You cannot drink boiled water. Is it possible to re-boil water in a kettle?

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%). Fresh water We simply need it 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.

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, 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 large number 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's 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 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, 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 chemical formula has the same 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 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 cannot boil water for a long time.

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

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

So why can't you boil water twice? It turns out that this is not a matter of terrible medieval superstitions, but of the ordinary course of chemical processes. As many remember from school chemistry courses, in nature there are isotopes of hydrogen, which are also found in water molecules. If boiling water becomes a long process, 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 boiling makes the water heavier, which is harmful to the body.

There is another reason why you should not boil water twice. Any water (the only exception is distilled water) contains 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 in the liquid thus increases.

All this answers the question why you can’t boil water twice. However, you shouldn’t take this so seriously that “I’d rather die, but I won’t drink twice-boiled water.” The golden mean and balance are good in everything.

So, if you look back at school chemistry textbooks, you can find problems in them to determine the number of times water is boiled in order to increase the concentration of heavy water. Solving such problems suggests that in order to achieve a more or less satisfactory result, water must be boiled 100 or more times. And it’s unlikely that 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 has been 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, very dangerous bacteria, then you don’t have to bring the water to the boiling point, but simply heat it to the desired temperature. By the way, in order for tea or coffee to be brewed successfully, you can simply heat the water to a “white” color - everything will brew well. 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 the heated water, when the abundance of bubbles colors it white.

However, in fairness, it is worth noting that water boiled twice becomes less pleasant to the taste. So, don’t be lazy, since water is not in short supply now, and you can safely pour boiled water into the sink once and fill the kettle with fresh water from the tap.

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, 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 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 of 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 this fact is not recognized. The scientific name for dead water is 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 regular 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.

For a person whose body consists of 70% liquid, it is vital to drink enough water. It is needed for the normal functioning of all processes in our body. But what kind of water is better to drink? The liquid that flows from the tap in big cities is not suitable for drinking, so many people prefer to boil the water. But is it really that simple? Is it healthy to drink boiled water or is it completely harmful? These questions need to be addressed in more detail.

In physics, boiling refers to the process of transition from a liquid state to a vapor state, accompanied by the appearance of bubbles at a temperature of 100 degrees. Conventionally, the boiling process is divided into the following stages:

Small single bubbles appear at the bottom of the container, which then rise to the surface of the water and are grouped mainly at the walls of the container.
A lot of bubbles appear. They provoke cloudiness and then whitening of the liquid. This stage is also known as the “white key” because the process is similar to running. spring water. Tea lovers often remove the kettle from the stove at this stage, without allowing the water to boil.
Next, intense bubbling occurs, large bubbles burst and strong steam is released. Water splashes from the dishes.

The benefits and harms of boiled water still raise a lot of doubts. Boiling tap water solves the following problems:

Kills microorganisms;
Reduces water hardness;
Reduces chlorine content.

This is the main benefit of boiled water. Hard salts remain as sediment at the bottom of the container, and most of the bacteria die. Boiling is especially important in the hot season, when, despite chlorination, the number of microorganisms in the water increases.

However, boiling does not destroy the hepatitis A virus and botulism bacillus. In addition, if the water sits for a long time, bacteria can enter it again. Therefore, boiled water, the health benefits and harms of which are not so obvious, cannot be stored for several days. Boiling makes water softer. In this case, the concentration of certain salts becomes higher due to the evaporation of the liquid.

Danger and harm of boiled water

However, research shows that boiling does not kill all microbes. So, in order to kill the hepatitis virus, you need to boil water for half an hour. The botulism stick can disappear only after fifteen minutes of boiling, and its spores die in no less than five hours! Of course, no one will boil water that much. Also, the harm of boiled water lies in the fact that it does not destroy active pesticides, nitrates, heavy metals, phenols, and petroleum products. And a number of useful components in water, such as calcium and magnesium salts, settle on the walls of the vessel.

