You can't boil water twice! Why? Scientific fact or delusion? The harm of re-boiling water is a myth.

Water is one of the most unique substances in nature. It is necessary for a person 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 a drink, additionally cooling. Most make tea. Very often you can hear that water cannot be boiled twice. There is an opinion that such a liquid becomes dangerous to humans. This is explained by the fact that even with a long first heating, useful microelements disintegrate. During the second boiling, there is allegedly nothing useful left in the water at all.

Boiling is necessary in most cases. Tap water can harbor harmful bacteria. They die already after 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, heavy metal salts cannot be removed from the water in this way.

It is believed that water should not be boiled twice due to the fact that it can become "heavy". From a chemistry point of view, this is a myth. Heavy water is almost impossible to create at home. This is a complex process. This result is affected only by long boiling over many years.

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

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 the polymer is allowed to be used as a material in which water is heated, then it is safe.

Highly chlorinated water can be harmful to health. It already reacts with plastic during the first heating. Various hazardous substances begin to be released into the liquid. They can also be preserved by re-boiling. Therefore, the problem is rather not in the secondary boiling, but in the composition of the water. Before heating in an electric kettle made of plastic, it must be defended in a glass container.

The possibility of harm from secondary boiling can also be if the kettle is made of low-quality material, in which plasticizers are added. These substances make the plastic less brittle. They begin to stand out during heating. It turns out that we drink water or tea with a dose of plasticizers. Therefore, you should not buy cheap Chinese appliances. Cost is a direct indicator of the quality of plastic. The service life of kettles made of safe material is 3 years. After that, it is better to replace it with a new one.

Read also: 7 ways to purify your tap water at home. Preparation of living water

Boiling water: myths and facts

Some attribute the harm of boiling to the fact that the structure of the liquid is disturbed. In order to deal with this, let us recall 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 allegedly destroyed, and the water becomes dead. Official science does not recognize this fact. The scientific name for dead water is distilled water. In fact, it is a liquid devoid of all impurities. It is obtained using a complex technological process. Like heavy water, getting distilled water at home is almost impossible.
Another reason why re-boiling is feared is the loss of oxygen in the liquid during re-heating. It becomes less in the composition of the liquid already during the first heating.
Thus, when boiling, the quality of the water is important. Chlorinated water is dangerous, both at the first and at the second heating. With repeated heat treatment, the liquid does not become stiffer. It's softer than regular tap water.
Boiled water will not cause harm to health under the following conditions:
Settling or filtration of liquid. Chlorine evaporates from the water and when heated, the formation of carcinogens will not occur
Proper utensils for boiling. Do not choose kettles made of cheap plastic. When water is heated in it, a plasticizer is released
Cleaning the kettle. This allows you to rid the water of impurities that accumulate on the walls of the dishes.

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.

A considerable amount of chlorine, which is used to clean it, but can irritate the skin and mucous membranes, and in large doses can contribute to the onset of cancer.
Calcium and magnesium salts, which, when boiled, settle on the inner walls of the kettle are well-known scale.
Heavy metals, such as lead, strontium and zinc, at high temperatures form carcinogenic compounds that provoke the formation of cancer cells.
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. Especially if the water is taken from a dubious source. 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 are formed. 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 before boiling. The harmful effect of such water will not be noticeable immediately, aggressive substances accumulate in the body for a long time, which does not immediately 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 influence of lifestyle and nutrition on the occurrence of cancerous tumors, every time water is boiled, the nitrates, heavy metals and sodium fluoride contained in the water become more dangerous.

Nitrates are converted into carcinogenic nitrosamines, which in some cases cause leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of cancer.

Arsenic it can also cause oncology, heart pathologies, infertility, neurological problems and, of course, poisoning.

sodium fluoride negatively affects the cardiovascular system, and in large doses can lead to sudden changes in blood pressure and dental fluorosis.

Useful substances such as calcium and magnesium when boiled, they turn into an insoluble form and are not absorbed by the body, and even become dangerous: 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, heavy hydrogen, in water. Ordinary water turns into "dead" water, the constant use of which harms the body. 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?

A single boil does not cause significant harm to the body. But it is better to refuse the repeated one, since organochlorine compounds are clearly released with it, even in small quantities, and this is fraught with 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. Do not bring the water to 100C, since there are more and more smart kettles on the market. And be sure to descale your kettle! And if possible, it is better to use natural artesian water without the content of harmful substances.

What kind of water is still poured into the kettle?

We will not consider filtered water now, since many articles have been written on this topic, including on our website.

Artesian natural water of low mineralization is recommended for boiling. Such water does not undergo repeated purification, which is used at urban water treatment plants, does not contain chlorine and other harmful impurities and does not leave scale in kettles. When buying, you should pay attention to the label: total mineralization 100-200 mg / l, calcium up to 60 mg, magnesium up to 30 mg., Hardness not more than 7 meq / l. Also, it is not important that the water of the "highest" category is on the label, since this does not indicate the quality of the water, but only means that it is most likely water purified by the reverse osmosis method and condensed in terms of salt composition. Simply put, soluble powdered salts of calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, sulfate, etc. were added to the same tap water purified to H2O. It is difficult to talk about the benefits of such “artificial” water;

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 Tatiana 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 -

It can be tap, spring, bottled, structured, live, dead, dirty, etc. Most of all, we would like to drink pure water, which is beneficial for a person. Boiling is rightly considered one of the ways to neutralize water from various kinds of dangers. But increasingly, even authoritative people say that you can boil water only once. Why can't you boil water twice? The question is not really idle. First, it concerns our health. Secondly, it is not so easy to change habits in the age of crazy speeds.

