Why Drink Water?
Why Drink Water?
Water is a basic necessity for life. It’s often referred to as “The Essence Of Life”. You can live three days without water.
An adult body is made up of about 50-65% of water.
Yes, I hear all the excuses, ”I drink plenty of liquids”: I drink my tea, coffee all day and others may say they consume diet drinks.
Unfortunately, that is giving a simple answer to a different question. Water may be the basic ingredient in all the answers above, but, what else are you putting into your body?
Look at all the things that make up the diet soda drinks- chemicals used in place of sugar, caffeine, favor agents, soda for the frizz and other additives. How much processing would it take the body to remove all of these extras to get to the water it needs?
Body Needs for Water
When you start to exercise, your body will need water to cool down since you will be generating increased heat. This heat helps to get the blood flowing which brings oxygen to all parts of your body. This will help you to breathe more and to get rid of the waste products in your blood.
Don’t forget, when you exercise you may start to sweat. This is how the body cools down. The water evaporates through the skin keeping your core temperature regulated. You need to drink water during exercise to replace this water.
Water is used to flush out your system of waste. Your stool is 70% water with 30% solid material. Drinking a sufficient amount of water will help you avoid hard dry stools which leads to constipation.
Also keep in mind that if you take any kind of medication, you need water since one of the side effects of medication is the tendency to dry out the body. The rule should be a glass full of water with all medication you take.
These are only a few of the ways that the body uses water.
How much water do you need to drink daily?
Most health experts say you should drink eight glasses of 8 ounces of water daily.
The best way to determine the amount of water you need is to use your own body as a guide. Check your urine when you void (pee). If there is dark yellow urine in the toilet, you need to increase your water. Aim for a light yellow color. A glass (8oz) of water should be sufficient for you to void about an hour later.
Check the color of your urine in an hour. Is it still the same color? If it is lighter in color, but not the color of straw (light yellow), you may need to increase the amount of water you drink.
You will need to check each time until you know about how much water you need, then check a few times a day.
Don’t forget that the weather and your activity may change your body’s need for water. Hot weather and long periods of activity may require more water.
Nigh Time Water Drinking
Since many people stop drinking water a few hours before bed time, the best thing to do is when you get up after sleeping, drink a full glass of water. This will help to replenish the water that was collected in your bladder while you slept.
Tip: At night, when you wake up thirsty just take a sip of water and swish in your mouth a few times, then swallow. The small amount will moisten your dry mouth and not add a lot of water to make you get up again in a few hours to void.
So the next time you reach for your favorite flavored drink remember that water is healthier. Give it a try, you will like the results.