller
than viruses.
Now, where a RO filter would come in handy is treating water that has
been contaminated by heavy metals like lead, radium, or arsenic
....lighter ionic metals like magnesium and iron have health benefits
and are not harmful in general.  RO is also used for desalination,
again, because it can remove the various ions in sea water, namely, the
salts like NaCL (Na+ and Cl- ions ---sodium is a metal ion)
I'm not an expert on RO filtration, but I do know that it has some
disadvantages....from a health standpoint, you are kind of throwing out
the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.  It reminds me of the
arguments for pasteurizing milk...yah, you take out the bad stuff, but
you also take out the good stuff...  I have heard that it takes
something like 5 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of RO water, and if
that is true, it seems wasteful to me.

Bev

--
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W