January 2021
According to some sources, the human body is made up of more than 70% water. Therefore, it would make sense to stay hydrated daily. In fact, it is a vital part of our health.
Many people will say they drink plenty of tea, coffee, or sports drinks – which all contains water, yes. Logic suggests if something has water in it, it should suffice as our daily intake. However, this could not be further from the truth. Once you add something to water, your body will digest it as a food product and start to break down any chemical or nutrient.
How Much Water Should I Drink?
We have all been told to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. The problem with this recommendation is, I do not believe in a one size fits all type of recommendation. We are all different people, and our body types are all different as well. For some people, 64 oz of water may be too much! For some, that may not be enough. So, it would make more sense to drink as much as our individual body needs.
The BEST recommendation is – Drink ½ of your body weight in ounces…minimum! Increase the daily minimum when exercising or excessive sweating occurs.
Why Stay Hydrated – Signs & Symptoms
Dehydration can cause many health issues. According to the Mayo Clinic, some of the
common signs & symptoms to determine if you may be dehydrated are:
extreme thirst, dry mouth
dark-color urine
less frequent urination
fatigue, dizziness, and headaches
Dry skin
Overtime, you can start to develop some mild to severe health conditions when you do not consume enough water. Some mild to severe complications include:
heat stroke or heat exhaustion during vigorous exercise
urinary and kidney problems, leading to UTI, kidney stones, or even kidney failure
Muscle cramps
Is Bottle Water or Filtered Water Better?
To start, I DO NOT recommend Aquafina and Dasani water. These brand-name companies put additives into purified tap water. Also, the pH level of these waters has a pH of around 4-6, which is highly acidic and is not good for us. Normal drinking water should always be neutral, with a pH of 7.
Some of the safer bottled waters to drink are: Evian, Fiji, Crystal Geyser, Arrowhead, Voss, and Mountain Valley Spring Water.
Additionally, just drinking filtered water from your home is a better option than Aquafina or Dasani.
Although drinking some of these bottled waters can be safe, to get real health benefits from drinking water, I recommend Ionized Alkaline Water. Noticed I said, Ionized Alkaline Water, which is different than the “alkaline water” you see at grocery stores – a major difference!
Alkaline vs. Ionized Alkaline Water
It appears some companies are coming out with Alkaline water as a healthier option. This is a misconception. You get no health benefits from just drinking alkaline water alone. In fact, drinking too much bottled alkaline water can cause health concerns.
One of the biggest benefits in drinking Ionized Alkaline water is, you get antioxidants compared to the bottled alkaline waters sold by these companies. Most alkaline water is around a pH of 8-9.5. However, you can take any water, add chemicals, minerals, and buffers to it to increase the pH and call it “alkaline water,” which is what these companies do. But these waters lack the antioxidants needed for healing.
One big company who is currently taking advantage of this marketing propaganda is: Essentia