Boiled water - benefits and harm to the health of the body. Boiled water benefits and harms - scientific research and recommendations Why is it harmful to boil water several times

What happens to all these substances when water boils? Bacteria and viruses definitely die at the first boil, so this is simply necessary for water disinfection. Especially if the water is taken from a dubious source - a river or a well.

Salts heavy metals Unfortunately, they do not disappear from the water, and when boiling, their concentration can only increase due to the fact that a certain volume of water evaporates. The greater the number of boils, 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 one 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 cause negative impact on the cells of the human body. Scientists during the laboratory research found that such compounds appear even if the water was purified with inert gases before boiling. Of course, the harmful effects 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 this water every day for several years.

According to British woman Julie Harrison, who has extensive experience in researching the influence of lifestyle and nutrition on the occurrence of cancer, every time water is boiled, the content of nitrates, arsenic and sodium fluoride becomes higher. Nitrates are converted into carcinogenic nitrosamines, which in some cases cause leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of cancer. Arsenic can also cause cancer, heart pathologies, infertility, neurological problems and, of course, poisoning. Sodium fluoride has a negative effect on the cardiovascular system, and in large doses can lead to sudden changes blood pressure and dental fluorosis. Substances that are harmless in small quantities, for example, calcium salts, become dangerous when boiling water repeatedly: they damage the kidneys, promote the formation of stones in them, and also provoke arthrosis and arthritis. Repeatedly boiling water for children is especially not recommended, since its high sodium fluoride content 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 can lead to death.

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 changes its taste qualities not for the better, so the tea or coffee made from it will not be what it should be!

People living in cities have long been accustomed to boiling water before drinking it. This action is aimed at eliminating various bacteria and microbes that thrive in damp liquid, but are destroyed under the influence of high temperatures.

For many, it is common to boil water once again in order to pamper yourself with another portion of such an aromatic drink as tea or coffee. But this has no meaning. The liquid has already been disinfected by the first thermal treatment and will not become even cleaner from any number of subsequent similar procedures. From a medical point of view, used water should be replaced with new water. Such measures are required for several reasons.

First of all, repeated boiling of water that has already been prepared for use reduces its taste, after which the liquid begins to give off an unpleasant metallic aftertaste.

Even crystal water does not contain impurities - especially if we talk about the chlorinated liquid of cities. The composition of water is designed in such a way that additional exposure to fire will cause only oxygen molecules to evaporate. Thus, the water will become “heavier”, since the amount of liquid it contains will decrease, while the amount of harmful precipitation will remain unchanged.

It is noteworthy that boiling sea water is completely useless - after doing this several times, you will see that the liquid has evaporated, leaving unsuitable salt in its place. Salt impurities are also found in fresh water, but not in such quantities. Other harmful substances are also released - carcinogens, the amount of which directly depends on how much and often the same water is subjected to heat treatment. All these substances do not have an immediate effect on the body, but, accumulating in it over the years, gradually destroy it.

How not to disturb the life-giving power of water

How to protect your health from negative influence water? It is necessary to periodically replace it in the kettle - every time you plan to boil it. You can leave the same liquid, but then you should limit yourself to simply heating it, without bringing it to a boil.

We will have to try to ensure that repeated boiling of water has a bad effect on a person. In order to achieve the deposition of harmful sediments in dangerous doses, it is necessary either to boil it countless times, or to drink the liquid incorrectly prepared for use for a long period of time. But once you approach this issue consciously, water will turn into an irreplaceable friend of your body.

Water is one of the most unique substances in nature. A person needs it every day. An important factor in its use is purity and the absence of harmful impurities. Poor water quality can be extremely dangerous for the body. Therefore, before use, it is usually filtered, frozen or boiled.

What happens to water when it boils?

Each of us boils water. Some use it as drinking water, additionally cooling it. Most people make tea. You can often hear that water cannot be boiled twice. There is an opinion that such liquid becomes dangerous to humans. This is explained by the fact that even with prolonged first heating they disintegrate useful microelements. During the second boiling, there is supposedly nothing useful left in the water.

