Study: 2 liters of water a day is too much for most people

Miscellaneous / by admin / April 05, 2023

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You can not pour water into yourself with glasses when you do not want to.

To find out if people really need to drink 8 glasses of water a day, an international team of researchers analyzed data from 5,604 people aged 8 days to 96 years from 23 countries.

The subjects drank a glass of water, in which some hydrogen isotopes were replaced with deuterium - "heavy" hydrogen, safe for humans and contained in ordinary water in a small concentration. How quickly the body gets rid of excess deuterium made it possible to calculate the rate of water exchange and compare the results between different groups of people.

It turned out that this indicator is influenced by age, gender, level of physical activity and environment. People who live in hot and humid climates and those who live at high altitudes have faster water turnover: in order to maintain the balance of water in the body, they need to drink more water. The same goes for athletes, pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The biggest factor influencing water exchange was the rate of energy consumption. It is highest in men aged 20-35 years, their water exchange is on average 4.2 liters per day. The indicator decreases with age and reaches 2.5 l / d by the age of 90. Similarly, in women 20-40 years old, the average water exchange is 3.3 l / d, and by the age of 90 - already 2.5 l / d. The body of athletes, pregnant and breastfeeding women, on average, displays more water per liter compared to other people.

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At the same time, the authors of the study note that the well-known advice to drink 2 liters a day has not been scientifically confirmed, and most scientists do not know what this recommendation is based on. The problem is that it does not take into account the water that the body receives from food and other drinks. One of the authors of the article Yosuke Yamada claims:

Of course, if you eat only bacon and egg toast, you won't get much water. But if you regularly eat meat, vegetables, fish, pasta and rice, you can get about 50% of the required water just from food.

Yosuke Yamada, National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Osaka (Japan)

Based on this, 1.5 to 1.8 liters of water per day will be enough for most people - and not 2 liters (or 8 glasses), as is usually recommended.

It is worth noting that a couple of extra glasses of water a day will not hurt. But the new data is useful to consider if you have to force yourself to drink water just to reach the recommended two liters a day.