Yeah, they screwed up the advice on how much water to drink. It wouldn't be
so bad if that's all they got screwed up.....but, damn!
john wrote:
:: On Wed, 16 May 2007 14:06:26 -0400, "2Phat" <[email hidden]> wrote:
::
::: I found this one interesting. I'm still drinking my water no
::: matter what.
:::
::: Drinking eight glasses of water a day
:::
::: Admit it, this is one healthy habit that's a royal pain. Luckily,
::: it's also completely unnecessary. For some people, eight glasses a
::: day might actually be far too much, leading to sodium deficiencies
::: and potentially life-threatening water intoxication, caused by
::: kidneys not being able to keep up the intake of liquids. In 2002, a
::: kidney specialist tried, in vain, to find any scientific evidence
::: supporting the eight-glasses-a-day myth. His report, published in
::: the American Journal of Physiology, concluded that this standard
::: health advice was complete and utter bunk that, like many urban
::: legends, stemmed from a tiny grain of truth. Apparently, the
::: dietary guidelines provided by the Food and Nutrition Board of the
::: National Research Council do say that humans need 1 milliliter of
::: water for each calorie of food-adding up to about 10 cups a day.
::: However, the same guidelines also say that we get most of this
::: liquid from the water in solid food. There's no need to drink more.
::
:: Here is an article from the Los Angeles Times that you may find
:: interesting.
::
:: Monday, November 20, 2000
:: Home Edition
:: Section: Health
:: Page: S-1
:: For years we've been admonished to chug eight glasses of water a
:: day--for our skin, for our weight, for general good health.
:: But--surprise!--experts say that advice is simply...; Hard to Swallow
:: By: BENEDICT CAREY
:: TIMES HEALTH WRITER
::
:: alk about a drinking problem.
:: On the one hand, it seems that more people than ever are drinking
:: heavily: College students bring bottles into classrooms; office
:: workers nip from jugs all day long. Many of us are like Gerri
:: Johnson, a 56-year-old kindergarten teacher living in Manhattan
:: Beach, who says, "I carry a bottle of water throughout the day, and
:: I'm always drinking. It flushes out my body, and it's good for my
:: skin."
:: At the same time, some nutritionists insist that half the country is
:: walking around dehydrated. We drink too much coffee, tea and sodas
:: containing caffeine, which prompts the body to lose water, they say;
:: and when we are dehydrated, we don't know enough to drink.
:: Can it be so? Should healthy adults really be stalking the water
:: cooler to protect themselves from creeping dehydration?
:: Not at all, doctors say. "The notion that there is widespread
:: dehydration has no basis in medical fact," says Dr. Robert Alpern,
:: dean of the medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern
:: Medical Center in Dallas.
:: Doctors from a wide range of specialties agree: By all evidence, we
:: are a well-hydrated nation. Furthermore, they say, the current
:: infatuation with water as an all-purpose health potion--tonic for the
:: skin, key to weight loss--is a blend of fashion and fiction and very
:: little science.
:: Consider that first commandment of good health: Drink at least eight
:: 8-ounce glasses of water a day. This unquestioned rule is itself a
:: question mark. Most nutritionists have no idea where it comes from.
:: "I can't even tell you that," says Barbara Rolls, a nutrition
:: researcher at Pennsylvania State University, "and I've written a
:: book on water." Some say the number was derived from fluid intake
:: measurements taken decades ago among hospital patients on IVs;
:: others say it's less a measure of what people need than a convenient
:: reference point, especially for those who are prone to dehydration,
:: such as many elderly people.
:: Kidney specialists do agree on one thing, however: that the 8-by-8
:: rule is a gross overestimate of any required minimum. To replace
:: daily losses of water, an average-sized adult with healthy kidneys
:: sitting in a temperate climate needs no more than one liter of fluid,
:: according to Jurgen Schnermann, a kidney physiologist at the National
:: Institutes of Health.
