Probably every person already knows that water is the most important substance for the functioning of all organs and systems of our body. All doctors strongly recommend that both children and adults drink enough ordinary clean water. And no juices, compotes or other drinks can become a worthy replacement for it. But the opinion of doctors and ordinary people about what kind of water is best to drink does not always coincide. So many people are wondering why you can't boil water twice: is it a scientific fact or a misconception about it?
Many doctors advise their patients to drink water that has been boiled only once. In other words, before adding new liquid to the kettle, you should pour the remaining liquid into the sink. But there are people who are sure that prolonged boiling is guaranteed against various harmful impurities. Who is right after all?
IN Everyday life we usually use tap water. And, as everyone knows, it contains a lot of the most different substances, including those that are not very beneficial to health. It contains not only chlorine, necessary for disinfection, but also various heavy compounds. Therefore, it is strongly not recommended to take such water without boiling.
When water boils, organochlorine compounds are formed in it. And the longer the boiling process lasts, the greater the number of such compounds formed. They are represented by dioxins and carcinogens and can have a depressing effect on the cells, tissues and organs of our body. But Negative influence will not be noticeable immediately, because aggressive substances accumulate in the body for a long time, and then lead to the development of serious, including chronic problems with health.
Probably everyone has noticed that boiled water has a completely different taste than “fresh” water. This feature is also explained by the presence of dioxins in its composition. Increasing their quantity softens the water.
It is worth noting that chlorine from unboiled water is much more harmful to the body. Therefore, you should not drink water just from the tap. Pediatricians even advise bathing newborns in boiled water. Excess chlorine can lead to peeling of the skin, cause itching and other unpleasant consequences, especially on the delicate skin of children.
What are the consequences of prolonged boiling?
The answer to this question is hidden in the information above. Since the boiling process is accompanied by the formation of dioxins, the amount of these compounds increases with prolonged boiling. However, it is worth noting that to obtain their critical level in water, it will have to be boiled more than once.
Do not forget that when boiling, the taste of water changes noticeably. Thus, a liquid boiled twice will already be far from ideal and can somewhat change the taste of the brewed tea or coffee. Quite often, water is boiled again in different offices when employees are simply too lazy to run for a new portion.
Is re-boiling really dangerous?
No specialist will give a definite answer to this question. With each boiling, the amount of organochlorine compounds in the water increases, but their level still will not rise to such an extent as to cause serious poisoning or death. So, the most basic obvious disadvantage of re-boiling is the change taste qualities water, which spoils drinks prepared on its basis, preventing you from enjoying the fullness of their taste.
Scientists emphasize that the number of aggressive particles (microbes) in boiled water decreases after the first boiling. And turning the kettle on again does not affect their viability in any way. After all, what could not survive when the temperature reached one hundred degrees has already died, and particles that can remain alive will survive repeated boiling.
Boiling allows you to clean water from hardness salts, because they have a lower boiling point. Such particles settle on the walls of the kettle like scale, which is visible to the naked eye.
Which can go on for quite a long time, is still more beneficial for the body than tap water. And the decision to boil it again or not, a person must make independently, based on the information provided above. Once again, I would like to emphasize that organochlorine compounds are still released during repeated boiling, albeit in small quantities, and no one knows what this could mean for the body. Therefore, it is better not to risk your health and not be lazy to change the water in the kettle for fresh one.
In order for boiled water to bring only benefits to the body, you need to follow several recommendations:
For boiling, use only fresh water each time;
- do not boil the liquid again and add fresh liquid to its remains;
- before boiling water, leave it to stand for several hours - this will remove some of the aggressive substances and chlorine;
- having poured boiling water into a thermos, do not cork it immediately, it is better to wait a couple of minutes.
Folk recipes
So, it is clear to every person how important it is. But consuming insufficient quality water can lead to the development of various pathological conditions. So, if the drinking liquid contains too many calcium salts, kidney stones may begin to form. Tools will help you cope with this problem traditional medicine.
