You’ve probably heard that it takes 8 glasses of water per day to have a healthy diet. Is it possible that this could be an urban legend?
Nobody knows exactly where it started, but this is one that everyone has heard. If you don’t drink 8 cups of water per day, you are likely to be severely dehydrated and a cavalcade of diseases and bodily ills await you. The bottom line is, yes it is important to drink water, but if you don’t drink 8 cups a day, you’re actually very likely to be just fine. Most people can stay perfectly hydrated on significantly less than that per day.
There could be an explanation for this in the 60 billion dollar bottled water industry. Could it be they cooked this up to make us feel more compelled to pick up the natural substance that they’ve figured out how to sell back to us at a markup of up to 3000%? As the old 90s song says, this is “ponderous”.
All conspiracy theories aside, the 8 glasses of water myth may be so prevalent because there is some truth to it. Normal biological functions such as sweating, breathing, and urinating, deplete the body of about 2 liters of water per day. So logic dictates, perhaps you need to drink that much each day to replenish supply. This isn’t true. You can easily get a liter to 1 ½ liters of water simply from the food you eat. If you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, they are actually up to 90% water, so the hydrating power of these foods is very significant.
Another urban legend is the notion that coffee, tea, and soda dehydrate the body. This isn’t true. You actually become hydrated by drinking these beverages almost as well as if you were drinking water. The diuretic effect of these types of drinks is actually negligible.
Of course, water is good for you. You’re actually better off drinking water than just about anything else. It is also an excellent guard against kidney stones and other ailments. It is a natural cleanser, helping your body flush out potentially harmful elements, and keeping things in generally healthy working order.
There are exceptions to the notion that 8 cups are really not required each day. The elderly are at risk of elevated dehydration, so they should be careful to drink sufficient quantities of water each day. Excessive thirst can be a warning of diabetes, so this should be carefully monitored when it occurs. Those who are involved in strenuous exercise need a lot more fluids than other people, and should be drinking 8 or more cups of water per day if they are exercising heavily on a daily basis.
Generally speaking, drinking water should be a constant daily habit. It just doesn’t need to be obsessed over as much as it has been lately. Another important daily habit is to take a good multivitamin. This is one of those daily routines that ensures you are getting the proper vitamins and minerals, particularly those that are harder to come by like the B vitamins, folic acid, and vitamin D.
Stick to the daily habits that really matter, and don’t worry too much about water. And by all means, don’t think that the only healthy water is found in bottles that are way overpriced. The US is very careful to ensure healthy drinking water is coming right out of the tap, so put your tax dollars to good use and drink it up!
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