:: One liter is the equivalent of about four 8-ounce glasses. According
:: to most estimates, that's roughly the amount of water most Americans
:: get in solid food. In short, though doctors don't recommend it, many
:: of us could cover our bare-minimum daily water needs without drinking
:: anything during the day.
:: "Whenever I go to the airport I see all these people carrying around
:: bottles of water, and I wonder, 'What's behind this?' " says
:: Schnermann. "Certainly not science."
:: Try confusion. The way it's almost always stated, in books, magazines
:: and newspapers, the 8-by-8 rule specifically discounts caffeinated
:: beverages, such as coffee. This is flat wrong. Caffeine does cause a
:: loss of water, but only a fraction of what you're adding by drinking
:: the beverage. In people who don't regularly consume caffeine, for
:: example, researchers say that a cup of java actually adds about
:: two-thirds the amount of hydrating fluid that's in a cup of water.
:: That is to say, one cup of coffee equals about two-thirds a cup of
:: water--if you're not a regular caffeine drinker.
:: Regular coffee and tea drinkers become accustomed to caffeine and
:: lose little, if any, fluid. In a study published in the October
:: issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition,
:: researchers at the Center for Human Nutrition in Omaha measured how
:: different combinations of water, coffee and caffeinated sodas
:: affected the hydration status of 18 healthy adults who drink
:: caffeinated beverages routinely.
:: "We found no significant differences at all," says nutritionist Ann
:: Grandjean, the study's lead author. "The purpose of the study was to
:: find out if caffeine is dehydrating in healthy people who are
:: drinking normal amounts of it. It is not."
:: The same goes for tea, juice, milk and caffeinated sodas: One glass
:: provides about the same amount of hydrating fluid as a glass of
:: water. The only common drinks that produce a net loss of fluids are
:: those containing alcohol--and usually it takes more than one of
:: those to cause noticeable dehydration, doctors say. Do the Math:
:: We're Drinking Plenty
:: Now, take a close look at a survey released this May by the
:: International Bottled Water Assn. Based on interviews with 2,818
:: adults in 14 U.S. cities, the association concluded that "although an
:: overwhelming majority of Americans know that drinking water enhances
:: health, most don't drink as much per day as they should."
:: Yet, according to the association's own numbers, Americans say they
:: drink an average of 6.1 glasses of water, 3.7 servings of soda or
:: sports drinks, 3.2 of coffee and tea, 1.9 of juice, 1.7 of milk, and
:: one alcoholic drink each day.
:: All told, after subtracting the alcoholic drink, that's a sopping 15
:: glasses of hydrating fluids, well above the already exaggerated
:: "minimum." And it doesn't even include the three or four glasses
:: contained in solid food.
:: What do we do with all this excess water? Ask any water junkie who's
:: tried to sit through a movie lately: We run to the bathroom.
:: For some people, drinking plenty of water is a very good idea. As we
:: age, for example, many of us grow less sensitive to losses of body
:: water and don't drink when we should. Developing a water habit is a
:: good precaution against dehydration. In addition, researchers have
:: good evidence that people who develop kidney stones can lower their
:: risk of further problems by drinking more fluids. "Those are the only
:: patients we would tell to drink more water," says Alpern.
:: But there are also people for whom guzzling water is dangerous.
:: According to Dr. Gary Robertson, who studies water metabolism at
:: Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, these are patients
:: whose bodies have trouble eliminating fluids--for example, those with
:: diabetes who are taking anti-diuretic hormone, or ADH, which prevents
:: the body from losing water. "The excess water cannot be excreted," he
:: says, "and the result is water intoxication, which produces symptoms
:: ranging from mild headache to confusion, coma, seizures and
:: occasionally even death."
:: Increasingly, says Robertson, doctors are prescribing ADH for
:: conditions such as nocturia, a persistent need to urinate at night,
:: which ruins sleep in many elderly people; and bed-wetting, in both
:: older adults and children. He's aware of one case already in which a
:: diabetic woman taking ADH died of water intoxication after following
:: the advice of an article discussing the health benefits of water.