When answering the question of why it is impossible to boil water twice, various "experts" give a seemingly irrefutable algorithm of judgments:

Water from the tap contains different amounts of chemicals dissolved in it at the purification stage, and on the way from the tank to the kettle, colonies of bacteria “prescribed” in the pipes join this cocktail;

To get rid of uninvited guests, the liquid must be brought to 100 ° Celsius: this is useful;

If the procedure is repeated, then along with harmful chlorine compounds and no less harmful bacteria, beneficial oxygen and hydrogen disappear from the water;

The less oxygen, the more the taste of water is distorted;

Without hydrogen, there is nothing to neutralize heavy substances;

The more often and longer the water is boiled, the harder and heavier it becomes, which is why you cannot boil water twice.

In various sources, in addition to such pseudo-scientific arguments about the dangers of repeated boiling, facts such as an increase in the amount of organochlorine compounds, dioxins and carcinogens that cause cancer and peeling of the heels are added. Cautious young mothers are already afraid of bathing babies in boiled water.

But even a school graduate can easily refute the terrible arguments when he solves a chemistry problem that asks how many times you need to pour water into a 1.5-liter kettle in order to increase the concentration of the notorious heavy water by 10 times? Answer: you need to evaporate half the water poured into the kettle 157 times without a break!

For your information, in order for the water in the kettle to become completely heavy, continuous boiling for several decades is necessary! By the way, such water is a valuable industrial product, 1 kg of which costs from $200 to $250. If you have free time, you can earn extra money.

In addition, if you are "lucky" to drink a whole mug, there will be no harm from this. Within a few days, all the contents that are unnecessary for the body will be excreted in the most natural way.

Drink boiled water, and don't worry about why you can't boil water twice, there are more important things to do.

There is another new, very attractive teaching - about structured water. The beautiful clusters that form the molecules of such water are also useful for the human body. It is believed that boiling affects structures destructively. But it is in the process of heating. And if you express your gratitude to the water you are going to drink, or just think of something good, the structures of magical beauty will again gather into a unique pattern.

Human life without water is impossible. With the help of water in the human body, 100% of metabolic processes occur. Also, with the help of water, a person maintains the purity of the body, things and home. The most useful is the so-called "living" water, which flows to the surface of the earth directly from natural sources, but its long-term boiling, especially 2-3 times in a row, can change its structure so much that it becomes unsuitable for drinking.

So why can't you boil water twice? It turns out that the point here is not in terrible medieval superstitions, but in the ordinary course of chemical processes. As many of the school chemistry course remember, in nature there are isotopes of hydrogen, which are also found in water molecules. If boiling water becomes a long process, then the heavier molecules settle to the bottom, while the lighter molecules turn into steam and escape. The same process occurs when water is boiled twice. Each subsequent boil makes the water heavier, which is harmful to the body.

There is another reason why you shouldn't boil water twice. In any water (the only exception is distilled) there is a certain amount of impurities. This is especially true for tap water that has gone through chlorination and other purification methods. As a result of boiling, water molecules (not all, of course) evaporate, and the concentration of impurities, thus, in the liquid increases.

All this answers the question why it is impossible to boil water twice. However, to take this so seriously that “I’d rather die, but I won’t drink boiled water twice” is still not worth it. In everything, the golden mean and balance are good.

So, if you recall back school textbooks in chemistry, then you can find tasks in them to determine the number of times water is boiled in order to increase the concentration of heavy water. The solution of such problems suggests that in order to achieve a more or less good result, water must be boiled 100 or more times. And hardly anyone will dare to boil water at home more than 100 times in a row. Therefore, you can boil water twice - it will not cause serious harm to the body.

However, people are different. And if one group of people is worried about whether it is possible to drink water that has been boiled twice, then members of another group, on the contrary, are worried about whether it is possible to drink water that has been boiled only once. In this regard, we want to reassure you: if you boil water to sterilize it, then you can safely drink water that you boiled once, because all the bacteria have already died during this process, and there is no need to perform the procedure a second time.

If you are not particularly worried about dangerous, dangerous bacteria, then you can not bring the water to a boiling point, but simply heat it to the desired temperature. By the way, in order for tea or coffee to be successfully brewed, you can simply heat the water to a “white” color - everything will brew well. At the same time, it is interesting that water that is almost ready to boil acquires a “white” color as a result of the approach of saturated steam in its structure to heated water, when an abundance of bubbles turns it white.

However, in fairness, it is worth noting that water boiled twice becomes less palatable. So, don’t be lazy, since we don’t have a shortage of water now, and you can safely pour the boiled water once into the sink and fill the kettle with fresh water from the tap.