technically, rain water can pick up carbonate, sulfate ions, etc. it's not deionized water.
distilled perhaps, by virtue of the hydrologic cycle, but not deionized.

there exists a slew of commercial mineral waters and artesian waters, that provide a number of the essential electrolytes. obviously, you're not going to get the nutrition you need from these waters, but we're talking about electrolytes, not carbohydrates, vitamins, and fatty acids.

Actually, this article puts forth the idea (which I admit surprised me) that at least Ca and Mg in water can and do have some impact on nutrition (nutritional requirements include the minerals/electrolytes as well as carbohydrates, etc.).

Rainwater, however, wouldn't be expected to contain meaningful amounts of Ca and Mg.

So would distilling water, adjusting the ph of it and supplementing with trace minerals and vitamins be OK?

You can buy a distiller for pretty cheap and if the lack/absorbing of minerals isn't a big deal and can be countered by healthy diet and or supplementation it seems pretty promising.

yup

adjust the pH with sodium phosphate dibasic, add a dash of KCl

Yes, but they put fluoride in the table salt (along with iodine). So in the end, many Europeans wind up consuming more fluoride than if they had it in the water.

Course, you can always buy non fluoridated salt. Easy enough to find sea or mountain rock salt in the EU if you're willing to spend more money for it.

I never heard of fluoride in table salt. I know iodine is often added, but you would have to consume a lot of salt (wich is unhealthy anyway...i wouldn´t be surprised if eating too much salt lowers IQ just as much as fluoride in tapwater would) or you would have to have a rare medical condition to get negative effects from the added iodine. Even with the iodine added to salt, most people still have a slight shortage of iodine in their system. Your body needs iodine for all kinds of processes.

Been going on for quite some time. Often it is unlabeled, or only seen if you read the ingredients list (on a box of salt). I noticed it early on when travelling through countries where it was at least written on the front of the box. In central Europe it is common to see the regular (cheapest & biggest boxes) of salt contain both fluoride & iodine. They often sell an iodine only version for more money, and pure salt for even more... as if that made any sense at all. Though to be totally callous about it, fluoride is given to them for free as a waste industrial product. Iodine they have to pay a little for... and salt, they actually have to mine or collect.

This PDF or these links will show you that I am not making this up. In fact, it is prevalent in Latin America and The Caribbean as well.

http://poisonfluoride.co...fpc/html/salt_facts.html
http://www.sonic.net/kryptox/nutri/saltGermany.htm

When I go shopping abroad, I always buy pure natural salt. If I require Iodine, I prefer to get it from kelp, nori, or other seaweeds. I take colloidal mineral supplements from time to time, so I doubt I am deficient in anything.

Of course, there is a nearly 100% chance that if you go out to eat in these countries... you will be consuming fluoridated salt. And the salt shaker on your table will have it as well. Kind of odd that nations that recognize the ridiculousness of forcibly fluoridating your drinking water would surreptitiously put it in a culinary staple that everyone is sure to consume anyway... and in amounts that would basically match.

CT heads have a field day. I won't go there, personally... in part due to the way the mods here feel about conspiracies.

Hmm, i don´t think adding salt to your food is very healthy anyway. And totally unnecessary. Almost anything that´s edible has some naturally occuring sodium in it. It´s virually impossible to get too little sodium in your diet.
I know that a lot of salt is often added to take-away and other pre-fab food, but when you go eating at mcdonalds you probably don´t care much about your health anyway.

Nevertheles, i find it shocking to hear about this. And that i haven´t heard about this before.

Yeah. I am beyond being able to be shocked for the most part. Saddened, disheartened... disgusted. Sure.

Personally, I love me some salt. Prefer salty snacks over sweet ones even. I don't think salt in and of itself is all that unhealthy. Watch your blood pressure and all that jazz, but salt is an essential foodstuff that even when overdone in high quantities tends to not be as bad for you as many things people think are good for them.

The basic thing with sodium is that you have to balance it out with potassium (kalium for my Euro brothers & sisters). They exist in the body in a balance. People tend to not get enough potassium in general, and thus added salt intake tends to make that deficiency worse. But it is butt simple to take supplemental potassium or get yourself a bottle of blackstrap molasses.

Plus, I find that you can easily tell whats what with your salt intake by analyzing your urine a bit. Your urine too salty, too dark or whatever? Drink more water and get some potassium up in that body. Fresh figs, bananas whatever you need.

