Water, Water, Water: Are you drinking enough? |
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Everybody, from your mother to your doctor, has probably advised you at one time or another to "drink more water." It's more than a cliche. Drinking ample amounts of pure, clean water is a simple but important step toward achieving optimal health and maximum energy.
| Here are a few of the beneficial functions of water in your daily diet. |
- Regulates every living cell's processes and chemical reactions
- Aids digestion and absorption of foods and nutrients
- Transports nutrients and oxygen
- Excretes waste products
- Helps to maintain normal bowel habits and prevent constipation
- Assists new tissue development
- Lubricates joints in the body, providing a protective cushion for tissues
- Maintains normal body temperature. Loss of water through perspiration cools and prevents the body from building up internal heat (dehydration)
- Contributes to the proper functioning of enzymes
- Contributes to the proper concentrations of blood electrolytes
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Drink at least six to eight glasses of pure water every day.
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| Take note that drinking cokes, coffee, beer, or juice does not take the place of water. In fact, alcohol and caffeine increase your need for water. |
- The average adult human body is approximately 60 percent water found in muscle, blood, brain, bone, etc.
- People can live for weeks without food. An individual can survive only three days without water.
- A 5 percent loss of body water causes dehydration and a 15 to 20 percent loss of body water may be fatal. A loss of seven pounds for a 150 lb. person equals a five percent loss of body water.
- Water loss, not salt or sodium loss, impairs an athlete's performance.
- Caffeine and alcohol have a dehydrating effect and decrease body fluids.
- Body water is lost through: perspiration (skin), lungs, body functions, urine, stool and air travel.
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| Steps you can take to minimize water loss |
- Increase fluids in the heat of the summer.
- Drink ample water to prevent dehydration when flying, because one pint of water is lost for every one hour of air travel.
- Increase fluids with increased fiber consumption to prevent constipation.
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