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 specific 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.

First of all, 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.

How sometimes it is reluctant to pour out the water left from the previous tea party from the kettle in order to boil a new portion for tea or coffee! And we just put it back on the burner or press the kettle button. Maximum - add water if there is not enough left. Everything is attributed to haste, employment. Especially in offices, where every minute counts and tea parties are almost on the run. But who among us has ever thought: is it not harmful to our health? Can water be boiled multiple times?

What lives in the water?

In order to understand what processes occur with water during boiling, especially when it is boiled again, you need to imagine what composition tap water can have. There are not so few possible "inhabitants" of the domestic aquatic environment:

• Viruses, bacteria, capable of causing various infections. No cleaning and disinfection system can give a 100% guarantee of their complete destruction. Actually, because of them, water is most often boiled before drinking if there is no filter at home. By boiling the water, you can be sure that the harmful "living creatures" will be destroyed.
• Chlorine, which are generously “flavored” with water for disinfection. Chlorine can cause irritation on the skin and mucous membranes (including the oral cavity), and in high concentrations it can contribute to the oncology.
• Salts of magnesium and calcium. It is they who, settling on the walls of the kettle, gradually form the limescale familiar to everyone - an indicator of water hardness.
• Heavy metals (zinc, strontium, lead). Under the influence of high temperature, they form carcinogenic substances, which, as you know, are also capable of provoking tumors.

And this is not a complete list. You can also add sodium salts, nitrogen compounds (nitrates), arsenic here ... How much and what kind of substances are contained in a particular water supply system depends on what composition the water had originally, how and with what it was cleaned and disinfected.

Don't pour a full kettle if you know you won't drink it all: it's tempting to just add a little more next time. It is not worth doing this: the already boiling water will not become more useful, and the new one will mix with it. It is better to drain it completely and boil a new one.

Boil Chemistry

What happens in a kettle with water when it is boiled again? Dangerous viruses and bacteria die even at the first - the water is disinfected. It is no coincidence that small children are recommended to use boiled water, because it will not cause infections in the fragile intestines. But metal salts, unfortunately, do not go anywhere. Vice versa. Their concentration increases with each subsequent boiling, because the water evaporates, and its volume gradually decreases. In addition, these substances, when heated, interact with each other, forming various compounds. In particular compounds with chlorine. There are more of them, the more the same water is boiled.

Thus, dioxins and carcinogens are formed that are unsafe for the human body. Of course, for one tea party there will be no harm to health from them. But these substances are quite aggressive and tend to accumulate in the tissues of the body, causing serious diseases. If you use boiled water for several years, such consequences will be noticeable.

If you boil water several times, the concentration of other substances that can lead to the emergence of various forms of oncological tumors also increases. Nitrates form nitrosamines - carcinogenic compounds that provoke cancer of the blood, lymph. Arsenic, in addition, can cause poisoning, neurological abnormalities, infertility, heart disease, sudden pressure surges, and dental disease.

Some substances found in tap water are not harmful in small doses. But as they accumulate, if the water is boiled repeatedly, they become dangerous. For example, calcium salts. Their high concentrations can affect the kidneys, provoke the deposition of stones in them, cause arthritis or arthrosis.

Sodium salts, in particular sodium fluoride, can seriously impair the mental development of children and cause neurological problems. Therefore, you can’t boil water for babies 2 times (or more!)

Be sure to descale the kettle. Substances that form it can even react with water that boils for the first time.

How to be?

Of course, in the absence of a filter, boiled water is much safer in terms of harm than just tap water. But boiling it a second, third time is definitely harmful, since the compounds resulting from chemical reactions that take place when heated can accumulate in our body for years until they “shoot” with one or another disease.

Of course, if one day there was no time to change the water and the person drank “repeated” tea, nothing fatal will happen. But for the reasons stated above, this should not become a system. Yes, and the taste of such coffee or tea will be much worse: with bitterness, a metallic taste.

Therefore, it is better not to succumb to your own laziness, but to change the contents of the teapot completely before each tea party. And if the water is boiled in order to disinfect in the absence of a filter, it is prudent to first defend it for several hours in an open container so that the maximum chlorine vapor evaporates.

Laziness is not the best assistant in the matter of health care. We are reluctant to go in for sports, arrange jogging and even walks, cook for a long time (fortunately, semi-finished products are in every supermarket today - for every taste and budget) ... Let at least repeatedly boiled water not add problems. No wonder she is often called dead.