So, for kidney stone disease, you can use bird knotweed. Brew three tablespoons of fresh and chopped herbs with half a liter of boiling water. Infuse the medicine for four hours, wrap it well, and then strain. Take half a glass on an empty stomach in the morning. Feasibility of treatment folk remedies You should definitely discuss it with your doctor.
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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 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, beneficial microelements disintegrate. During the second boiling, there is supposedly nothing useful left in the water.
Boiling is necessary in most cases. Harmful bacteria can live in tap water. They die 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, this method cannot remove heavy metal salts from water.
It is believed that water should not be boiled twice due to the fact that 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 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 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 of safe material is 3 years. After this, it is better to replace it with a new one.
Read also: 7 ways to purify tap water at home. Preparation of living water
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 of the dead water - distilled. In fact, 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 for fear of reboiling 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 public 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 is pure tasty water V 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.
The conclusion regarding the quality of drinking water is 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 of 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 die during the first heat treatment at 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 is processed, the more useless the liquid ends up being. 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, the human body does not immediately feel such changes, 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 - you can use citric acid or vinegar for this.
- 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.
It can be tap water, spring water, bottled, structured, live, dead, dirty, etc. Most of all, we would like to drink clean water, which is beneficial to humans. 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 actually not an idle one. Firstly, this concerns our health. Secondly, it is not so easy to change habits in an age of crazy speed.
Various “experts,” when answering the question of why you can’t boil water twice, cite a seemingly irrefutable algorithm of judgments:
Tap water contains different amounts chemical substances, dissolved in it at the cleaning stage, and on the way from the reservoir to the kettle, colonies of bacteria “registered” in the pipes join this cocktail;
To get rid of uninvited guests, the liquid must be brought to 100 o Celsius: this is useful;
If the procedure is repeated, then beneficial oxygen and hydrogen evaporate from the water along with harmful chlorine compounds and equally harmful bacteria;
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 water is boiled, the harder and heavier it becomes, which is why you cannot boil water twice.
IN different sources To this pseudo-scientific argument 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 heels are added. Cautious young mothers who are already babies are afraid to bathe them 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 should water be added to a 1.5-liter kettle in order for the concentration of the notorious heavy water to increase 10 times? Answer: you need to evaporate half of the water poured into the kettle 157 times without interruption!
Please note that in order for the water in the kettle to become completely heavy, continuous boiling is necessary for several decades! 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 it. Within a few days, all contents unnecessary for the body will be eliminated 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 has a destructive effect on structures. But this is during the heating process. And if you express your gratitude to the water you are about to drink or simply think about something good, the magically beautiful structures will again gather into a unique pattern.
Any thrifty housewife knows that water intended for drinking can be boiled no more than once. However, the physicochemical mechanism of this prohibition can only be explained in the field of molecular physics and chemistry. Despite the preservation of the organoleptic characteristics of the liquid during the boiling process, its structure and composition of substances change. Why you can’t boil water twice is a scientific fact confirmed by experiments. This phenomenon is caused by several reasons.
Physico-chemical characteristics of water
The structure of a water molecule is known from a school chemistry course. It consists of two hydrogen atoms connected to one oxygen atom. Chemical formula water H2O. The liquid is colorless, transparent, tasteless and odorless. Tap and natural water (river, lake, spring) contains many dissolved mineral chemical impurities, most of which are harmful to the human body. In addition, natural water contains complex high-molecular organic compounds, microflora and microfauna.
Why you can't boil water twice - this is a scientific fact
The main purpose of boiling water is to destroy harmful and pathogenic microorganisms that die when the temperature of the liquid rises.
Without denying the truth of all the above scientific facts, a completely legitimate question arises - why can't you drink distilled water? ? There are no prohibitions here, but it has been noted that the distillate, which has neither taste nor smell, also negatively affects human health. Moreover, consensus There is no information among scientists about the reasons for this phenomenon. According to some scientists, in distilled water, which has gone through the steam stage and then condensed again, the direction of the charge changes and the magnitude of the dipole moment changes. To restore its original properties, some healers recommend distilled water, which has high degree cleaning and, from a chemical point of view, absolutely harmless to humans, freeze. It is recommended to use melted liquid for drinking and cooking.