:: Of course, if you're healthy, and you're laboring over the stair
:: machine, playing basketball, or even gardening in a hot, dry climate,
:: you're going to need a lot more than a liter to keep you hydrated.
:: But you hardly need a nutritionist or a doctor to tell you that.
:: "You're dying of thirst," says Alpern. "The thirst mechanism is one
:: of the most powerful and sensitive of all the body's regulatory
:: processes." Thirst Is Your Best Indicator
:: Robertson says that this mechanism almost always kicks in when we've
:: lost between 1% and 2% of body water. "There's no evidence that this
:: 1 to 2% decrease is harmful in any way," he says. "Thus, there is
:: really no need to 'prevent' this slight decrease in body water by
:: drinking a specified amount in the absence of thirst."
:: What if you're sweating and for some reason don't or can't drink?
:: That's when the body will begin to squeeze water from its own
:: tissues, including the brain and the skin. And that's why you may
:: get a headache when dehydrated, and why your skin can look ragged
:: and dry. A tall, cool glass of water or soda or iced tea will soothe
:: your head and revive your skin, in most cases, doctors say--but only
:: if you're dehydrated to start with.
:: "If you're a normally hydrated person, like you or me," says Dr.
:: David Rish, a dermatologist in Beverly Hills, "then drinking extra
:: water is not going to do anything for your skin. If your skin is
:: dry, and you're hydrated, the best thing to do is apply lotion."
:: Using Water as a Diet Aid
:: Perhaps most cruelly of all, there's no good evidence that drinking
:: water significantly curbs appetite. "I think that's mostly an
:: invention of the diet industry," says Carolyn Katzin, a nutritionist
:: in Brentwood who runs the American Cancer Society's nutrition program
:: in California. "A better way to get water is in fruits and
:: vegetables."
:: A couple of liters of drinking water certainly fill the stomach,
:: researchers say. But you're just as hungry shortly thereafter; and
:: once all that water flows under the bridge, you tend to eat as many
:: calories as you would have without guzzling.
:: Barbara Rolls, the Pennsylvania State researcher, says water can help
:: you eat fewer calories--as long as it's cooked into food. In a 1999
:: study, Rolls tallied how many calories 24 healthy adult women ate
:: when served a lunch of chicken and rice. When the chicken and rice
:: were prepared as a casserole and served with a glass of water, the
:: women consumed an average of 392 calories each. When the rice,
:: chicken and water were cooked together into a soup, the women ate an
:: average of only 289 calories each. "And they did not make up for
:: those calories by eating more at dinner," says Rolls.
:: "This is really the way the body is engineered to get water--in food,
:: in soup, in fruits and vegetables, which are almost all water," says
:: UCLA psychologist William McCarthy, who's also director of science at
:: the Pritikin Longevity Center in Santa Monica. "When we get water in
:: this food matrix, it stays with us for a while. Whereas when we drink
:: liquid water, it goes right through the body. I see all these people
:: carrying around their water bottles like talismans to protect them
:: from disease and weight gain. Well, lots of that water is going into
:: the stomach--and right out."
:: Not that it's doing any mischief in healthy adults along the way.
:: "You know, I get patients in my office all the time, saying, 'I've
:: been real good, doc, I'm drinking seven glasses of water a day,' "
:: says Alpern. "And I leave them alone. It's certainly not doing them
:: any harm, and it's a lot better than other habits they could have."
:: So relax, doctors say. Forget the diet books. And listen to your own
:: body. Says Ann Grandjean: "Look, if you're running to the bathroom so
:: much it seems like you can't get any work done, you're drinking too
:: much. And if you're going less than four times a day, you're probably
:: drinking too little."
:: PHOTO: When we drink glass after glass of water, says UCLA's
:: William McCarthy, "lots of that water is going into the stomach--and
:: right out."
