‘Some say the glass is half empty, some say the glass is half full; I say, are you going to drink that?’ LISA CLAYMEN
If you had a score of 30 or less, there is a good chance you’re not drinking enough. When I first started keeping my own diet diary, I was shocked to see that on most days I drank only coffee with perhaps a glass of wine at the end of the day. Others have reported the same pattern.
The usual recommendation is that everyone should drink eight 220m! (8fl oz) glasses of water each day. Most articles on nutrition will recommend this. What’s the science here? Well, there isn’t a lot. So what should a rational person do? Let’s start with the basics: water is an essential nutrient. And we have only limited capabilities to store water. While our bodies are 70 per cent water, that water is being used and is necessary. Moreover, we lose water every day. If we count only the water we lose by breathing and sweating without even exercising we lose 2 to 4 liters of water per day.
That’s not including urine or stools. Without water, the average person will die in 2 to 5 days, well before she would die from lack of food. So, water is important in the diet, in some ways even more important than food.
What is the optimal amount of water to drink when you are losing weight? Many diet articles will tell you that drinking water helps flush fat and promotes weight loss. Maybe. There isn’t any scientific literature on this, and you should know that anecdotal evidence such as, ‘It worked for my Aunt Minnie’ is wrong at least as often as it is right.
When there is no data, opinion can flourish, so I’ll give you my opinion. I think drinking a lot of water is good for you. I think it makes you feel better. I think it makes you look better and that your skin actually looks younger when you are well-hydrated. And I think water consumption can contribute to weight loss. I’m not convinced that it helps ‘flush out’ fat, except in the same sense that water flushes out much of our waste products.
I suspect that water consumption promotes weight loss, first, by contributing to our satiety (volume in the stomach helps to make you feel full) and, second, by helping us feel healthier. When we are clinically dehydrated, our bodies don’t work well; physical performance can suffer when we lose as little as 455 to 900g (1 to 21b) of water, and mental performance is measurably decreased when we lose 3.6 to 4.5kg (8 to 101b) of water. And mild to moderate dehydration has been linked to increased risk of bladder cancer (very rare in this country) and colon cancer (not so rare here).
So I say, drink up Here’s how you can tell if you are drinking enough water: your urine should be very pale in color. If it’s yellow or tan-colored, you aren’t getting enough water. If your heart is sinking at the prospect of drinking that much water, cheer up. Other fluids can provide the water you need plus some flavoring. Milk counts as a fluid; so do soft drinks. Juice counts as well. Even if you count those other drinks, chances are that you still fall short of your goal of eight glasses a day. How can you get all that water in?
I try to drink two glasses of water every morning even before my coffee. Now I have a good start on my goal. And I try to drink one glass of water with every meal and snack. I frequently substitute either a soft drink or tea for water, especially with my snacks, but I have to admit that I have developed a real love for plain cold water, especially first thing in the morning. I also drink at least one glass of low-fat milk in my coffee over the course of a day, and on a good day that gets me to my target of eight glasses a day.
If you are exercising, you’re going to need even more fluid. Every year we get a news story about a young, extremely fit marine or football player who doesn’t drink enough water. He or she gets overheated from too much exertion and gets carried off the field on a stretcher. If he’s lucky, he survives. When you exercise, especially when it’s hot but other times as well, drink before you play, drink as you play, and drink after you play. Your performance will be improved, and you will feel better.
Not everything that is served in a glass will count towards the magic goal of eight glasses per day. Following are brief descriptions of what we know about some of the different types of drinks in a normal British diet. ‘Beverage Pros and Cons’ on article 276 summarizes these findings.
