The Hydration Secret

Allen Jesson   Poet and Philosopher



***Hydrate***

Let's do a little experiment. Please take a healthy pot plant(preferably not a cactus). Put it on your kitchen windowsill. Now,don't water it. Over the next few days, even weeks, see what starts to happen to that pot plant. Inevitably, it will wilt (please water it back to life and never be so cruel again :). It wilts because it is a living thing and is made up of water, about 80% to 90% or so.

Without water, it will die. So will you. In about 3 days to be precise. 

YOU are actually 60% water. So how much water do you need to drink on a daily basis to keep YOU going? Well, that is going to vary by person to person, by your diet, where you live etc. etc. 


As a rough rule of thumb, you should drink somewhere between 2 and 4 litres per day. But there are a couple of quick tricks that you can use to know whether you are getting enough fluid on a daily basis (for the squeamish among you, please look away now):

1.If you're feeling tired or lethargic, drink a pint of water. If you feel better within 5 or 10 minutes, then you were probably dehydrated.

2.Check the colour of your urine. Assuming that you haven't been eating beetroot or the like, then your urine should be a clear, water like colour. If it is yellow or darker then you are probably dehydrated.

3.Try drinking 4 litres per day and see if it makes a difference to your energy levels and your overall sense of well being.

By the way, if you eat a healthy diet, you will get a lot of water from the fruit and vegetables. Soup is obviously good in this respect too. The good news for tea and coffee drinkers is that most studies have found that in moderate amounts, caffeine has only mild diuretic effects -- much like water. 

However, I'll finish with one last word of warning: Generally,alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it increases urination and flushes water (and other good stuff) from the body.

So, for hydration purposes, tea, coffee, water, fruit juice all good. Alcohol bad. Got it?