{"id":72,"date":"2009-02-09T13:16:44","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T19:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/?p=72"},"modified":"2010-06-15T22:04:53","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T04:04:53","slug":"drinking-water-part","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/09\/drinking-water-part\/","title":{"rendered":"Drinking Water – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In mid-December I embarked on a one-man “science” experiment: I decided to drink nothing but water in order to find out what changes I’d experience in terms of energy level, mood, weight loss, etc. Along the way, I became curious about all issues H2O. This post — the first in a series on drinking water — will address\u00a0how much water a person should drink and what you might gain from\u00a0drinking\u00a0more water. Later posts will take on issues such as tap water vs. bottled water, filters, and more. Trying to figure all this out, you can start sweating, a lot, and therefore need to drink more water. But don’t worry: I’m here to help, even though I’m by no means a doctor or an expert. If you’re really worried (or thirsty), go get yourself one of those.<\/p>\n

The standard maxim: 8 glasses of water a day<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might know the standard maxim: drink 8 glasses of water (64 ounces) per day. Many say no one really knows where this recommendation comes from.\u00a0But a\u00a02\/13\/94 Chicago Tribune article by Bob Condor\u00a0quoted an expert\u00a0who claimed\u00a0the\u00a0maxim originated\u00a0in the 1945 US RDAs, which said: “A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 liters (83 ounces) daily in most instances” — somehow 83 ounces eventually morphed to 64 — and “An ordinary standard for diverse people is 1 milliliter [0.03 ounce] per calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.<\/em>” (Emphasis added by me.)<\/p>\n

I don’t believe the 1945 US RDAs\u00a0are the source of the maxim, given the 83\/64 ounce confusion (although, how many ounces did “a glass” mean in 1945?). So we’re back at “no one really knows.”<\/p>\n

Anyway, if the 1945 RDAs are correct, we shouldn’t try to take in 8 glasses of\u00a0pure water a day — just 8 glasses’ worth of water\u00a0counting all<\/em> the\u00a0beverages and<\/em> foods we have.\u00a0The water automagically contained in a grape or an apple (or indeed, a grapple<\/a>) would count toward your total.\u00a0Americans at large erroneously thought the recommendation called for 8 glasses of pure water because,\u00a0a National Academy of Sciences expert said in the Tribune article, the emphasized sentence in the quotation nefariously escaped the notice of newsmakers and historians fairly effectively.<\/p>\n

Institute of Health’s 2004 take on the standard maxim<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 2004 the Institute of Health issued a report<\/a>\u00a0resurrecting the lost sentence’s point\u00a0and adding two more. (Soon after the report’s release, Jane E. Brody at the New York Times gave her more or less approving take on it<\/a>.)\u00a0A section\u00a0of\u00a0an Institute of Health summary of the report says:<\/p>\n

The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide. The report did not specify the exact requirements for water, but set general recommendations for women at approximately 2.7 liters (91 ounces) of total water — from all beverages and foods — each day, and men an average of approximately 3.7 liters (125 ounces) of total water. The panel did not set an upper limit on water.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ll focus on three of the Institute of Health’s claims: 1) food should<\/em> count toward your total water intake; 2) evil caffeinated beverages<\/a>\u00a0should<\/em> count toward your\u00a091\/125 ounces (…what happened to 83 ounces? or 64 ounces?); 3) the vast majority does just fine letting thirst\u00a0guide their\u00a0water-partaking.<\/p>\n

