Cooking With Distilled Water?

[Cirion]

I know quality water is good to ingest directly, but what about cooking?

I recently bought a "total dissolved solids" (TDS) meter to get an idea how much crap is in my water. It goes red with tap water (not too surprised) at 200 ppm of junk, whereas distilled water is 0 ppm (nothing effectively, so presumably safer). So, I can see about drinking distilled - but should I stress too much about cooking with distilled also? I primarily use water to cook my potatoes.

 

[yerrag]

I'd like to get harder water but where I'm at water is soft at 75 ppm tds from our water utility. At 200 ppm, it's better as it has higher mineral content such as calcium and magnesium, if your water source is free from heavy metals as well as runoff from waste such as nitrites, nitrates, and phosphates.

 

[Lilac]

I bought a countertop distiller recently and find that it is not too much trouble to use. The residue left behind from my (New York City) tap water is a disturbing brownish color, and it smells bad. I put a pinch of pickling salt and baking soda into the distilled water. I have no idea if there are health detriments from cooking with and drinking this. On the other hand, I do not want to ingest that brown stuff.

 

[Cirion]

I'd like to get harder water but where I'm at water is soft at 75 ppm tds from our water utility. At 200 ppm, it's better as it has higher mineral content such as calcium and magnesium, if your water source is free from heavy metals as well as runoff from waste such as nitrites, nitrates, and phosphates.

Maybe, but I don't trust water or food that I don't know EXACTLY what's in it. Maybe its safe, maybe its not.

 

[ShotTrue]

I'd like to get harder water but where I'm at water is soft at 75 ppm tds from our water utility. At 200 ppm, it's better as it has higher mineral content such as calcium and magnesium, if your water source is free from heavy metals as well as runoff from waste such as nitrites, nitrates, and phosphates.

So gravity filter is better than reverse osmosis b/c it leaves in minerals? I'm looking at the berkely line for drinking and cooking water supply

 

[yerrag]

Maybe, but I don't trust water or food that I don't know EXACTLY what's in it. Maybe its safe, maybe its not.

It's a reasonable precaution when you can't trust your water utility, and I don't blame you. Flint Michigan doesn't inspire confidence. Neither do water utilities adding fluoride. However, there are water filters out there that do a good job. That's a better option than consuming water devoid of minerals.

 

[yerrag]

So gravity filter is better than reverse osmosis b/c it leaves in minerals? I'm looking at the berkely line for drinking and cooking water supply

That's a good one. And yes, it's better to have minerals in your water that comes the way nature intended. It's not the same as adding some minerals to distilled water. It's very important to bone structure development.

 

[Atman]

"TDS meter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A TDS meter indicates the total dissolved solids (TDS) of a solution, i.e. the concentration of dissolved solid particles.

Dissolved ionized solids, such as salts and minerals, increase the electrical conductivity (EC) of a solution. Because it is a volume measure of ionized solids, EC can be used to estimate TDS. Dissolved organic solids, such as sugar, and microscopic solid particles, such as colloids, do not significantly affect the conductivity of a solution, and are not taken into account."

This device is absolutely useless to determine the "quality" of your water.
It basically just measures the conductivity, i.e. ion concentration in your water. So a very clean (low microbial count and microplasitcs) water with a high salt level will give you a very high reading, while a very dirty water (high microbial count and microplastics) with a low salt concentration will give you a low reading.

If you want to make an experiment to convince yourself how useless this device is, do the following:
-Take 2 x 1 liter of distilled water in different bottles.
-Add 1g of mold/microplastic/birth control pill to one liter of the distilled water.
-Add 1g of salt or baking soda to the other liter of distilled water.
-Shake both bottles for 2 minutes
-Measure both liquids with the TDS meter.
-Realize that you shouldn't believe everything on the internet

 

[ShotTrue]

That's a good one. And yes, it's better to have minerals in your water that comes the way nature intended. It's not the same as adding some minerals to distilled water. It's very important to bone structure development.

Thanks for the confirmation. I think I'll be buying that one then. Also somewhere on the forum there was talking about drinking in the local, natural minerals helps your body acclimate and handle the surroundings