Despite the fact that outwardly we do not look watery at all, 80% of the human body is water. It is she who ensures the viability of cells, organs and our entire complex system as a whole. Our need for water is paramount, and we regularly replenish it with hot cups of tea and coffee. Can you boil water multiple times? Will it harm our health?
Is it possible to boil water several times, is it dangerous
Boiling as a process generally does not cause enthusiasm among adherents of a healthy diet. It is believed that nothing useful remains in such water. However, doctors insist on heat treatment of a clear liquid in order to get rid of possible pathogens. And how can you make tea with unboiled water?
One way or another, the culture of hot consumption has firmly entered our homes, and the kettle, no worse than a samovar, has taken its place of honor in the kitchen, performing the only function - boiling. Is it possible to boil water again, that is, already boiled once, but not used? Some serious whistleblowers say no.
Water, as one of the natural elements, has a powerful meaning in the life of people, living creatures, and the planet. It is a vital factor in the life of every person, creature, plant - absolutely all earthly origin.
No wonder the human body is 80% liquid. From childhood, we are told that we need to regularly consume a certain amount of water in our daily diet.
Scientists have even deduced a certain formula for combining a person's weight with the amount of required daily intake of water intake: the more weight, the more a person needs to drink.
But what kind of water should you drink? Most often and most affordable is to find ordinary tap water. In childhood, many of us sin by quenching our thirst right from the tap, but this is a huge mistake due to stupidity and unconsciousness.
Indeed, in order for the water to undergo at least some purification from the sedimentary layers that have piled up over the years on the inside of the water pipes, local authorities use chlorine. Indeed, not every resident of the metropolis has the opportunity to go and collect crystal clear water from the well.
And yet, drinking water in its raw form is highly discouraged, because in order to remove actively harmful components in its content, the water must go through the boiling process.
What does boiling do to water?
On this topic, there was a funny dialogue between the girl and her mother. The daughter asks: “Why are you boiling water, mom?” - “So that all bacteria die”, - “So, I will drink tea with dead microbes?”. And in fact, at the time of boiling, the following occurs.
Firstly, when water reaches 100°C, the molecular constituents of water and oxygen undergo an evaporation process.
Secondly, the concentration of impurities that cannot be removed at the time of boiling doubles, since with evaporation part of the water leaves, while particles of salt and dirt remain. That is why sea water is considered unfit for drinking.
Thirdly, all unsafe harmful microbes, bacteria and microparticles are destroyed. But you are mistaken if you think that the more times you boil water, the more pathogenic bacteria you will kill. All of them die at the moment of primary boiling.
Fourth, hydrogen isotopes contained in water, with maximum heating, settle to the bottom, which entails an increase in the density of the liquid and its weight.
Why can't you boil water again?
We often get lazy when we sit, for example, in the office and suddenly want to drink a cup of coffee again, we press the switch on the kettle with already boiled water to boil it again. What is the risk?
1. Bad taste. You will no longer get the original taste of a drink prepared with such water. Why? Because raw water, when boiled, differs from that which has passed a hundred-degree heating, and re-boiled water loses its taste even more so.
2. "Deadness" of water. Every time the same water goes through the boiling process, its composition is disturbed and oxygen evaporates from the liquid. Water turns into "dead".
3. Increased concentration of impurities. As mentioned earlier, a boiling liquid tends to evaporate, and impurities remain, as a result of which, against the background of a decreasing amount of water, the amount of sediment increases.
4. Chlorine dioxins are formed. Initially, the chlorine in the pipeline water does not disappear anywhere, on the contrary, in the process of repeated heat treatment, its concentration only increases, and this leads to painful sensations in a person when such water is absorbed.
How to boil water properly
Use only fresh water before heat treatment;
do not add or mix fresh water with the remains of pre-boiled water;
let the water stand before boiling.
Boil water properly and drink to your health.
Water also plays an important role for humans. The daily need of the human body for water is 2-3 liters. Not all the need for water is met by people drinking pure water. Someone likes to drink juices or soda, someone likes to drink cocoa.
To prepare hot drinks - coffee, cocoa, etc., water must be boiled. As a rule, one boil is more than is needed at a certain moment to satisfy the need. Boiled water remains, which is re-boiled the next time. There is such a “horror story” among the people that if boiled water is boiled again, then the water becomes “heavy” - harmful to the body. But it's not. The harm of re-boiled water for humans is nothing more than a myth.
The Caravan publication cites the opinion of medical observer Tatyana Ressina, who notes that there are many misconceptions around boiled water that are fundamentally wrong.
Myth one
If you boil water several times (more than once), then the water becomes "heavy" - harmful to the body.
Myth two
As soon as the water boils, you need to stop the boiling process, since prolonged boiling of water also makes it “heavy” and harmful to the body.
Myth three
If raw water is added to boiled water and boiled, it will still be harmful to health.