Boiling is necessary in most cases. IN tap water harmful bacteria can live. They die after only 2-3 minutes of heat treatment. But it is worth noting that some dangerous microorganisms are not afraid of high temperatures. In this case, boiling is powerless to cope with the problem. Also, this method cannot remove heavy metal salts from water.

It is believed that water should not be boiled twice because it may become “heavy.” From a chemical point of view, this is a myth. Heavy water is almost impossible to create at home. This is a complex process. This result is only affected by long boiling over many years.

In addition, heavy water is not lethal to humans. It is eliminated from the body relatively quickly.

The quality of boiled water may depend on the type of kettle. Many people do not boil water twice in plastic electric kettles. They believe that there is a reaction with the plastic. In fact, if a polymer is approved for use as a material in which water is heated, then it is safe.

Highly chlorinated water can be harmful to health. It reacts with plastic already at the first heating. Various hazardous substances begin to be released into the liquid. They can be preserved by repeated boiling. Therefore, the problem is most likely not in secondary boiling, but in the composition of the water. Before heating it in an electric plastic kettle, it must be left in a glass container.

The possibility of harm from secondary boiling can also occur if the kettle is made of low-quality material to which plasticizers have been added. These substances make the plastic less brittle. They begin to release when heated. It turns out that we drink water or tea with a dose of plasticizers. Therefore, you should not buy cheap Chinese devices. Cost is a direct indicator of the quality of plastic. The service life of teapots made from safe material is 3 years. After this, it is better to replace it with a new one.

Boiling water: myths and facts

Some explain the harm of boiling by the fact that the structure of the liquid is disrupted. In order to understand this, let us remember such a concept as the memory of water. It means that the liquid remembers the molecular composition of the substance originally dissolved in it. When heated, this memory is supposedly destroyed, and the water becomes dead. Official science does not recognize this fact. Scientific name dead water- distilled. Essentially, it is a liquid devoid of all impurities. It is obtained using a complex technological process. Like heavy water, it is almost impossible to obtain distilled water at home.
Another reason why reboiling is feared is the loss of oxygen in the liquid when reheating. There is less of it in the liquid already during the first heating.
Therefore, water quality is important when boiling. Chlorinated water is dangerous both during the first and second heating. With repeated heat treatment, the liquid does not become harder. It is softer than the usual one from the tap.
Boiled water will not cause harm to health under the following conditions:
Sedimentation or filtration of liquid. Chlorine will evaporate from the water and when heated, carcinogens will not form
Proper vessels for boiling. You should not choose teapots made of cheap plastic. When water is heated, a plasticizer is released
Cleaning the kettle from scale. This allows you to rid the water of impurities that accumulate on the walls of the dishes.

Why can't you boil water a second time? “Unfortunately, many people don’t know the answer to this question, and every day they make the mistake of not draining the old water from the kettle. But this ban has been known for a long time, but most simply turn a blind eye to it in order to save water and pay for utilities. In this article you will find comprehensive information about why it is harmful to boil water several times.

Why boil water?

As you know, no living creature, be it a plant, animal, microorganism or human, can live without water. 80% of our body consists of liquid (in infants - 90%). We simply need fresh water for normal metabolism and removal of toxins and waste from the body.

Unfortunately, the problem of clean, tasty water in modern world more than relevant:

in villages where clean springs could previously be found, now they are no longer completely clean due to soil contamination;
In the city water, to get to the apartment, you need to go through kilometers of pipes of questionable cleanliness.

Important! Naturally, in the latter case, the liquid is disinfected with special substances, for example, using bleach, but this spoils the taste and smell of the water, and does not help much. Regarding purification systems, their effectiveness is very controversial, because in some cities they have not changed for several decades.

Conclusion regarding quality drinking water deplorable. In order to somehow remedy the situation, people began to boil the liquid. The purpose of this process is one - to kill all bacteria and microbes that are in raw water, that is, to literally sterilize it.

