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  1. It's the myth that just won 't go away. Almost
  2. everyone thinks they don't drink enough
  3. water, but the idea that we all should drink
  4. lots of it — eight glasses per day — is based on no
  5. scientific data whatsoever.
  6. No one really knows where the eight-glasses
  7. idea comes from. Some blame the bottled
  8. water industry but plenty of doctors and
  9. health organisations have also promoted it
  10. over the decades. The source might be a 1945
  11. recommendation by the US National Research
  12. Council (NRC) that adults should consume
  13. 1 millilitre of water for each calorie of food,
  14. which adds up to about 2.5 litres per day for
  15. men and 2 litres for women.
  16. According to Barbara Rolls, a nutrition
  17. researcher at Penn State University and author
  18. of the 1984 book Thirst, this amount is about
  19. right for people in a temperate climate who
  20. aren't exercising vigorously. And 1.9 litres is
  21. what you 'Il get from drinking eight 8-ounce
  22. glasses of water — the 8 x 8 rule — as per the US
  23. version of the myth.
  24. What most people don't realise, though, is
  25. that we get a lot of that water from our food, as
  26. the NRC pointed out at the time. Foods contain
  27. water and are broken down chemically into
  28. carbon dioxide and more water. So if you are
  29. not sweating buckets you need only about a
  30. litre a day — and 1.2 litres is what you will get
  31. from the eight 150-millilitre glasses
  32. recommended by the UK's health service.
  33. But any talk of glasses is misleading because
  34. there is no need to drink pure water. The fluids
  35. that people drink anyway, including tea and
  36. coffee, can provide all the water we need, says
  37. Heinz Valtin, a kidney specialist at Dartmouth
  38. Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire,
  39. who has reviewed the evidence (Regulatory
  40. Integrative and Comparative Physiology,
  41. vol 283, p R993).
  42. According to the myth, however, caffeinated
  43. drinks don't count because they are diuretic,
  44. stimulating the body to lose more water than
  45. it gets from the drink. Not true. A comparison
  46. of healthy adults in 2000 found no difference
  47. in hydration whether they got their water
  48. from caffeinated drinks or not (Journal of the
  49. American College of Nutrition, vol 19, p 591).
  50. Even one or two mildly alcoholic drinks will
  51. hydrate you rather than dehydrating you.
  52. Hydrophilics respond by saying that pure
  53. water is better than other drinks. Even this
  54. claim is arguable, but the crucial point is that
  55. if you are a healthy individual already
  56. drinking enough tea, milk, juice or whatever,
  57. there is no evidence that swigging down water
  58. as well will achieve anything other than
  59. making you go to the bathroom all the time.
  60. The final aspect of this myth is that we
  61. need to force ourselves to drink because by the
  62. time we are thirsty we are already seriously
  63. dehydrated. Not so. Rolls showed nearly
  64. 30 years ago that we get thirsty long before
  65. there is any significant loss of bodily fluids.
  66. It takes less than a 2 per cent rise in the
  67. concentration of the blood to make us want to
  68. drink, while the body isn't officially regarded
  69. as dehydrated until a rise of 5 per cent or more.
  70. so relax and trust your body. Don't force
  71. yourself to gulp down gallons of water if you
  72. don't want to— that can be dangerous —just
  73. drink the beverage Of your choice whenever
  74. you're thirsty.