Conventional wisdom and health and fitness gurus tell us you need to drink at least 96flozs of water a day to stay primed for good living. Pooh – I say!
And I’m glad to report I’m not alone in thinking it’s gibberish as so does a recent MSN health tips section. Apart from the fact there isn’t enough waking time to drink that much water, your bladder can’t take it either. You can only do 15-minute meetings at work otherwise you’d have to excuse yourself.
Of course I was one of freaks that sucked this up at one point. The program I was on also had you add extra glasses of water if you were overweight. I think I was close to drinking my own weight in water each day! My kids didn’t see much of me during that period – or if they did I was on my way to the bathroom.
Then I began to question the validity of a program that has me drink as much as a person twice my size. Surely size matters? And I also began to be concerned about all the good stuff in my body I may be washing away before it has a chance to keep my body functioning in tip top condition.
And at the end of the day this is also the concern of the health professionals who have decided to take on this falsehood because they see the inherent danger in it.
The fact is, while the average body may require 96flozs of water a day we get a lot of it from our food. Granted if your diet is fast food or you drink a lot of coffee then slurping up bottle after bottle of water may be how you make amends.
But it is not necessary for the average person to drink 96flozs of water a day and it could be harmful if you did.
Does this mean you don’t need to supplement your normal dietary intake of water at all? No, you can still benefit from drinking more water than coffee or soda. I’m down to two cups of coffee a day and I drink about 48flozs – some days 72ozs if I’ve been extra active. And I rarely have soda – reserved for eating out only.
I’m now comfortable booking one hour meetings and taking long trips in the car without figuring out if there’s a rest stop on the way. And best of all I can say no to all that water out there because I know one way and another I get enough – and enough is all you need.
Hansen
Alternative Health for Today 