Indeed, most microorganisms die when exposed to high temperatures. Then why can’t water be boiled many times, because doctors recommend for making tea or coffee to use only the liquid that was boiled once, be sure to pour out the old residues. To understand this recommendation, let’s consider the physical and Chemical properties ordinary water.

What happens to water when it boils?

Let us consider in detail what changes occur when the temperature reaches 100 degrees Celsius with the composition of H2O:

During the boiling process, oxygen and water molecules evaporate.
Since any water contains a large number of impurities, you should know that after boiling they do not disappear anywhere. Moreover, their concentration increases, since the liquid itself becomes smaller due to the evaporation of water molecules. Particles of dirt and salt settle at the bottom of the kettle, forming white scale.

Important! That is why sea water even after boiling it is not suitable for drinking.

All pathogenic bacteria, viruses and microbes are destroyed.

Important! It is a mistake to think that each subsequent boiling kills an increasing number of harmful microbes, viruses and bacteria. All harmful microorganisms They die at the first heat treatment of 100 degrees Celsius.

Water molecules contain heavy chemical elements - isotopes of hydrogen. They are resistant to temperatures up to 100 degrees and settle to the bottom during boiling. Thus, the liquid becomes “heavier”.

Is it possible to boil water several times?

A large number of people do not drain the old, previously boiled liquid, and boil it again to make tea. Is it harmful to boil water a second time? - Let's look into this issue.

Boiled water is completely tasteless

If a fresh transparent liquid does not have a special taste, then a boiled liquid loses even its remnants. And if you boil water several times, it turns into very tasteless. To understand the difference, you can conduct an experiment:

Boiling makes water “dead”

The more often and more water undergoes processing, the more useless the resulting liquid is. When boiling, the chemical formula H2O is violated, since oxygen leaves the liquid. The water becomes “dead”.

The amount of impurities increases

With each subsequent boiling of the same liquid, the concentration of salts increases. Naturally, human body such changes are not immediately felt, and the toxicity of such a liquid is a negligible percentage. But all reactions in “heavy” water occur more slowly, and deuterium, an element that is released from hydrogen during boiling, tends to accumulate, which brings undoubted harm to the body.

Important! “Heavy” water looks the same as ordinary water, and has the same chemical formula - H2O, but instead of light hydrogen atoms (protium), it contains heavy hydrogen atoms (deuterium).

Dogs, rats, mice and other mammals die after about a week of regular consumption of such water due to the replacement of more than 25% of light hydrogen with heavy hydrogen in their tissues. A person can theoretically drink two glasses of “heavy water” without harm to health. In this case, after a few days, deuterium will be completely eliminated from the body.

Carcinogens are formed

As a rule, the water that we boil for our food needs is treated with bleach. When heated to 100 degrees Celsius, chlorine enters chemical reaction with organic substances, resulting in the formation of carcinogens. This is another significant reason why water should not be boiled again. With each subsequent heat treatment, the concentration of carcinogens increases, and these substances are known to provoke the development of cancer in the human body.

How to boil water correctly?

Boiled liquid is no longer useful, but repeated processing makes it harmful. Therefore, before the next procedure for heating water for tea, follow these simple rules:

Use fresh water each time you boil.
Is it possible to boil water a second time? - You can, but it’s definitely not necessary! You should not repeat boiling, or add fresh liquid to processed residues.
It is advisable to let the water sit for several hours before boiling.
When using a thermos, do not cap it immediately after pouring boiling water into it. Do this in a few minutes.
Keep an eye on the container in which you boil water. Immediately descale the kettle - for this you can use citric acid or vinegar.
You don’t have to think long about how long you need to boil water. Wait until the water turns white due to saturation with air bubbles and turn it off. Don't wait until it starts to bubble and splash. Remember that the longer water boils, the less it becomes and the higher the concentration of carcinogens. This is why you should not boil water for a long time.

Important! Boiling for more than 20 minutes completely changes the structure of the water.

