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Last wednesday evening BBC 1’s “One Show” aired a report on the body’s need for water, presented by a doctor (not sure what kind).  She was obviously not a doctor of nutriton though.

The report set out to disprove the fact that 2 litres of water needs to be drunk in the form of pure water and herbal teas every day.  The doctor in the report claimed that tea, coffee and juice were hydrating and a completely adequate source of fluids for our body, and that in fact ‘9 cups of tea and 4 cups of coffee are fine’.  She claimed we could get much of our water needs met through the liquid in our food.  She even went so far as to say that drinking too much water can kill you.

Now i’m certainly not one of those easily outraged or highly strung people, but I do feel strongly about my profession and about educating people to live healthy long lives, so by the end of this report I was pretty angry.  I think it was utterly irresponsible and biased, this doctor clearly has never studied nutrition, and a nutritional therapist should have been brought into the report to refute her ridiculous claims.

So for all those people who might have watched that show, and are now enjoying their coffee and 7up drink plan validated by the One Show, I have some bad news for you.  THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR WATER!  All you have to do is start drinking more and you can feel the difference yourself.

The body is made up of 70% water, and it is the most vital nutrient for the body.  Water is used in the body:

• To regulate body temperature
• To maintain blood volume (blood plasma is 91.5% water)
• To act as a lubricant and a cushion for your joints, eyes, spinal cord and in pregnancy for the foetus.
• For digestion.  You need water to make hydrochloric acid, and foods must be made water soluble before they can be assimilated.
• In order for nutrients to be stored and converted into their active form for your body to use, chemical reactions take place for which water is a medium.  In fact water is needed for thousands of chemical reactions to take place every second in your body.
• In order for cells to reproduce.
• For the elasticity and integrity of muscles, tendons and ligament, skin, other connective tissue.
• For the dilution of toxins in the body.
• For the production of various secretions, eg hydrochloric acid as already mentioned, saliva and sweat.
• For the transportation of signals from your brain to the rest of your body.
• etc, etc, etc.

You can start to get an idea of how important water is!

Symptoms of dehydration include:

• Thirst
• Difficulty concentrating
• Infrequent urination/dark urine
• Lethargy
• