“Water! Ugh! I drink diet soda.”
“I’m not thirsty for eight glasses a day! Sports drinks (containing carbohydrates and glucose) are better for me than water…. or are they?”
How important is water? Maybe more important than any other substance you take into your body…The less you drink, the less you want to drink. Experts have learned that thirst is not a reliable indication of how much water your body needs…
Without enough fluids, your body panics and clings to fluid, resulting in: loss of thirst, weight gain, swollen hands and feet and constipation (the body will remove needed water from the colon). Diuretics can force out retained water, but will take essential nutrients with them.
Athletes, gardeners in hot weather, the elderly person whose attention wanders – are all in activities, which blunt the thirst mechanism. You must learn to concentrate on getting enough water.
Water can stop cravings. You may be eating when you could be drinking water. Try sipping a small cup of water (3 or 4 oz). You body may have wanted fluid, not food. It’s a COMMON MISTAKE. Water retention and its problems happen when you give your body food, not water. We’re talking about WATER, not lemonade, coffee, tea, diet soda, fruit juice, milk or soup. The idea is to stop cravings, not to titillate the taste buds.
There are special times in a day when drinking is most efficient: not with food but twenty minutes before or twenty minutes after eating. The best times to drink water are: four glasses over a thirty minute period both in the morning and around noon. In the early evening drink another four glasses over a one hour period.
You don’t really need sports drinks. Lemonade and high sodium drinks only add salt, placing an extra burden on the kidneys to excrete it. You get enough salt in today’s foods. The only edge sports drinks give is psychological: “I belong to a special group”.
Hard water is safer than soft water. The body absorbs more sodium, mercury, cadmium and lead from soft water. These toxins can cause hypertension, even cancer.
Water is perhaps the most important factor in weight loss or maintenance. This cannot be overstressed. Without enough water, the kidneys make the liver work so hard that it cannot do its job of metabolising fat into energy. Eight glasses a day are fine for maintenance but an overweight person should drink and extra glass for every 25lbs of excess weight.
Distilled or filtered water at room temperature is best. It is absorbed more quickly than hot water. Your body will burn calories to heat the cold water to your body temperature. Your body can handle EXTRA water better than it can handle too little water. Water really is a ‘magic potion’ for optimum fitness.
Some FActs about water
Check out these facts about water…
· Water is necessary to maintain normal performance levels and for bodily temperature control.
· Water help every biological, mechanical and chemical action that takes place in the body; everything from bending an elbow, to the pumping of your heart, to maintaining blood pressure, to eliminating waste, to using your brain.
· The average adult body contains about 80 pints of water.
· Water comprises 60-65% of a man’s body and 50-60% of a woman’s body.
· Your body constantly depletes water, even while sitting still.
· Water makes up a large portion of our blood.
· A water loss of 15-20% of your body’s water can be considered life threatening.
· About three-quarters of the human brain is water.
· The digestive system needs several gallons of water a day to process food.
· Alcohol, sugar, caffeine and salt all deplete the body of water.
· We need as much daily water intake in the cold weather months as we do in the hot weather months because cold air tends to be drier.
· Babies and young children need water because there is a greater proportion of water in a baby’s body.
· Water is the catalyst in weight loss.
· Water deprivation hinders the liver in metabolising fat into usable energy.
· When increasing exercising and fibre intake, there is a need to increase water intake as well.
· Water acts as a natural diuretic by preventing fluid retention.
· When you are drinking adequate amounts of water, urine will be clear, not cloudy or yellow.
· Water aids in muscle tone and the flexibility and moisturisation of the skin.
· Other beverages DO NOT COUNT toward your daily consumption of water.
· A human being can live far longer without food (about 30-40 days) than without water (about 72 hours)
Are you drinking enough water each and every day? If so congratulations! If not, get busy. You’ll find that the more you drink, the better you feel and the less hungry you feel.
My advice
Do I need to say “Drink more”?