Another reason salt gets a bad rap is that most table salt is totally stripped of all its supporting trace minerals. If you switch over to a good sun dried sea salt, or some mountain rock salt, you will find that your body responds pretty well to it. I don't say you have to go out and shell big bucks for those pretty pink Himalayan rock crystals... just that a real natural salt might change your mind about using fair amounts of salt on your food.

My doctor tells me that that because fluorine is in the same column of the periodic table as iodine it has similar chemical activity as iodine. Fluorine therefore competes in chemical reactions where iodine should be used in the body.

This causes a lot of issues especially in the thyroid. How many people of middle age or older do you know with thyroid problems especially hypothyroidism? One of the symptoms of a severe long term iodine deficiency is cretinism, by the way. Therefore, it is no surprise to me that a study would find that fluorine lowers the IQ of people.

Many people believe that fluoridation of water was conceived as a way to dispose in plain sight of toxic waste from the aircraft/aluminum industry and of the uranium refinement industry where uranium hexafluoride is used to isolate weapons grade U-235, and I agree with this observation.

Without any scientific study, the government has been drugging us and poisoning us without our consent since the years just after WW-II here in the USA.

but how safe is sea salt? The mediteranean see for instance, is one of the most polluted seas in the world. Himalayan salt sounds a lot safer to me.

You are correct, this is one of the justifications and reasons for the forced medication of the populace otherwise known as fluoridation.

But...the form that was found in this study was calcium fluoride. What they put in the water supplies is sodium fluoride, which is an industrial by-product. Also, as an exercise, go look on a package of rat poison...you will find that often the only ingredient listed is Sodium Fluoride.

Yes saidin forced medication is the word. That's why the EU has banned the use of flouridated water in the preparation of food because it is a medication. Putting industrial by products into mainstream drinking water is tantamount to poisoning in my book. It really should be banned worldwide imo.

I guess you didn't read my comments above about the EU putting fluoride in the salt. The EU didn't ban the use of fluoridated water because they are concerned that you will be injured by it... they just find it more cost effective to put it in your salt.

THIS post has links to well documented details on the fluoridated salt issue.

sorry HF i missed that. Flouride in salt! What is wrong with these people 'sigh'

As long as you don't consume artificially fluoridated salt (easily 200 ppm versus the 1-2 ppm in sea salt) the best safety advice is consuming very little salt, be it one type or another. Unless you are needing urgent re-hydration or have no access to food, the only reason to consume extra salt is flavor enhancing. I bet that a slight regular over-consumption of salt is much worse health wise than trace amounts of other toxic elements in unprocessed sea salt.

Ive read that the whole "salt is bad for you" thing was just hyped up and that other studies show that there is not much data to support that idea. Maybe if you eat lots of packaed foods that they just load with sodium. I have read one study where they studied people with no extra salt in their diet vs people who add some salt and the people with no salt seemed to die younger. I dunno how accurate it all is but it is interesting. Even wild animals when they find them will lick salt deposits for the minerals etc..

"Some salt" is the word here. Of course, balance is the thing. When I say very little extra salt I assume that most people's diet has some salt in it already. So if you think strictly about the outcome in your health, adding more than a little extra salt in your foods will most likely be an excess... and I think the links of excess salt to hypertension, kidney problems, arteriosclerosis and others are well established.

Salt is not bad for you, but you need quite less than you usually take.

Jezus guys, try to keep both feet at the ground. No study has ever proven a causal link between fluorination and lower IQ. It is not even likely. And fluoride in drinking water to get rid of toxic waste, are you joking?
Some crazy girl at Boom festival told me she thought the government puts fluoride in our water to make us dumb. This was the stupidest, most paranoid conspiracy someone had ever told me.
I know it's fun to believe in all kinds of conspiracies, but this is almost like believing in stuff like this:http://www.breatharian.com/ (just had to share this one )
Also, don't worry so much about which salt you eat, it's all fine.
Sites like the anti-fluorination ones are run by people who single out just a few studies. You can find contradicting studies about lots and lots of facts. The thing that matters is scientific consensus.
Just like with global warming. Temperature's start to rise steeply exactly at the start of industrialisation. >95% of all scientists think global warming is happening. Still the few scientists who say they don't think global warming is happening get an equal share of media attention. This is because going against the tide is always way more interesting and fun than going with the consensus. But scientific consensus is all we (non-scientists or scientists with no specific expertise about the subject) should assume. It is probably true, and we haven't got the necessary credentials to argue.

scientists go with the evidence. who cares what people think, that's irrelevant.
also, one study says nothing. repeated studies with reprodicible results are needed.

that being said, there are many more "important" things to worry about than fluoridated water, chcken littles, unless you spend
a good part of the day guzzling straight from the tap