You Are
What You Drink
by Bonnie Murphy
“Water
is not only a mirror reflecting our mind—water is the
source
of life.”
~Masaru
Emoto
|
If you don’t
drink enough water—and most Americans don’t—you can and will
compromise your health and body. How
long can a person stay alive without water? It’s fascinating that
you can live 30 days without food, but you can’t exist for over 72
hours without water.
Our bodies are
made up of 70% water. Each day we lose up to 2% of that in our
everyday activities. If we do an hour of exercise, we lose even more.
It’s a proven fact that if you lose 2% or more of your body
water, you are de-hydrated. The
average adult loses
2½ to 3
liters of fluid a day through sweating, breathing, urinating, moving,
even sleeping. Thus, the body becomes dehydrated.
A survey
done for the
Nutrition
Information
Center
at
Cornell
Medical
Center
revealed that 10% of those polled admitted to drinking no water at
all! The average person gets only about 1 liter (approximately 35
ounces) of liquid a day. Much of that liquid comes from acidic coffee,
tea, and soft drinks—many of which actually rob your body of water.
When we
exercise, especially outdoors in the winter, we need to really hydrate
your body. When I speak about hydration, I am talking about drinking
good water. Some of the
water that we drink is not good and I’ll cover that later.
However, if we don’t get enough water, our bodies will
actually retain water and then we’ll feel bloated and uncomfortable
and will appear fatter than we already are.
I’ve advised
many clients to drink water in order to help with leg cramps.
The reason this works is because water works to wash the acids
out of our bodies. When we
exercise, we stir up all kinds of toxins and acids. If they aren’t
washed out of the body, they will lodge in the muscles or joints and
cause cramping and aching. In
this sense, it’s obvious that water is a cell cleanser—and it is
clear that we already need to drink more!
Good
water and pH factors
Good water is
defined as water having a pH of greater than 7.365 (the natural pH of
the human body). Tests have been done on several popular brands of
bottled water and it’s shameful to see how we are wasting our money.
Most bottled water is nothing more than municipal water that
has been run through a filter. Take
the Coke product, Dasani, or the Pepsi product, Aquafina—both are
bottled from municipal water supplies; nothing else has been done!
Buying bottled water is no assurance that it is any safer or healthier
than tap water.
Not many
bottled water companies list their pH factor, but Evian has a pH of
7.53 and Dannon Spring Water of 7.84—thus, both are “good”
water. If in doubt about the pH of your tap water, take it in for
testing. To get your water (whether bottled or tap) to an alkaline
state of 7.365 or higher, just add a teaspoon or two of baking soda to
each 32 ounces of water that you drink. Baking soda added to water not
only increases the pH, but also releases oxygen in the water,
increasing its energy potential. Dr.
Robert O. Young, in his book The
pH Miracle for Weight Loss, recommends that you drink water
that has a pH of 9.5 to 11.5. (There
are some machines available for purchase that will alkalize your water
right at your kitchen sink.)
It takes about
20 parts alkaline to cancel out 1 part acid. So, if you want to drink
a cup of acidic coffee and are concerned about your body’s pH
balance, you would have to drink 20 cups of “good” water to cancel
out the acid that is created in your body from drinking the one cup of
coffee. (It doesn’t
matter if it’s caffeinated or decaf—it’s all acid causing.)
Get
thin: drink water!
If you are one
of the 75% of Americans that don’t drink 8 eight-ounce glasses of
water daily, then I would suggest you work up to your recommended
amount of water. A good
rule of thumb would be to add 8 ounces of water a day for as many days
as is needed to get to your required amount.
If you weigh 210 lbs you’ll need at least 5 ½ liters; if you
exercise, the number goes up to 7 liters daily.
When you give
your body more water, you’ll crave more, and you’ll drink more.
The more you get the more you want.
It’s so good for you because the job of good water is to
neutralize acids, dilute excess acid, and literally wash them (and all
the toxins) out of your body via urine, sweat and through the bowels.
Without enough water your body becomes too acidic and goes into
a preservation and fat-storing mode.
This is partly
why the answer to weight loss is to drink more water. Think about it.
If not drinking enough water causes bloating, and your body goes into
preservation mode, doesn’t it make sense that if you drank one liter
of good water for every 30 to 40 lbs of body weight, you could lose
some pounds?
Hydrate!
In
Alaska
(and especially in the dry winter time) we really need to think about
hydration. The definition of hydration is to supply water in order to
restore or maintain fluid balance.
A mere 2% drop
in body water has been shown to cause muddled thinking, short-term
memory problems, trouble with basic math, difficulty expressing
oneself verbally, and difficulty focusing on a computer screen or the
printed page. Light-headiness
and cold hands and feet can also result. The list goes on:
anxiety, irritability, depression, sugar cravings, and cramps.
If you are out
cross country skiing and become dehydrated, you could get so confused
that you won’t know how to get back to your car or house.
Always carry good
drinking water with you! Try
to drink one liter (approximately 35 ounces) for every 40 pounds of
body weight each day. If
you exercise, then you should be drinking one liter per every 30
pounds of body weight daily.
When you are
participating in winter sports, use the formula of one liter to each
30 pounds of body weight and you will keep your body’s fluid balance
in check. (For example, if
you weigh 150 pounds, you should be drinking 5 liters of good water
daily.) Have a great
winter: drink water!
For questions about
hydration and other health and wellness issues, call Bonnie
Murphy, fitness coach for mature women, 907.646.4076.
Website: www.bfitandwell.com;
e-mail: bonnie@bfitandwell.com
