RO or RO/DI for drinking water?

[imisky]

Ive been drinking RODI for the last year or so now and I'm all healthy. Now if I was fasting for 3 days+ that might be an issue but mostly because I'd starve to death

[Aquattro]

Just as a comparison, here's some numbers. Potassium. I drink 3l of water a day on average. That amount of my local tap water has 0.6mg of K. The contents of my cooler for food today has over 1600mg of k. The +/- 0.6mg I do or don't get from water is completely insignificant. If I drink RO and it sucks the 0.6mg from my cells, I still have 1600mg K without even considering afternoon snack or dinner.

[windcoast reefs]

As far as I have learned it is not a great thing to drink RO/DI water. It's not gonna kill you or have any significant effect in the short term. But the main reason you should not drink it is because the water is completely pure. When the water hits your digestive track, it can pull out many of the nutrients that your body has taken in from all the food you have ate in the last 24 hours. I think it is probably fine though if you keep up on your multiple vitamins. But I would never ever give it to children, it can cause weakened immune systems and lead to some problems later. basically is the same reason why kids that are raised with clean freaks can have weird allergies!

Just my 2 cents

[StirCrazy]

nothing wrong at all with drinking RO/DI water. take cruse ships for eg, hell take or navy. we make distilled water wich is the purest form of water and thats what we had to drink for up to 7 months.

another example.. middle east and especialy dubai and the kingdoms around them depend on RO DI for all there drinking water which comes from a huge plant just outside of dubai where sea water is turned into pure water.. no one is having problems from mineral loss there.

lets even go closer to home.. in victoria my tap water was 11ppm and sometimes down to 8ppm. in calgary is is over 400.. do people who live in Victoria have to take more suplements than people in calgary?

this is all silly talk, wives tales.. ect call it what you will by people who just don't know any better and have to say something to put down a purchase some one made that they don't think they needed. it has popped up several times over the last 10 years and it realy suprises me that people still think that way.

now do I drink DI.. no.. I tap off befor my DI filter for filling my water cooler jugs.. why.... I have 0 ppm out of the ro filter why waist my DI canister thats 50 bucks to replace.... so I use it for fish stuff only. would I drink it.. heck ya.. I did for 2 years till I found out how much it increased the depleation of the DI cartrage....... so for me its a cost thing.

Steve

[windcoast reefs]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

nothing wrong at all with drinking RO/DI water. take cruse ships for eg, hell take or navy. we make distilled water wich is the purest form of water and thats what we had to drink for up to 7 months.

another example.. middle east and especialy dubai and the kingdoms around them depend on RO DI for all there drinking water which comes from a huge plant just outside of dubai where sea water is turned into pure water.. no one is having problems from mineral loss there.

lets even go closer to home.. in victoria my tap water was 11ppm and sometimes down to 8ppm. in calgary is is over 400.. do people who live in Victoria have to take more suplements than people in calgary?

this is all silly talk, wives tales.. ect call it what you will by people who just don't know any better and have to say something to put down a purchase some one made that they don't think they needed. it has popped up several times over the last 10 years and it realy suprises me that people still think that way.

now do I drink DI.. no.. I tap off befor my DI filter for filling my water cooler jugs.. why.... I have 0 ppm out of the ro filter why waist my DI canister thats 50 bucks to replace.... so I use it for fish stuff only. would I drink it.. heck ya.. I did for 2 years till I found out how much it increased the depleation of the DI cartrage....... so for me its a cost thing.

Steve

I may not be a health professional, but i think that saying I don't know any better is a little unfair. I make my living setting up water treatment facilities for many different municipalities in Canada and europe. I personally prefer the taste of RO water, but im just trying to show a point which has been studied in depth for almost 20 years. In Canada this isn't a problem, we have a balanced diet and a temperate climate. But in very hot environments like the UAE, they do supplement there water that has been filtered though there RO plant. Their reasoning is that if you spend all day outside sweating, you re loosing many of the valuable minerals that you need. So to compensate, they add the minerals that they remove, calcium, magnesium, Potassium, Sodium, sulfate, silica and many different trace elements. RO bottled water have all of these minerals added as well. My main question is why spend the money on replacing things that you have removed from the water in the first place? Doesn't really make to waste all that money on a wives tale does it?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

IBut in very hot environments like the UAE, they do supplement there water that has been filtered though there RO plant. Their reasoning is that if you spend all day outside sweating, you re loosing many of the valuable minerals that you need. So to compensate, they add the minerals that they remove, calcium, magnesium, Potassium, Sodium, sulfate, silica and many different trace elements.





RO bottled water have all of these minerals added as well. My main question is why spend the money on replacing things that you have removed from the water in the first place? Doesn't really make to waste all that money on a wives tale does it?

actualy they don't.. I have been in the water processing plant a couple times in Dubai, and I have been involved in setting up emergency water supplies after natural desasters.. (which in some cases have become warer sourses for over a year) no remineralization. Oh.. I forgot previously, the city of kamloops is a RO plant also... no remineralization.

