Many people often say that drinking water that’s too pure deprives the body of the minerals, nutrients, and immune-supporting benefits it could otherwise obtain from water, so they advise against drinking such water.

What many people don’t realize is that the minerals in water—which come from the air and the ground—are inorganic substances that can nevertheless be absorbed by the human body. The idea that these minerals must first be converted into “organic minerals” before they can be used by the body is not supported by current scientific evidence. Likewise, there is no good evidence that ordinary minerals in drinking water accumulate in our joints, intestinal walls, or arteries and cause arthritis, constipation, or hardening of the arteries, or that they cause kidney and liver stones simply by accumulating in these organs. Plants do require inorganic minerals for growth, and through photosynthesis they convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds that can be consumed by animals and humans, but humans can also absorb and use minerals in inorganic forms.

Pure water is an effective solvent, but the claim that drinking highly purified water dissolves toxins and inorganic minerals accumulated in the body and causes them to be expelled is not established by scientific evidence. The body naturally regulates and eliminates waste through the kidneys, liver, lungs, and gastrointestinal system, and adequate water intake supports these processes. In particular, drinking enough water helps dilute the urine and can reduce the risk of kidney stones. While purified water can be safe to drink, there is currently no good evidence that it has a special ability to “detoxify” the body compared with other safe drinking water. The body’s ability to process and eliminate waste is essential to health, but aging and death result from many biological processes rather than simply from a failure to expel toxins.

By Michael Chiu, MWS, CI
Previously published in Ming Pao Daily News – Updated and Revised in 2026