Why do we need water?

Water comprises 50-70% of an adult's total body weight, and without regular top-ups, our body's survival time is limited to a matter of hours or days.  We lose water from the body through urine and sweat, and need to replace it in our diets regularly. When too little water is consumed dehydration results causing symptoms such as headaches, tiredness and loss of concentration. Chronic dehydration can contribute to a number of health problems, such as constipation and kidney stones.  In addition, water is needed to:

Water is so necessary during digestion that 8 litres rush to the stomach to help the digestive process, and then return to body tissues afterwards.

If you drink a lot of caffeinated beverages daily (tea, coffee, colas), you actually need more water, as these are diuretic drinks, and cause water to be lost from the body, rather than helping to lubricate the body.  So diuretic beverages theoretically don’t count.

More water is also needed during times of illness, fever or extreme temperatures.  If an athlete is doing heavy exercise, a good rule of thumb would be to add an extra 1-3 cups of water per hour of physical activity.  Unfortunately thirst is not the best indicator of dehydration – often athletes don’t experience thirst, and so get dehydrated easily if they don’t make a habit of making themselves drink.  It’s something we need to just remember to do sometimes, whether we feel like it or not.

Inadequate fluid intake can lead not only to dehydration but to constipation as well.  Even a small amount of dehydration (1% of body weight) can increase your risk of impaired performance and heat injury too.

How much do we need?

First of all, the body gets its water from three sources:

A good way to tell how much water you need a day is to measure it.  You need 30ml for every kilogram of body weight per day.  So if you weigh 60kg, multiply that by 30ml, and you will need to drink 1,8 litres.  This would be the actual water you would want to drink a day – any other water from fruits etc would be regarded as an important extra – but this is the minimum actual water you need to be drinking, and would make up around 6-7 glasses a day.  Extrapolate this to lighter or heavier people, and increase intake as exercise and physical activity increases.

How to make sure you get enough:

A good idea is to start the day with a nice hot glass of water with a slice of lemon in it; one down, 6 or 7 to go.  You will also be helping your liver to wake up smiling if you do this!

Keep a large jug of water and a glass on your desk at work, or carry a water bottle with you, with your day’s ‘allowance’ of water.  Top up your glass and just take a sip every 15 minutes – in no time you will have reached your allotment without even trying.  All extra water is a bonus.

Increase fresh, raw fruit and vegetable intake as well – they have a high water content and will help to augment important water supplies to your body.  However, drinking plain water is still the most effective way of replacing lost fluids.

Drink water with your meals and snacks.

Freeze a water bottle and take it to work as an ice-cold drink as it melts.

Never pass a fountain without stopping to drink

If you ignore your thirst, you will find you experience symptoms of mild dehydration such as a dry mouth, less urine when you go to the bathroom (and brightly coloured urine too – which indicates dehydration), and dizziness or light-headedness.

What sort of water should you drink?

Tap water is generally ok most of the time, but the “Rolls Royce” of water is distilled water.  This is real H2O – it is pure water in other words, consisting of 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.  Nothing else can be regarded as real water.  Filtering works too, but doesn’t take out too many pathogens and heavy metals.  (For more on this you could read up on my website under Distilled Water – see www.sallyanncreed.co.za – and look under Health Articles).

Bottled water is not a very good idea unless it’s in glass.  This is because the actual bottles are made from dangerous materials which leach into the water, making a possibly already “not-so-pure” water into something pretty toxic.  There have been many scares over the years – right up to the prestigious Perrier water – that bought water is contaminated with everything from E.coli to benzene.  Most bottled water was found to be no better than tap water – so as long as you are not in a questionable part of the country where the water has been found to be contaminated, tap water is certainly just as good in most cases as bottled water.

The bottle itself is a dangerous thing if made of plastic, but there are “safe” plastics you can buy today which will last a lifetime (see my site for these too).  These are handy hard plastic bottles which have sport caps, carry handles and others that fit into the fridge with taps.  If you don’t want to use glass, this is the only other sensible way to store water in the fridge, or take it anywhere with you.  Warnings have been issued too on water standing in plastic bottles in a hot car, or the sun. Make sure you don’t drink water where this has happened.

Whatever you do though – drink more water!