scattered brainGood day and Happy Sunday to ya’ll!..
Today, I just want to share this article called “Myths and Facts About Water” written by Ching M. Alano that I’ve read earlier from the Sunday edition of The Philippine Star.
Are we having liquidity problems?
Believe it or not, two thirds of our body is water. We can survive without food for 81 days but without water, we die in five days, according to Dr. Yunjo Chung, author of The Cleaning Side of Medicine. If you lose but five percent of you total water, you will start to hallucinate, become disoriented, and experience twitching muscles. If you lose 15 percent of your water, your life is in grave danger.
The good doctor tells his patients that water is nature’s best beverage-vis-avis soda or soft drink. Just to compare: good drinking water has oxygen, Dr. Chung points out, while soda has dissolved carbon dioxide gas under pressure. And as we learned in biology class in high school, we breath oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
Yes, we can’t live without water. But all these years, we’ve lived with so many myths/false notions about water. So, now, let’s pour out the facts about water.
MYTH: The 1st commandment of good health decrees that we must drink at least 8 ounce glasses of water a day.
FACT: A lot of nutrition experts have no idea where this rule, which has been arbitrarily handed down through the ages, comes from. But here’s one theory: the number was probably based on the fluid intake measurements taken decades ago among hospital patients on IV’s. It has become since a convenient reference point, especially for those prone to dehydration like children, active people, and the elderly - and not really a measure of what people ought to drink.
The experts agree that an average person loses 10 cups (one cup=eight ounces) of fluid per day but also takes in 4 cups of water from food, leaving a need to drink only six glasses to make up the difference. That is a tad short of the recommended 8 to 10 glasses daily. The eight-by-eight rule is a gross overestimate, say kidney specialists. To replace daily losses of water, according to a kidney physiologist, an average-size adult with healthy kidneys needs no more than one liter of fluid (or four eight-ounce glasses).
MYTH: It’s okay to take water in excess.
FACT: Taking too much water (overdehydration) is as dangerous is taking no water at all (dehydration). Overdehydration can lead to nausea, weakness, dizziness, trembling hands, cramping, and even make one lose consciousness. Thus, Dr. Chung warns his patients not to drink over 12 eight-ounce glasses (about 3,000 cc). The rule of thumb to follow is: Everything in moderation.
MYTH: We get enough water from iced tea, soft drinks, juices and coffee.
FACT: Many drinks that we consume today are considered diuretics (causing us to urinate) and do not help hydrate the body on a cellular level. Caffeinated beverages do not hydrate the body. Truth is, for every cup of caffeinated beverage we take, we need to drink two additional cups of water to offset the dehydrating effects of caffeine. Thus, your best bet is water.
MYTH: Fresh water makes up 50 percent of all water resources on earth.
FACT: Only three percent of all water on earth is fresh (read: drinkable).
The United Nations estimates that a person needs a minimum of 50 liters of water a day for drinking, washing, cooking, and sanitation, which sadly over a billion people in the world don’t have access to. Antarctica is said to hold about 75 percent of the world’s fresh water and 9 percent of the world’s ice - but of course, that cannot be melted for daily use.
MYTH: There is much less fresh water today than there was 100 years ago.
FACT: Certainly not! The supply of fresh water is the same as it was 10 or more years ago, long before you and I were born. It may seem less today because the demand for water is so much more (and is likely to be even more in the next 100 years). A note of warning: Our fresh water supply is finite and becoming contaminated to the point where rainwater renewal is not viable. Thus, everyone should do his/her part to conserve and protect water resources.
I must confess I’m guilty of being ignorant about water’s importance to general health. I’m not the kind of person who drinks water everyday.. I can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner without drinking water at all.. I’d rather drink, perhaps the better word is addicted, to soda or any kind of soft drinks or juices than water. I don’t know why, but I’ve been doing this for years now. Reading this article is an eye opener for me.. So, I Hope with this “Myths and Facts About Water” will bring back a healthier lifestyle to all of us.
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