Don't drink R/O or distilled water!

The local water here in Minnesota tastes like shit. It's very hard water and tastes like a mixture of salt, iron and has a real distinct fishy/lake water after taste. That prompted us to switch to the bulk purified water in the grocery store (5 gallons at a time). The water is city water that is mechanically filtered, charcoal filtered, resin filtered, Reverse Osmosis (R/O) filtered and then ultraviolet sterilized when it is dispensed - although I noticed that for the past couple of months the one at Wal-Mart has had a burned out bulb...

The girls came down with what seemed like food poisoning. Cramped stomach, frequent vomiting, fever and then diarrhea. Worried about dehydration, I started looking on-line for information about electrolyte solutions and treatments. During the search I started thinking about our 5 gallon water jugs. We sterilize them every 60 days or so with a bleach and water solution, but sometimes they sit for a month or more without being opened. I wondered about the safety of drinking R/O water that has no chlorine or other buffers in it to ward off bacteria and came across a really frightening article from the World Health Organization about the hazards of drinking distilled and R/O water...

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutdemineralized.pdf

Needless to say, we've switched to tap water (carbon & mechanically filtered to remove the smell/taste) now. We'll be storing water chlorinated and only filtering it at the point of use from now on.

I looked for any information about the positive effects of drinking R/O water and came across several articles, but in every case, the information came from the R/O unit manufacturers, distributors and other folks who make money off of R/O filtration craze. I have not yet seen any proof of any of their health benefit claims. Many bottled waters & soft drinks contain distilled or R/O filtered water as the main ingredient. Why isn't there any warning given to consumers about the health risks associated with drinking pure (and very low PH/Acid) water?!?

Think twice about using R/O or distilled water for anything other than topping off your batteries...