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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Do You Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day?

We hear a lot on advice, including from doctors, about how important it is to do just that.

How long has it been that you have gone through a day without seeing several or many people carrying and/or sipping from a bottle of water? The word has surely has gotten out and permeates our lives. Look at the tons of bottled water on the grocer’s shelves and in vending machines. And where I live there are ambitious hawkers along the busy streets selling same.

In a book written by a physician titled "Your Body's Many Cries For Water" it is claimed that simply drinking more water "cures many diseases like..."

So what is the truth about drinking water? Must I constantly be sucking on a water bottle as I go about my day? Do the 'scare' emails that have been going around for the past several years on this subject accurately portray the need and importance? Certainly your doctor who parrots the party line must know the truth, right?

Well I don't really know the answer myself but it's got to be out there somewhere. A nutrition researcher, Barbara Rolls has written a book on water and says of the "First Commandment of Good Health: Drink at least eight 8-ounces of water a day" she can't even tell you where it came from.

So as for me and my house, we will follow the "best general advice" as given at the end of this article http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp, to "rely upon your normal senses. If you feel thirsty, drink; if you don't feel thirsty, don't drink unless you want to."

That really makes sense to me.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Uncle Bill,
    That's the advice Josh and I got in our Bradley Class (It's a childbirth method) "Drink when your thirsty, salt your food to taste", eat healthy (meaning lots of protein and lots of varied fruits and vegitables) etc.

    Interesting note to this, obviously, you need to take into account the differance in our age and such... But Mom is following the "8 glass a day" rule religiously (she has a huge water bottle that holds that amount) And she has alot of swelling in her ankles, I have had no swelling at all and follow the "Drink when your thirsty" method. We learned in our class that for pregnant women, drinking to much water without enough electrolights can cause the swelling that is usually attributed to sodium. Hence the prescribed low sodium diet given to most pregnant women may be the cause and can agravate the condition of swelling!

    ReplyDelete

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