It is also worth considering that boiling, especially long-term boiling, causes a clear decrease in the volume of water. A precipitate appears in the liquid that remains. If you add raw water to the settled water and boil them together, the percentage and concentration of heavy water will increase. And this poses a serious threat to health. Therefore, experts insist that boiled water should never be diluted with unboiled water.

Many people believe that the benefit of boiled water for the body is that it is free of chlorine. But studies have shown that this trace element, when boiled, begins to interact with other compounds, which can cause the formation of dangerous trihalomethanes. Also, heating the water causes oxygen to escape from it.

Answering the question of whether boiled water is useful, many experts believe that it becomes “dead” and therefore cannot bring any value. It does not saturate the body with valuable minerals and the moisture it needs. It is also known that after some time after boiling, water becomes again infected with various microorganisms that may be in the kettle or simply flying in the air. Although, of course, this is quite a long time for us to have time to drink tea. Be that as it may, boiling cannot be considered a 100% way to purify water from everything that may be harmful to our body.

Is there any benefit to boiled water?

When figuring out whether boiled water is good for drinking, it is worth noting that it is softer than tap water. It is believed that drinking water that has been boiled once improves mental and physical activity, removes toxins from the body, and improves blood circulation.

Some traditional healers recommend drinking warm boiled water, especially on an empty stomach. Speaking about the benefits of boiled water in this form, they highlight its ability to improve metabolic processes and accelerate the breakdown of fats. In fact, any clean water, if you heat it up, because the point is not boiling.

Is boiled water beneficial or harmful? This process really makes it better for the body than tap water or well water, which contains a lot of bacteria and aggressive particles. But boiling does not make water such that it is completely healthy and safe. It is recommended to use it only if you have no other way to purify the water. Then it will help reduce the risk of poisoning and other negative consequences. But it is recommended to boil water for at least 8-10 minutes, which our usual electric kettles are not designed for. When drinking boiled water, remember that it is not advisable to store it in the container where it was boiled. It is best to pour it into a glass container. The kettle must be descaled before turning it on.

Another important question is whether it is harmful to boil water a second time. It is worth considering the following points:

Boiling takes away the taste of water. Water that you boil several times will not taste good at all. It may have an unpleasant metallic taste.
Boiling does not kill impurities and salts. The more often water is boiled, the more oxygen evaporates from it, and the higher the concentration of these salts becomes. The drink becomes toxic and, although this toxicity is small, it tends to accumulate, so negative impact will be present.
We usually boil chlorinated water. Chlorine, as we have already said, when heated, reacts with organic substances and forms dangerous toxins. The more often the water is boiled, the higher their concentration. Based on this, the answer to the question of whether repeated boiling of water is harmful or not may be positive.

Thus, water boiled several times retains very little of the benefits that our body needs from drinking water. And the more you boil it, the more “dead” it becomes. Having found out whether it is harmful to boil water several times, we can conclude that it is better to limit ourselves to boiling once.

So what kind of water is best to drink?

If you want to drink water with health benefits, then it is best to drink specially purified water, not boiled water. For this purpose, special filters can be used, which are not a problem to buy today. They help purify water from heavy metals, chlorine, bacteria and other harmful components. There are filters in the form of jugs, as well as filters that are installed directly on water pipe, and already purified water flows from the tap. Also good option– drinking bottled water. It is guaranteed to be cleansed and does not cause any harm to the body.

If the water you have access to now does not inspire confidence in you, it is better to boil it and protect yourself from poisoning and other unpleasant consequences. After all, as to which water is healthier: boiled or raw, the choice is definitely on the side of boiled water (of course, if the raw water has not been purified). Therefore, it is strongly not recommended to drink tap water, but you can resort to boiling - sometimes it makes life much easier and protects us. Monitor the quality of the water you drink.

Everyone knows that every person is 80% water. Its molecules are involved in almost all processes occurring in the body. To ensure normal functioning, each adult needs to drink about 2 liters of liquid per day. In post-Soviet countries, it is generally accepted that boiled water is the cleanest and safest for the human body. But is this really so? In order to answer this question, you need to understand the pros and cons of boiling.