Everyone knows that any person is 80% water. Its molecules are involved in almost all processes occurring in the body. To ensure normal life, each adult individual needs to drink about 2 liters of fluid per day. In post-Soviet countries, it is generally accepted that boiled water is the cleanest and safest for the human body. But is it really so? In order to answer this question, you need to understand the pros and cons of boiling.

About living and dead water

Raw water contains a large amount of trace elements necessary for humans (copper, magnesium, calcium, etc.), which are present in it in the form of salts. Its use in its original, unboiled form has a beneficial effect on all organs and systems of the body, has a rejuvenating effect on it. However, during heat treatment, most of the salts precipitate, deposited on the bottom and walls of the kettle in the form of a poorly washed off whitish coating.

In addition, during the boiling process, oxygen evaporates from the water, and all the useful substances present in it are destroyed under the action of high temperatures. People who prefer to drink such a liquid do not get any benefit from it for their body. It is not for nothing that raw water has long been called living, and heat-treated water is called dead.

In addition to useful trace elements, nitrates, mercury and other substances that cannot be called friendly to the human body may be present in raw water. Boiling liquid to get rid of them is useless. On the contrary, the longer the kettle stays on the stove, the higher the concentration of harmful elements that negatively affect health will become in it.

The harm of chlorine

Boiled tap water, which is used by city dwellers for cooking and tea, deserves special attention. Such a liquid will not only not bring any benefit to a person, but can also become dangerous to his health. In our country, it is customary to chlorinate the water entering the apartment through pipes. Thanks to this, it is possible to disinfect it, killing pathogenic microbes in it. But people who are used to drawing water for making tea and food from the tap should be aware that the chlorine present in it, under the influence of high temperature, becomes a toxic compound that can provoke the formation of kidney stones in a person or even cause the development of cancer.

The harm of boiled water, regardless of whether chlorine is present in it or not, lies in the fact that after heat treatment it cannot be stored for a long time. After a maximum of a day, pathogenic microorganisms begin to multiply intensively in it, and its use can lead to a deterioration in human health.

A few words about the teapot

Boiled water becomes really dangerous if you use a poor quality electric kettle to make it. Cheap household appliances today are often made from toxic materials. If you boil water in such a kettle, harmful compounds from plastic will pass into it, and then, together with tea or coffee, will enter the body, causing serious illnesses in a person. In order to avoid such troubles, you need to buy kitchen appliances only from reliable manufacturers.

Why is heat treatment necessary?

But why is it said everywhere: "Drink boiled water"? What good is it, if so many facts testify to the dangers of heat treatment? The fact is that in raw water, especially if it is drawn from the tap, there are many microbes that die at high temperatures. The liquid poured from the kettle that has begun to boil is completely disinfected. You can drink such water without fear of catching insidious diseases such as intestinal infection, hepatitis, etc. It is undesirable to use it raw.

The benefit of boiled water is not only that all pathogens are destroyed in it. Heat treatment of the liquid makes it possible to reduce its rigidity associated with a high concentration of potassium and magnesium salts in it. When boiled, some of them settle on the walls of the dishes in the form of plaque, which means that they do not enter the human body and do not cause the formation of sand and kidney stones.

Basic rules for boiling

If you observe two main conditions, you can drink boiled water without fear that it will harm your health in any way.

Firstly, you do not need to keep it on fire for a long time. The kettle must be removed from the stove as soon as the first bubbles begin to appear in the water. This will be enough to kill all the harmful microbes in it. At the same time, the absence of long-term heat treatment will help preserve the maximum of useful trace elements in tea or coffee.

Secondly, in no case should water be boiled again, since as it evaporates, the amount of toxic substances that adversely affect health will increase in it. The kettle should be filled just enough to last one time. The remaining water must be poured out of it without regret, and next time boil new water.

So boiled water or raw?

Today, most doctors believe that water is most beneficial to drink raw. However, they do not mean the liquid flavored with chlorine flowing from the taps of city apartments, but bottled or spring. If a person uses water that comes to his house through pipes, then it must be boiled, because heat treatment kills all the microbes in it.

Every housewife knows firsthand about the benefits of boiling even purchased water, but only a few know that it is highly undesirable to boil the “life-giving liquid” twice in a row. Experienced specialists have recently given a complete explanation of this fact, referring to physical and chemical laws and formulas. Despite the fact that boiled water retains its organoleptic properties, its structure and composition does not change for the better. Physicists and chemists decided to visually confirm this scientific fact by conducting some experiments. There are many reasons why it is undesirable to boil water twice.

Only water that has been boiled only once is suitable for drinking. The structure of a water molecule is known to every person since schooldays - these are two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The chemical formula has the form H 2 O. Water is a liquid substance that has no color, taste or smell.

