Why you do not need to drink 8 glasses of water daily

The basic principles of a healthy lifestyle wander from one article to another virtually unchanged and seem already well-established truths. Yes, you know them well (!) More vegetables, regular exercise and eight, yes, eight glasses of water a day.

Wait, what about the water it really true? And if I do not want to drink so much? And whether all people need the same amount of liquid?

The theory of the need eight glasses of water each day has deep roots, so deep that it is difficult to trace their beginning. Most likely, this dogma was launched back in 1945 with the publication of National Food and Nutrition BoardWhere it was, among other things it said that "the rate of fluid intake for an adult is about 2.5 liters per day... but most of this quantity is contained in food consumed." Users successfully threw back the second part of the phrase, and the myth of the eight cups of water (about 2.5 liters) went to walk on the planet.

So let's just give up the idea that the number eight has something very important to our health, and stop

considered drunk glasses. Much more important to answer another fundamental question: whether the additional water consumption really so favorably affects our health?

There is a huge and undeniable plus consumption is water - it does not contain calories. Given the epidemic of obesity that is sweeping almost all the developed, developing and underdeveloped country, far better would be if the population is to replace the more juice or sweet drinks to a simple water.

But supporters of the sect "Eight glasses of water" they say we are also the miraculous cleansing the body, eliminates toxins and wastes, the normalization of the internal organs. However, here too things are not too clear.

To date, there is no consensus of scientists about the impact of additional consumption of abundant liquid on human disease and mortality. For example, a very large study conducted in the Netherlands in the 1980s. His results were published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2010. As a result of observation of more than 120 000 people over 10 years, the authors found no association between the consumption of fluid and causes of death. In other words, people who drank a lot of water and a few die from the same disease.

Other studies support this conclusion. here this is finds no connection between the amount of fluid intake and frequency of occurrence of chronic renal disease and mortality from cardiovascular disease. And here this is does not see any impact on the quality of the additional hydration of the skin, so it is likely the visual effect of rejuvenation of drinking water, people do not correspond to reality.

But what to do with other scientists who offer us a completely opposite conclusions in their research papers? For example, it study, Which were followed for more than 20,000 Adventists found a positive effect of consumption of a few extra cups of water to the total picture of morbidity and mortality. So where is the truth?

The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle, and its search is not necessary to carry out any costly research. And it consists in the fact that you need to drink, With water to drink it. But to dwell on any certain number of liters or cups daily intake should not be. For each person, this norm is individual and depends on many factors, including the climate and current diet. And the best advice I have ever heard on the subject, is a doctor's answer to my question about how much and when to drink. He said the following:

Drink when thirsty.

It's simple, why complicate things?