Water Requirements

Water is essential for all life, and drinking the right amount is important to health.   Drinking good water is still the best way, to obtain our fluid requirement.

We even need water to breathe:  our lungs must be moist to take in oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide.  It is possible to lose a pint of liquid each day just exhaling.

The amount of water we need is based upon a number of factors: our size; our activity level, which influences the amount of fluid we lose through sweat; the climate or temperature (higher environmental temperatures increase our fluid losses); and our diet.  A diet high in fruits and vegetables provides more total fluids through food than a diet high in fat, meat, and dairy products, for example.  Special circumstances in which increased amounts of water may be needed include: fever, diarrhea, kidney disease, or any situation where excessive fluid losses occur through normal body elimination processes. 

We lose water daily through our skin, urine, bowels, and lungs (as water vapor in the air).  About half of our water losses can be replaced with the water content in our foods.  The remaining half requires specific fluid intake, primarily from drinking good water.  Although the beverages we drink: teas, coffee, sodas, beer, are basically water that contains other ingredients as well; caffeinated beverages, such as coffee, tea, cocoa, or colas, and alcoholic beverages do not count as the same volume of water because they act as diuretics in the body, increasing fluid losses from the kidneys.  Did you know . . . It takes 32 glasses of alkaline water to neutralize the acid from one 12 ounce cola!!!

The average human requirement is about three quarts of water per day, including food and beverages.  It is recommended that the average person consume at least one and a half to two quarts of water daily along with a physically active lifestyle with daily exercise. 

At the International Sports Medicine Institute, they have a formula for daily water intake: 1/2 ounce per pound of body weight if you're not active (that's ten eight-ounce glasses if you weigh 160 pounds), and 2/3 ounce per pound if you're athletic (13 to 14 glasses a day, at the same weight).

Your intake should be spread throughout the day and evening.  You may wonder:  If I drink this much, won't I constantly be running to the bathroom?  Yes.  But after a few weeks, your bladder tends to adjust and you urinate less frequently but in larger amounts

***Water should not be drunk with or just after meals, as it can dilute digestive juices and reduce food digestion and nutrient assimilation.  Some people like to drink a glass or two in the evening to help flush our their systems overnight, even though this may result in getting up during the night to urinate.  It is important to drink water to avoid problems such as constipation and dry skin.  Drinking enough contaminant-free water is likely our most significant nutritional health factor.  Water will keep us current, clean, and flowing through life.

Contributions by:

• Elson M. Haas, M.D., Staying Healthy With Nutrition
• Leroy R. Perry, Jr., www.naturodoc.com , Think You're Drinking Enough Water?