 Water essential to stay healthy
All of us have heard the old adage that we need to drink at least eight glasses of water a day. The question is: Do you know why?
The reason is that almost two-thirds of our bodies are made up of water. We constantly lose water through perspiration, breathing and waste. It needs to be replenished.
Water is necessary for digestion. Fiber is good for you, but needs water to work properly. Your liver and kidneys work to process waste through your body and cannot function properly without enough water to keep them flushed.
Your blood is 83 percent water and needs to stay hydrated in order to move easily through your body. Otherwise, it gets thick and sluggish and makes your heart work harder (which makes you feel lethargic). Your brain, which is 75 percent water itself, gets less blood flow and that will make it harder for you to concentrate.
By the time you feel thirsty, you already are dehydrated. Food contains water. If your brain realizes it is not going to get the water it needs, it will start sending out hunger signals in an attempt to get water from food. This is why you often hear that when you are hungry, try drinking a glass of water and see if that will stop the hunger.
If that isn’t enough to convince you, hydration becomes even more important when the weather heats up and we start sweating just getting into our cars.
Even with all this information on why you should drink more water, many will still say that they don’t like drinking water or that they have a hard time drinking eight glasses a day. So, let’s talk about how you can drink more water.
First of all, eight eight-ounce glasses of water may not be as much as you think. Most of the water bottles that you see people carrying around are 16 to 24 ounces. That means you only have to drink only two to four of those a day. Most glasses are at least 12 ounces. That means you really need to drink only a little more than five glasses of water.
Splurge on the bottled stuff. Regardless of whether it contains added vitamins or minerals, it just tastes better. Find a brand you like and go for it. Be careful of the flavored waters; many contain sugar or are full of artificial sweeteners. They’re better than nothing, but will give your body more to process than just pure, healthy water.
If you need to flavor it, try adding 100 percent juice, about a quarter cup of juice for every one or two cups of water. This way you will get some nutrition along with the extra calories. Decaffeinated teas are another way you can flavor water. Try to get at least half of your water servings as just plain water, but if you need to, you can work up to that over time.
Give it a try! Be patient and eventually you’ll find that satisfying your daily water requirements will become part of your normal routine.
Until next time, stay healthy and be happy.
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