Is Drinking 8 Cups of Water Each Day Necessary? at He's Fit

Click here for the Lead Stories

Is Drinking 8 Cups of Water Each Day Necessary?

Posted May 31, 2008 at 03:00 PM by Denise Musumeci

Section: His Health, Physical Health, His Nutrition, Diets

ice water Is drinking eight glasses of water everyday really necessary? The National Academy of Sciences of the United States Food and Nutrition Board decides the recommended intake of each nutrient and periodically publishes them. The 1945 edition recommended “A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 liters (about 8 cups) daily in most instances.” Many people believe this rule without realizing that most of their water consumption comes from the foods and beverages you consume each day.

Dr Gabe Mirkin, author of How Much Water Do You Really Need? says that when food is digested, it is converted into energy, carbon dioxide, and water. Everything you eat or drink contains water, even things like coffee (which many believe dehydrates the body). The body will absorb the water from these foods, so it is not entirely necessary to drink eight glasses of water a day.

How do you know if your body has enough fluid? The answer depends on how constipated you are. When your body digests food, it turns it into liquid and it stays in that form until it enters the colon. Once the liquefied food enters the colon, it absorbs water and nutrients back into the body, creating solid waste that the body expels. However, if your body does not have enough water, it will take extra fluid from your stools, causing them to harden and making them more difficult to pass, hence constipation. If you’re not having problems passing stools, then you’re body is properly hydrated.

To back his essay, Dr. Mirkin quoted a study from the Journal of the American College of Nutrition on water consumption and dehydration. A group of twenty-seven men were given one of two diets, one consisting of drinking plain water and another that made them rely on fluid by foods only. The Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that “none of the nine measures of hydration were affected.”

The point of Dr. Mirkin’s article was to get people to realize that while the body does need about 2.5 liters of water each day, it does not mean that you have to physically drink that much water. You only need to drink enough to pass stools with ease. The study that Dr. Mirkin quoted clearly validates this point, since none of the subjects in either group were dehydrated. However, the amount of water each individual physically needs to drink is also based on lifestyle and location. A person who sweats lot due to physical activities or living in hot climates may need to drink more water than someone who is sedentary or lives in cold regions. But, as a general rule of thumb, eight cups of water is not necessary to keep you hydrated

Research sources and for more information: [Dr. Mirkin]; [picture]