Are you ready for this?
You’ve heard that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day, right? Well… from whom did you hear that? Most likely you heard it from someone who heard it from someone. Apparently the original someone was a 1945 pronouncement by some nutrition board, except… that what it said was that Americans consume about 8 glasses (or 64 ounces) of water a day through food, beverages, etc. They never said “you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day”. In fact, over-consumption of water is bad for you. Hell, enough of it can kill you (although the 8 glasses isn’t likely to… I’m just sayin’…).
And the old saw that if it comes from coffee or tea or beer that it doesn’t count, that those just dehydrate you more? Bunk. Pure bunk. While tea may be a natural diuretic, it doesn’t just negate all the water that carries it into your body.
So, eat and drink healthy like you should and you should be fine. We get a lot of our water just from the foods we eat and the things we normally drink. If you feel dehydrated, drink. If you’re prone to dehydration, drink. But if you’re downing glass after glass because you heard you should… maybe you should stop and think about whether you should be flushing all that water through your system or not and possibly upsetting your body’s water balance. And ask your doctor. But make sure he or she doesn’t also believe this old adage.
But don’t believe me… just google “8 glasses of water” and have a read.
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