What are the benefits of Drinking Water?

Are you sick? Have you heard “bed rest and drink plenty of fluids”? What about that awful calf cramp you get in the middle of the night. One of the first things I ask when people get cramps is “how much water do you drink?” What about headaches? Do you get a lot of headaches? If so, what is a common first line of defence for headaches…Drink 8 oz of water. Sometimes one might wonder if it is the Tylenol or Advil that cured the headache or the 8oz of water that we consumed while taking the pill.

There is no set amount of water you should drink in a day. If you consume a diet with a lot of water-rich vegetables and fruit or consume a lot of soups (providing the soups you choose aren’t too salty) you can get a lot of water out of your diet. Also depending upon whether you are in an environment where you perspire a lot or a cold environment will have an impact over how much water we need to consume as well.

That being said, we do require a lot of water for optimum health. Water helps with your skin, digestion, helps keep us alert during the day, it can help prevent constipation, headaches, nausea, It helps with jetlag, helps to relieve hangovers and helps to smooth out a host of other issues. Water also affects stretch receptors in our stomach to tell us that we aren’t hungry. In doing so we might not overeat so drinking a lot of water goes hand in hand with weight loss.

I don’t like to count how much water I drink, but I do make sure I have a water bottle at my desk, in the console of my car, while I travel and I especially like drinking water first thing in the morning when I get up. I find if a water bottle is in front of me I continually sip on water throughout the day. It is a habit now and I kind of feel lost without my water bottle everywhere I go.

My secret tip is cranberry tea. Cranberry tea is delicious. In the evenings when I am bored and think I am hungry I make myself some cranberry tea. The warm liquid satisfies my temptation to eat and again it is delicious and doesn’t carry with it any sugar or empty calories.

So, drink lots of water. Other than going to the bathroom more often, there are only upsides.

Until Next time...

Keep Fit 'N' Well.

Greg