Is it possible not to boil. Why You Can't Reboil Boiled Water
If many doctors claim that boiled water is much healthier than regular water, then why shouldn't it be boiled twice? It would seem that this should bring double benefits, if we start from simple logic. However, the subject of chemistry is more involved here, and the chemical composition of this liquid allows us to understand why it cannot be boiled twice.
Double boiling makes the water heavier
To understand the question posed, you need to turn to the school chemistry course, from which most of us know that water molecules contain natural hydrogen isotopes. When boiled, some of them turn into steam - this evaporates lighter molecules. But the heavy molecules, which are also part of it, settle to the bottom. Therefore, each repeated bringing water to a boil will make it heavier, and this cannot have a positive effect on our body.
Benefit reduction
In fact, everything is not as sad as it sounds in this subtitle. It should be explained. And again we turn to the chemical composition of the white liquid, which, in addition to distilled water, also contains a certain amount of various impurities. This is especially true of tap water, which is subjected to various cleaning methods, including chlorination. So, when boiling, only water molecules can evaporate, and all these harmful impurities remain. Moreover, due to the fact that part of the liquid turns into vapor, the concentration of such impurities increases. That is why it is considered sterile, but not free from various harmful substances.
The previous two paragraphs are perfectly acceptable explanations regarding repeated boiling. However, this should not be taken too seriously. In addition, this does not mean at all that from now on it is impossible to bring water to a boil at all, since this can make it heavy, and therefore harmful, and the amount of harmful substances in its composition will increase. We explain. The fact is that it will receive significant and noticeable changes only when it is repeatedly boiled, for example, a hundred times. But it is unlikely that anyone would need such an action. Therefore, if you need it, boil it twice without any fear.
In addition, if you prefer to boil the white liquid for the purpose of sterilization, then this does not require a second action. All harmful microbes and bacteria are killed the first time because they cannot survive at such a high temperature. Moreover, if the water in the kettle is already boiled, then the next time you use it, it is enough to heat it up to the desired temperature.
If you want to use boiled water for brewing tea or coffee, then you do not need to bring it to a boil again. It should be brought to a “white” state, that is, when it is saturated with bubbles before boiling itself.
And finally, I would like to note that if you boil water twice, it may lose its pleasant and mild taste. Tea from this may lose its aroma, and its benefits will become less.
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 from the repeated one, since organochlorine compounds are clearly released with it, even in small quantities, and this is fraught for 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!
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 Tatyana 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 -
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.
How many copies have been broken lately in an attempt to answer this simple question! Mutually exclusive arguments and substantiations of ecologists, chemists and other specialists baffle the common man in the street. Whom to believe? To boil or not to boil? Let's try to figure it out, relying only on logic and school knowledge.
Which water is healthier - raw or boiled?
I think the answer is obvious - raw! Life-giving moisture - this is how we respectfully address, and, of course, not boiled. It would never occur to anyone to water flowers on the windowsill with liquid that has passed the 100-degree mark or fill an aquarium with fish with it. Boiling destroys some trace elements necessary for the normal functioning of the body.
Spring, and even more so, tap water are not samples of purity. In addition to useful, they contain many harmful components.
The first thing that comes to mind is chlorine - it is customary for them to disinfect to eliminate microorganisms. This chemical element is a poison in itself. When combined with water, it becomes a source of carcinogens that affect the kidneys, liver and nervous system. Add here aluminum, arsenic, pesticides, herbicides and a whole host of human waste products that enter drinking water as a result of the natural cycle in nature. 
A relative way out is to install additional household filters, but even they do not completely solve the problem, only reducing the amount of unwanted “chemistry and biology”.
A logical conclusion: a modern person is not able to satisfy the body's need for water with tap water alone, if his own health is dear to him, of course. Not without boiling. Moreover, such drinks, which have become firmly established in our everyday life, like tea or coffee, cannot be prepared with cold water.
How exactly to boil?
How many times? Most experts believe that it is better to boil the same water only once, and pour out what remains in the kettle without a shadow of pity.
The most advanced argue that when re-boiling, the water “gets heavier” - the evaporated oxygen atoms are replaced by hydrogen isotopes, and the same chlorine, without completely disappearing, forms combinations dangerous to health with other elements of the periodic table. Naturally, having settled, all this muck settles at the bottom of the kettle, and when boiled again, it begins to show signs of life again, forming new compounds.
In addition, among many physicians and biologists there is an opinion that with the constant use of water that has passed the boiling point, the body's immune response decreases.
There are those who advise drinking only boiled liquid, but they are a clear minority.
Let's just summarize
- our body vitally needs a certain amount of “living” water;
- to fully satisfy the need for liquid, it is also necessary to use boiled water;
- it is best not to bring it to a full boil - a significant change in volume leads to an increase in the content of chemicals;
- moreover, it is not necessary to re-boil or “refuel” an already boiled liquid.
By following the last two tips and periodically cleaning the kettle from salt scale, you can safely get reasonable doses of caffeine contained in invigorating drinks along with water!