Video material

As you can see, the arguments as to why you can’t boil water several times completely and seriously. Water and food should only benefit your body. Whether to boil the same water several times or not is up to you to decide. But if in this way you can protect your body even by a small percentage from the accumulation of harmful substances, then why not try? Moreover, this does not require much effort.

For many people, heat treatment was and remains the only way purification of water from harmful impurities and microorganisms. Some people, trying to increase the degree of purification, bring the life-giving moisture to a boil two or even three times. We will tell you in our article why you can’t boil water twice and how it threatens your health.

Why does the body need water?

Almost everyone knows: the human body is 80% liquid. But few people know that its volume ranges from 30 to 50 liters depending on age: the older the person, the smaller its share.

Water was given the magical power to become the juice of life on Earth. Leonardo da Vinci

Most water is contained in cells: the volume of intracellular fluid is approximately 28 liters. In second place in terms of water content is free liquid - up to 10 liters, followed by blood, intestinal and gastric juices, lymph, cerebrospinal fluid, bile and saliva.

Water, constantly circulating throughout the body, takes part in all metabolic processes. With its help, toxins, dead cells, viruses and bacteria are eliminated through sweat and urine. We have already written “How much water do you need to drink to be healthy”, so now we will not touch on this issue, but will dwell on why you cannot boil water twice.

Why is it believed that water cannot be boiled twice?

Boiling is perhaps the only way to disinfect water available to everyone without exception. Many people use it for disinfection. tap water, and almost all are used when brewing coffee and tea. Sometimes we are too lazy to replace the liquid once brought to 100 °C with a new one, and then we hear from our mothers that You can't boil water twice. Let's see if this is true.

How does heat treatment affect the quality of a liquid? Any water, unless, of course, you are dealing with distilled water, in addition to hydrogen and oxygen, contains a lot of impurities, including:

calcium and magnesium salts, which settle on the walls of the kettle during boiling, but do not pose a particular threat to the human body;

heavy metals: strontium, lead, zinc, capable of high temperatures form carcinogenic compounds that cause cancer;

chlorine, which has an irritating effect on the skin and mucous membranes and provokes the appearance of cancer cells;

viruses and bacteria, both pathogenic and completely harmless.

During boiling, H2O evaporates, but heavy metal salts do not disappear, and their concentration in the liquid increases. True, scientists assure that they are still not enough to cause significant harm to the body.

In addition, during heat treatment, “light” hydrogen evaporates, but “heavy” (hydrogen isotopes) remains. Moreover, its density increases, and "living" water turns into “heavy”, saturated with deuterium. Regular consumption of such water leads to death.

Deuterium (Latin “deuterium”, from the Greek δεύτερος “second”) is heavy hydrogen, denoted by the symbols D and ²H, a stable isotope of hydrogen with atomic mass, equal to 2. The nucleus (deuteron) consists of one proton and one neutron. Wikipedia

However, according to research conducted by Academician I.V. Petryanov-Sokolov, to obtain 1 liter of deadly water, 2163 tons of tap water will be required. In other words, the concentration of deuterium in twice-boiled water is so low that it is not worth worrying about.

As a result, of all the consequences of double boiling, the following can be identified as harmful:

change in the taste of the liquid is not for the better;

“living” water, losing during heat treatment necessary for a person microorganisms turns into “dead”, i.e. useless;

the formation of chlorine-containing carcinogens and an increase in the concentration of heavy metals.

This is why you cannot boil water twice; however, one-time heat treatment leads to the same results.

How to get “living” water?

Not everyone has the opportunity to drink spring water or purify tap water using expensive filters. There is a simple way for them to obtain usable life-giving moisture.

Pour water into a jar and, without closing it with a lid, let it sit for 24 hours. During this time, most of the chlorine will evaporate. Then freeze it in the refrigerator (just keep in mind that when freezing, water expands, and the jar, if it is overfilled and closed, may burst), but not completely: let a puddle remain on the surface. This is “dead” water with a high content of deuterium - it turns into ice last. Drain it, after which the ice can be defrosted and drunk.

Listen to some more advice from a nutritionist who knows how to purify water at home:

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!