FROM THE OCTOBER 2010 "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC" MAGAZINE
SHATTERING THE WATER MYTH!!
Shattering the Water Myth Magazines, websites, even some medical
texts recommend guzzling eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day.
The bottled-water business loves it. Hydration experts, however,
aren't sure where the "8 x 8" rule came from - or whether it
holds water.
Mike Sawka, a U.S. Army research scientist, thinks the origins
lie in a 1933 study on rodent hydration. The research led to a
recommendation of 2.5 liters a day, or 84.5 ounces of liquid, for
a moderately active human to make up for water lost to sweat and
excretions. Twenty percent typically comes from foods high in
water - soup, ice cream, celery - leaving 67.6 ounces, or roughly
"8 x 8." (Exercise or heat adds to a body's needs.)
Only you don't need eight daily glasses of water. Other beverages
count, even if caffeinated. "The body's need to keep fluid trumps
the small influence caffeine might have on losing fluid," says
University of Connecticut exercise physiologist Douglas Casa.
Plus the body isn't shy about liquid desires. Drink if you feel
thirsty. If not, don't. One exception: Hydrate before an intense
workout.
When in doubt, check your urine. Dark yellow, says University of
Pennsylvania nutritionist Stella Volpe, is the hue of
dehydration. - Marc Silver
......
Note:
My urine is a very light yellow. I drink lots .... of healthy
juices, a glass of milk each day, usually one cup of tea, often
during the week French-vanilla coffee. Only in the hot summer
time when working at the Ranch in the summer camp for kids do I
drink lots of water. From fall till summer, I drink just about no
water on its own. My urine is always a light yellow.
8 x 8 ounces of just water per day is indeed a myth!
Keith Hunt
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