About living and dead water

In its raw form, water contains a large amount of microelements necessary for humans (copper, magnesium, calcium, etc.), present in it in the form of salts. Consuming it in its original, unboiled form has a beneficial effect on all organs and systems of the body and has a rejuvenating effect on it. However, during heat treatment, most salts precipitate, depositing on the bottom and walls of the kettle in the form of a whitish coating that is difficult to wash off.

In addition, during the boiling process, oxygen evaporates from water, and all useful substances present in it are destroyed under the influence of high temperatures. People who prefer to drink such liquid do not get any benefit from it for their body. It is not for nothing that raw water has long been called living, and heat-treated water - dead.

In addition to useful microelements, raw water may contain nitrates, mercury and other substances that cannot be called friendly to the human body. It is useless to boil the liquid to get rid of them. On the contrary, the longer the kettle sits on the stove, the higher the concentration of harmful elements that negatively affect health will become.

Harm of chlorine

Boiled tap water, which city residents use for cooking and tea, deserves special attention. Such a liquid will not only bring no benefit to a person, but can also become dangerous to his health. In our country, it is customary to chlorinate the water entering the apartment through pipes. Thanks to this, it is possible to disinfect it, killing pathogenic microbes in it. But people who are accustomed to drawing water for making tea and food from the tap should know that the chlorine present in it, under the influence of high temperature, becomes a toxic compound that can provoke the formation of kidney stones in a person or even cause the development of cancer.

The harm of boiled water, regardless of whether chlorine is present in it or not, lies in the fact that after heat treatment it is unable to be stored for a long time. After a maximum of 24 hours, pathogenic microorganisms begin to multiply in it, and its consumption can lead to a deterioration in human health.

A few words about the kettle

Boiled water will become truly dangerous if you use a low-quality electric kettle to prepare it. Cheap household appliances today are often made from toxic materials. If you boil water in such a kettle, harmful compounds from the plastic will pass into it, and then, together with tea or coffee, enter the body, causing a person to develop serious illnesses. In order to avoid such troubles, you need to buy kitchen appliances only from reliable manufacturers.

Why is heat treatment necessary?

But why do they always say: “Drink boiled water”? What's good about it if so many facts indicate that heat treatment is harmful? The fact is that raw water, especially if it is taken from the tap, contains many microbes that die at high temperatures. Liquid poured from a kettle that has begun to boil is completely disinfected. You can drink this water without fear of contracting insidious diseases such as intestinal infections, hepatitis, etc. It is not advisable to consume it raw.

The benefit of boiled water is not only that all pathogens are destroyed in it. Heat treatment of the liquid makes it possible to reduce its hardness, which is associated with the high concentration of potassium and magnesium salts in it. When boiled, some of them settle on the walls of the dishes in the form of plaque, which means they do not enter the human body and do not cause the formation of sand and kidney stones.

Basic boiling rules

If you comply with two main conditions, you can drink boiled water without fear that it will in any way harm your health.

Firstly, you don’t need to keep it on the fire for a long time. The kettle must be removed from the stove as soon as the first bubbles begin to appear in the water. This will be enough to kill all harmful microbes in it. At the same time, the absence of long-term heat treatment will help preserve the maximum of beneficial microelements in tea or coffee.

Secondly, under no circumstances should water be boiled again, since as it evaporates, the amount of toxic substances that negatively affect health will increase. The kettle should be filled just enough to last for one time. The remaining water should be poured out of it without regret, and the next time boil new water.

So is it boiled water or raw water?

Today, most doctors are confident that it is best to drink water raw. However, they do not mean the liquid laced with chlorine that flows from the taps of city apartments, but bottled or spring water. If a person drinks water that comes to his home through pipes, then it is necessary to boil it, because heat treatment kills all the microbes in it.