According to the distributors of these myths, if the boiled water was not used in full, then during the next boiling process, the water must be completely renewed - boiled pour out and pour raw water into the kettle.
All these are myths, there is no evidence that re-boiled water or boiling water for too long, as well as adding raw water to boiled water before re-boiling, are harmful to the human body, notes Tatiana Ressina. According to her, perhaps the first disseminators of these myths accidentally stumbled upon information about heavy water and began to spread fears, and these fears, picked up by popular rumor, intensified many times over.
It is almost impossible to make heavy water from "ordinary" water by boiling at home.
During the boiling process, “ordinary” water can become heavy water, but it’s not so simple and it’s almost impossible to achieve this at home. If we talk about repeatedly boiling water in a kettle, then it takes more than a dozen years to boil it again for the water to become heavy. For obvious reasons, it will be impossible to do this, if only because the water by that time will have had time to evaporate from so many boils. Therefore, there is nothing to fear - you can safely boil already boiled water and drink it calmly.
What is the danger
The danger in the process of boiling or re-boiling may be different. If you decide to re-boil water, then pay attention to how much time has passed since the last boiling process. If a sufficiently long time has passed, then it is better to drain the water and pour fresh water into the kettle. The fact is that various microorganisms develop faster in stagnant water, and more dust and other debris gets into it.
Water
According to experts of the Medicine and Health News Department of the Market Leader, water plays a very important role in human life. Our body consists of up to 3/4 water and the loss of more than ten percent of this fluid is fatal. A person can live much longer without food than without water.
Water - not only supports human life, it forms almost all other processes on the planet. And this is not surprising, the surface of the Earth is more than seventy percent covered with water. Water plays a key role in the formation and -
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 people 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 of a healthy lifestyle 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. Firstly, this is a considerable amount of chlorine, which is used to clean it, but it can irritate the skin and mucous membranes, and in large doses can contribute to the onset of cancer. Secondly, these are calcium and magnesium salts, which, when boiled, settle on the inner walls of the kettle - the well-known scale. Thirdly, heavy metals, such as lead, strontium and zinc, at high temperatures form carcinogenic compounds that provoke the appearance of cancer cells. And fourthly - 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, so this is simply necessary to disinfect water. Especially if the water is taken from a dubious source - a river or a well.
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. The greater the number of boilings, 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 appear. 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 with inert gases before boiling. Of course, the harmful effect of such water will not be noticeable immediately, aggressive substances can accumulate in the body for quite a long time, and then 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 impact of lifestyle and nutrition on the occurrence of cancerous tumors, every time water is boiled, the content of nitrates, arsenic and sodium fluoride becomes higher. Nitrates are converted to carcinogenic nitrosamines, which in some cases cause leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of cancer. Arsenic can also cause cancer, heart disease, infertility, neurological problems and, of course, poisoning. Sodium fluoride adversely affects the cardiovascular system, and in large doses can lead to sudden changes in blood pressure and dental fluorosis. Substances that are harmless in small quantities, for example, calcium salts, become dangerous when water is repeatedly boiled: 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 in water - heavy hydrogen, the density of which also increases. Ordinary water turns into "dead" water, the constant use of which threatens with a fatal outcome.
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 for the better, so tea or coffee made from it will not be what it should be!
To boil or not to boil?
Boiled water is still more beneficial for the body than water straight from the tap. So a single boil is quite reasonable. 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. And be sure to clean the kettle from scale!
Any zealous housewife knows that water intended for drinking can be boiled no more than once. However, the physical and chemical mechanism of this prohibition can be explained only in the field of molecular physics and chemistry. Despite the preservation of the organoleptic characteristics of the liquid during boiling, its structure and composition of substances change. Why you can not boil water twice, the scientific fact is confirmed by experiments. This phenomenon is caused by several reasons.
Physical and chemical characteristics of water
The structure of the water molecule is known from the school chemistry course. It consists of two hydrogen atoms connected to one oxygen atom. The chemical formula of water is H2O. The liquid is colorless, transparent, tasteless and odorless. Tap water and natural water (river, lake, spring) contain many dissolved mineral chemical impurities, most of which are harmful to the human body. In addition, natural water contains complex macromolecular organic compounds, microflora and microfauna.
Why you can't boil water twice is a scientific fact
The main purpose of boiling water is to destroy harmful and pathogenic microorganisms that die when the temperature of the liquid rises.
Without denying the correctness of all the scientific facts presented, a completely legitimate question arises - Why can't you drink distilled water? ? There are no prohibitions here, but it has been noticed that the distillate, which has neither taste nor smell, also negatively affects human health. Moreover, there is no consensus among scientists about the causes of this phenomenon. According to some scientists, in distilled water, which has passed the stage of steam and then re-condensed, the direction of the charge changes and the magnitude of the dipole moment changes. To restore the original properties, some healers recommend freezing distilled water, which has a high degree of purification and, from the point of view of chemistry, is absolutely harmless to humans. For drinking and cooking, it is recommended to use melted liquid.
