How much water should you really drink?
When summer arrives and temps soar, everyone talks about how important it is to drink plenty of fluids. However, no matter what the thermometer says, staying hydrated is a daily necessity! How exactly do our bodies use water? Simply put, it keeps every system in our bodies functioning properly to carry out numerous essential tasks.
To name a few, water helps in:
- maintaining electrolyte balance
- cushioning joints
- preventing constipation
- protecting organs and tissues
- regulating body temperature
- carrying nutrients and oxygen to your cells
- flushing bacteria from your bladder
- aiding digestion
- normalizing blood pressure
- stabilizing the heartbeat
So, how much water should you really drink? Water needs vary from person to person. Dozens of factors can affect a person’s individual water needs, from diet to exercising to sickness to the temperature outside. Women need to drink 4-7 cups of water a day and men should drink 6 to 11. So why does the public think we should drink eight glasses of water a day?
The now common recommendation was traced back to a 1921 essay, in which the author measured his own pee and sweat, and determined we lose about 3% of our body weight in water a day, which comes out to be about eight cups. Consequently, for the longest time, water requirement guidelines for humanity were based on just one person.
4 Ways to avoid dehydration:
- Avoid thirst! Essentially, thirst is a symptom of dehydration. Our thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until we are 1-2% dehydrated.
- Signs to watch for: altered mood, dry eyes, headaches or dizziness, muscle cramping, fever or lack of sweat
- Check your urine color. If your urine is colorless/pale yellow, you are probably hydrated. The darker the color of your urine, the greater the hydration you require.
- Eat your water! It’s not just water that keeps your hydrated, you can also get fluids from water-rich foods, such as salads, veggies, fruits and applesauce.
Checkout this list of heavy hydrating foods, all of which are at least 90% water content by weight:
- Cucumbers: 96.7%
- Iceberg lettuce: 95.6%
- Celery: 95.4%
- Radishes: 95.3%
- Tomatoes: 94.5%
- Green peppers: 93.9%
- Cauliflower: 92.1%
- Watermelon: 91.5%
- Spinach: 91.4%
- Star fruit: 91.4%
- Strawberries: 91.0%
- Broccoli: 90.7%
- Grapefruit: 90.5%
- Baby carrots: 90.4%
- Cantaloupe: 90.2%
It’s quite easy to stay hydrated if you are eating a healthy whole food plant-based diet. Veestro will feed your hydration with numerous delicious organic gourmet plant-based meals delivered to your doorstep!
Read more about 5 summer foods to keep you hydrated.
Sources:[1] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-many-glasses-of-water-should-we-drink-a-day/
[2] http://today.uconn.edu/2012/02/even-mild-dehydration-can-alter-mood/