The water flowing from our taps, stagnant ponds and springs, has a unique composition, which includes all kinds of mineral chemicals that are dangerous to human health. In addition, natural and spring water contains the most complex high-molecular organics, microscopic flora and fauna. Boiling helps to get rid of all these unpleasant impurities.

The harmfulness of secondary boiling - scientific confirmation

The main task of boiling water is to rid the liquid of harmful, pathogenic microscopic organisms that die when the temperature rises. Organic substances are completely destroyed after the first boiling, but mineral inclusions remain in the same concentration. Repeated boiling leads to the fact that part of the mineral component increases, water evaporates, the concentration of harmful substances increases, which can cause irreparable harm to human health.

Scientists argue that, in addition to minerals, salt inclusions, alkalis, acid radicals, water contains dissolved hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The constant formation of steam and boiling of the same water leads to the fact that atomic hydrogen, together with isotopes of deuterium and tritium, sink to the bottom of the tank in which water is boiled. Because of this, the liquid density increases.

Also, do not forget about the proportion of active chlorine, which is part of tap water. Repeated and long boiling leads to the fact that this substance enters into a chemical reaction with organic residues and mineral inclusions. It is difficult to say what this procedure is fraught with, because the reaction directly depends on the degree of water purification. Water is pre-filtered at water intake and treatment plants, where it is subsequently chlorinated.

Poll

The lessons of physics and chemistry have long taught us that the acceleration of any reaction (including heating the temperature) does not pass without a trace, repeated boiling of the same liquid is fraught with the formation of carcinogens and dioxins.

Why can't you drink distilled water?

The proof of the fact that drinking boiled twice is unhealthy makes one want to ask a completely logical question, why can't you drink distilled water? Of course, no one forbids drinking distillate, but it has been scientifically proven that purified water that does not have taste, smell and color is also not particularly beneficial for human health. However, it is not clear what the reasons for this damage are.

Some scientists argue that distilled water, purified by steam and subsequently condensed, differs in a different charge direction and dipole moment from ordinary liquid. To restore the original properties of purified water, it is recommended to freeze this liquid in a plastic container. This method, harmless to humans, will help restore lost properties to water, it is perfect for simple drinking and cooking.

Previously, viewers could watch on TV a program about restoring water quality, where the charlatan Alan Vladimirovich Chumak acted as the host, purifying and charging the liquid in front of people sitting on the other side of the screen. According to him, such water was drinkable immediately, and it was not necessary to boil it at all. Although scientific facts state the opposite, that single boiling is necessary for water, but double or multiple boiling can completely change its composition.

How often do we forget that the kettle has boiled for a long time and has already cooled down, and we all can’t tear ourselves away from our favorite show or series? We turn on the stove again and boil the kettle again.

What happens when we boil water a second time? Even though this is very important to know, it is not taught in school.

When water boils, its composition changes, which is completely normal: volatile components turn into steam and evaporate. Thus, boiled water is safe to drink.

But when the water boils again, everything changes for the worse: Boiled water is completely devoid of taste. If it is boiled several times, it becomes very, very tasteless.

Some may argue that raw water also has no taste. Not at all. Do a little experiment. At regular intervals, drink tap water, filtered water, boiled once and boiled many times. All of these liquids will taste different.

When you drink the last version (boiled many times), there will even be an unpleasant aftertaste in your mouth, some kind of metallic taste. Boiling "kills" water.

The more often the heat treatment occurs, the more useless the liquid is in the long run. Oxygen evaporates, in fact, the usual formula of H2O is violated from the point of view of chemistry.

For this reason, the name of such a drink arose - "dead water". As mentioned above, after boiling, all impurities and salts remain.

What happens with each reheat? Oxygen leaves, water - too. Consequently, the concentration of salts increases.

Of course, the body does not immediately feel it. The toxicity of such a drink is negligible. But in "heavy" water, all reactions occur more slowly. Deuterium (a substance that is released from hydrogen during boiling) tends to accumulate. And this is already harmful.

We boil, as a rule, chlorinated water. In the process of heating to 100 ° C, chlorine reacts with organic substances. As a result, carcinogens are formed.

Frequent boiling increases their concentration. And these substances are extremely undesirable for humans, as they provoke cancer. Boiled water is no longer useful. Re-processing makes it harmful.

Therefore, follow these simple rules:

• for boiling each time pour fresh water;
• do not boil the liquid again and do not add fresh water to its remains;
• before boiling the water, let it stand for several hours;
• after pouring boiling water into a thermos (for preparing a medicinal collection, for example), close it with a cork after a few minutes, not immediately.

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