Water Benefits

Overall maintenance: Water helps us in multiple ways and is a part of the cells in the body. Apart from quenching thirst, it regulates body temperature, helps to flush out waste products from the kidneys, keeps mucous membranes moist, helps in digestion, lubricates joints, maintains the viscosity of blood, and moisturises the skin.

Water helps in prevention of diseases. Water helps to prevent constipation by softening the stools and making it easy to evacuate the bowels. It helps to prevent urinary tract infection. It prevents premature wrinkling of skin by keeping the skin moist. It helps to prevent frequent infections and allergies by keeping the mucous membranes of the nose, throat, eyes, etc moist. Adequate water intake prevents dehydration and its effects.

Importance of getting daily requirement of water content through your food. Water can be taken plain in the required quantity or can be combined with fluids to maintain the hydration levels in the body. Nourishing fluids would include beverages like buttermilk, fresh lime juice, fresh fruit juice, tender coconut water, plain milk, clear soup. Some of the vegetables and fruits are high in water content and their intake helps in boosting the hydration in the body, especially in the hot summer months. Some examples are cucumber, ash gourd, watermelon, tomato and celery.

Water and weight loss. Drinking water right before a meal aids in suppressing appetite to some extent, thus, making one eat less. However, this does not contribute to weight loss directly. Weight loss takes effort and involves balanced food intake, physical activity, exercise, and so on. As far as water is concerned it has no calories and creates a false feel of fullness and might just contribute to weight loss indirectly.

The biggest take-home here is that water helps promote healthy metabolism, which in turn affects how our bodies handle energy production and fat storage. So get healthy, and drink up today!

8 glasses of water a day, is it nonsense??!!

A medical practitioner has argued that the recommendation to drink six to eight glasses of water a day to prevent dehydration is not only nonsense, but is thoroughly debunk nonsense.

There is currently no clear evidence of the benefit from drinking increased amounts of water, yet the we-don't-drink-enough-water myth has endless advocates including the NHS, claimed GP Margaret McCartney.

The NHS Choices website states: Try to drink about six to eight glasses of water (or other fluids) a day to prevent dehydration.

While many schools also feel it appropriate to insist that pupils are accompanied to school by a water bottle, other organisations, often with vested interests, reinforce this message, she said.

For example, Hydration for Health (created by French food giant Danone - makers of bottled waters including Volvic and Evian) recommends 1.5 to 2 litres of water daily as the simplest and healthiest hydration advice you can give.

It also claims that, even mild dehydration plays a role in the development of various diseases.

But McCartney disagreed that that there is no high quality published evidence to support these claims.

While there are some conditions that do benefit from drinking increased water, such as in people with recurrent kidney stones, other evidence for preventing disease is conflicting, added McCartney.

There are many organisations with vested interests who would like to tell doctors and patients what to do. We should just say no, she concluded.