I have been working on industral sized RO, Distillers, and Ionization plants for the last 22 years, so I am not just talking out my you know what.. I have seen all kinds of studies and wives tails that were put to rest from studies... and yes it has been studied to death and there are no credable studdies that show a direct health risk from pure water.. only from drinking to much water and they used tap water for that one.

think about it.. you take a mouthfull of water and what happens.. your saliva renders it back to non pure water..

there is some merrit in your sweat thing as this does seplete salts and electrolites, but if you depend on water to replace these something is not right. unless you are an elete athlete who regularly extreamly exerts himself there is going to be no need to suplement your body with water that has minerals and electrolites added. like gator aid. I enjoy the tase of some of the products but thats about it, it realy doesnt do anything for me even when I am playing hockey.

local food in hot climats tends to be heavy in salt and spices, which did tweo things.. in the old days preserved the foods, and also ensured you werte getting your minerals in a extream hot enviorment. pure water is drank with abandon, and especialy now with the bottled water craze.

to answer the second part. people asume ro water is cleaner water which it is and will buy it and pay 10000% more for it than the water out of the tap. now another water bottling company wants a chunk of the pie so they bring out mineralized ro water citing they purafy the water and put back only the good elements, mineralized water is a sales gimic and nothing more. it will let a RO installer sell a add on that you don't need, or it will make people buy a different bottled water because they think it is better for them

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

I may not be a health professional, but i think that saying I don't know any better is a little unfair.

wasn't talking about you at all, I was talking about the markiting departments, and such that years ago started the misconceptions that people started to take as gospel all for the sake of selling different products.. also the people who say.."what did you buy that for.. you know it can hurt you" only because they figure there is no need for them to have one so they have to justify there position with false hoods, since you have one you don't fit into that either.. so not talking about you at all.

Steve

[windcoast reefs]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

actualy they don't.. I have been in the water processing plant a couple times in Dubai, and I have been involved in setting up emergency water supplies after natural desasters.. (which in some cases have become warer sourses for over a year) no remineralization. Oh.. I forgot previously, the city of kamloops is a RO plant also... no remineralization.

I have been working on industral sized RO, Distillers, and Ionization plants for the last 22 years, so I am not just talking out my you know what.. I have seen all kinds of studies and wives tails that were put to rest from studies... and yes it has been studied to death and there are no credable studdies that show a direct health risk from pure water.. only from drinking to much water and they used tap water for that one.

think about it.. you take a mouthfull of water and what happens.. your saliva renders it back to non pure water..

there is some merrit in your sweat thing as this does seplete salts and electrolites, but if you depend on water to replace these something is not right. unless you are an elete athlete who regularly extreamly exerts himself there is going to be no need to suplement your body with water that has minerals and electrolites added. like gator aid. I enjoy the tase of some of the products but thats about it, it realy doesnt do anything for me even when I am playing hockey.

local food in hot climats tends to be heavy in salt and spices, which did tweo things.. in the old days preserved the foods, and also ensured you werte getting your minerals in a extream hot enviorment. pure water is drank with abandon, and especialy now with the bottled water craze.

mineralized water is a sales gimic and nothing more. it will let a RO installer sell a add on that you don't need, or it will make people buy a different bottled water because they think it is better for them where infact they might be consuming to much of different minerals and such when combined with there diet.

Steve

Okay, I have never been to the Dubai plant, but I have been to the Abu dhabi plant. Now as ar as I remember, they do remineralize there water except for floride. I believe they follow the ISO 24000 series. Allot has changed in the past 20 years, and I am going to go with the Information I have learned throughout my schooling and experiences. Now back to the actual discussion in place. I agree with Steve, it think that bypass is to stop you from wasting money on DI cartridges.

[Aquattro]

The DI essentially completes the purification through ion exchange. The concern with DI is that the resins "could" possibly leach back the salts associated with the H and OH. I suppose this could happen, but then a decent TDS meter would pick that up.
Consuming RO or RO/DI is not a bad thing. As I pointed out above, even if it did adsorb back what was removed, using K as the salt discussed, it is such a miniscule amount that it isn't worth discussing. It isn't going to weaken your bones or any other harmful effect. Any re-mineralization done is probably done on a "just in case" basis, or to quell the consumer lack of confidence based on rumors on the web. For every single article stating one thing, there is an article disputing it.
The purpose of water is to keep you hydrated and to carry the minerals you've consumed throughout your body; not supply the minerals to begin with. The human body has specific nutritional requirements, regardless of regional distribution, and assuming this diet is met for the most part, water is water is water. Reading the chemical composition of the water delivered to my house, I'll stick to the RO stuff. Not DI, because I'm cheap

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

The DI essentially completes the purification through ion exchange. The concern with DI is that the resins "could" possibly leach back the salts associated with the H and OH.

actualy the biggest concern with drinking DI (which should be mentioned) is the possibility of bacterial growth in the resin its self as the chlorine has been stripped out so there is nothing to prevent growth, but on the other hand the water is pure so growth is limited.

also the water can't adsorbe minerals from your body as that is a bilogical process, but the biggest concern which was mentioned by windcoast, is that it can fail to be able to replenish the salt and electrolites lost due to sweat, but as mentioned unless you have some medical condition which prevents your body from adsorbing these from the food you eat it is of little concern for 99.99999999% of the population

Steve