Should food count toward your total water intake?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. Internet-spear-famed natural bodybuilder Tom Venuto<\/a>\u00a0argues in his e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle<\/em> (which I’ve found helpful in general) that you should “always err on the side of too much water rather than too little” and thus follow the about-1-mL-per-kilocalorie guideline (from the 1945 RDAs and elsewhere) without<\/em> counting the water in your food toward your total water intake goal. Well, natural not-a-bodybuilder Douglas Lucas<\/a>\u00a0can’t give you such a sophisticated argument, but can only rely on his own experimentation. (Actually, regarding water, Venuto’s probably in the same boat — groan<\/em>. I goof on him only because he has bigger muscles than I.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s what I learned experimenting, generally drinking around 64 ounces of pure water a day (i.e. not counting the water in my food). If I manage to drink that amount, and especially if I drink some water right when I wake and right before sleep, I don’t have trouble with headaches. The dehydration headaches were only a vague problem before my experiment; such minor headaches, I assumed,\u00a0might be normal — perhaps the result of not sleeping enough. Or something. Nope. Drink enough water, they\u00a0don’t\u00a0occur. ‘least for me. Personally, I haven’t noticed any of the other reported\u00a0physical and psychological\u00a0benefits of drinking enough water — improved skin, digestion, mood stability, weight loss, whatever\u00a0— but then again, I’m not yet the most observant person. My energy level has only increased in the sense that without headaches, I feel more enthusiastic in general.<\/p>\n

But if I simply assume the water in my food is enough, and stop drinking as much water, the minor headaches return.<\/p>\n

Should evil caffeinated beverages count toward your total water intake?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I don’t know the true extent of caffeine’s diuretic<\/a> effect — that is,\u00a0its effect of increasing urination and thus\u00a0worsening dehydration — but I do know, with tautologically certainty, that evil caffeinated beverages<\/a>\u00a0are evil. So I say: don’t drink or eat caffeine in the first place! =)<\/p>\n

Is thirst a reliable indicator of your hydration level?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though this 2008 NPR article disagrees<\/a>, I will stomp my foot down definitively and shout: “Thirst is not<\/em> a reliable indicator of one’s hydration level.” There’s a phenomenon F.M. Alexander<\/a>\u00a0called “faulty sensory appreciation” (and sometimes, much more excitingly, “debauched sensory appreciation”). Just because you sense something — such as the apparently hydrated state of your mouth — doesn’t mean your sensations are telling you what you think they are. I’ve learned that if I’m (relatively) dehydrated for a long enough period of time, my ability to perceive my hydration level well will\u00a0fall into disrepair, disrepute, dishonesty … it will become … debauched! But once I resume drinking enough water, my ability to accurately register my hydration level improves. Try this yourself if you don’t believe me (if you’re like most people, currently you’re dehydrated). Incidentally, the whole phenomenon of faulty (debauched!) sensory appreciation fascinates me.<\/p>\n

After the release of the 2004 report, Bob Condor reprised his role at the Chicago Tribune\u00a0of giving his watery take<\/a>, and pointed out the American College of Sports Medicine<\/a>\u00a0said: Not so fast there, Institute of Health. According to Condor, the ACSM argued prolonged physical activity and\/or heat exposure — e.g., switching climates — can “confuse” the body’s thirst response. Condor also mentioned some researchers theorize the pineal gland (formerly Descartes’ seat of the soul!), which controls thirst, works less and less well as we age. I say it’s all about debauched(!) sensory appreciation. People just don’t know they’re thirsty, because their thirst response has become rusty from disuse.<\/p>\n

In conclusion!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obviously the game changes\u00a0while you’re exercising or otherwise sweating a lot; I’m not sure how just yet. In general, though, in my experience, the\u00a01 mL-per-kilocalorie\u00a0guideline\u00a0— which\u00a0for me points to\u00a0the standard maxim of 8 glasses a day\u00a0— is\u00a0best,\u00a0so long as\u00a0you do not take into account the water contained in food (which you shouldn’t), and\u00a0so long as\u00a0you do avoid caffeine (which you should). And don’t trust your thirst … it’s probably debauched. =)<\/p>\n

So go drink some water!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In mid-December I embarked on a one-man “science” experiment: I decided to drink nothing but water in order to find out what changes I’d experience in terms of energy level,...<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In mid-December I embarked on a one-man “science” experiment: I decided to drink nothing but water in order to find out what changes I’d experience in terms of energy level, mood, weight loss, etc. Along the way, I became curious about all issues H2O. This post — the first in a series on drinking water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1513,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/1513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}