this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
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[–] LwL@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yes that's what I said. But one of the likely reasons the myth stays around is that all of the following is true:

  • Excreting water requires electrolytes
  • Excreting water will remove those electrolytes from your body
  • Drinking significantly more water than you excrete will lead to hyponatremia
  • Distilled water has no electrolytes while tap/mineral water does

What the myth ignores is that:

  • The amount of electrolytes in water is negligible anyway, so distilled water isn't really worse in that regard and consumption of any normal amounts of distilled water is completely fine
  • You can't just drink infinite fluids because you consume infinite electrolytes because your body is more complex than that, so regardless drinking too much of anything will kill you

But saying it doesn't strip you of anything isn't entirely true, and I'm not a fan of misinfo even if it's more of a nitpick. More than that I don't think it's going to help when from my first 4 bullet points you could easily come to the incorrect conclusion that drinking distilled water will quickly lead to hyponatremia.

It's probably also where the osmosis thing further up comes from, since that's involved in causing the neurological symptoms, it's just unrelated to what fluid you consume, since it happens with your blood, not the fluid itself.

You don't fight misconceptions with half-truths.

Edit: when i say fluid i mean something water based ofc, if you drink something else for some reason you'll probably have all sorts of different issues anyway.

[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

That is a lot of words to say distilled water doesn’t affect your body in any significant way.

It also doesn’t strip you of minerals, that’s not how the body works, please provide a source lmfao. Distilled water doesn’t pull minerals out of your body, that’s just plain false. Argue whatever adjacent point you want, but this is just plain fucking false. You’re using incorrect information that’s been debunked. God fucking lmfao.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yes exactly glad you get it. Some people want to actually understand why something isn't true instead of believing the first source that says so.

[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

And what a shocker, no sources.

[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

…. You still don’t get it do you.

Provide a source that says distilled water strips you body of minerals, that’s outdated and incorrect information that’s been debunked. The body doesn’t work that way.

So please provide a source, I need another laugh this morning. You’re the fifth person now who’s arguing and won’t be able to provide a source.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Urine contains salt, always, even when in a state of hyponatremia: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/sodium-excretion (scroll down to the kidney disease paper, it wont show any of the text on the direct link, insert obligatory hate on academic publishers)

I hope you don't need a source for distilled water not containing salt or water needing to be excreted or for sweat (the other way water leaves your body) containing salt, I already spent way too much time on this because sourcing on mobile is a pain.

And yes, <10mmol/l isn't a lot. That's <500mg (and how low it can go precisely idk, couldn't find that, but likely much lower, given that the <10mmol figure is a threshold for diagnosis of kidney issues) You replenish that through food, easily (esp these days where sodium intake is, if anything, very high). That's the whole point. Barring very extreme situations, healthy kidneys will regulate your sodium levels just fine.