Do our bodies need eight glasses of water a day?
Your body is made up of 90% water. Your brain sits in a little pool of water in your skull – headaches are usually the result of dehydration, when there is not enough fluid around the brain. Water helps essential organs like the liver and the kidneys by clearing toxins from your blood. When your liver and kidneys are not working to clean your blood of toxins they are more able to break down fat easier. If they are trying to clean your blood the fat gets put to one side ‘to deal with later’ bit like an over worked secretary. You should drink water, slowly in sips throughout the day – when you see that your urine is running clear then you know you are drinking enough water. Water is life! Without it we die. Water is a magic solution to weight loss too – thirst pangs feel exactly the same as hunger pangs, if you don’t drink enough water you get thirsty but your body makes a feeling like hunger – too many people then just stuff something high fat and high cals into their gobs, hence the ob
Dan G is right on. The only exceptions are times when our normal thirst mechanisms might not be sufficient. If you are out in extreme heat, you could dehydrate before your thirst kicks in so drink periodically when out hiking/climbing/roofing, etc. If you are ill you may need more fluid intake than you normal thirst mechanisms dictate. You should drink enough that you pee around 4 pints a day. But 95% of the time, you don’t NEED that much water. That being said, most of us do not drink enough WATER. We consume all kinds of extra calories by drinking milk, pop or juice when all we needed was the water portion of that milk, pop, or juice. Or we drink caffeinated beverages which don’t help us maintain adequate hydration. Or we drink beverages with acids (carbonated drinks) or other potentially harmful checmials in them (artificial sweeteners). So, while we don’t need 8 glasses of water a day, we need these other beverages less. Bottom line: drink when you’re thirsty and when you’re thirst
No, we don’t need eight glasses of water per day. This myth originated from an old report that we stated we need eight glasses of fluid per day, which could be anything, juice, tea, etcetera. A good rule of thumb is just to drink when you are thirsty or before and after exercising. The more water the better though.
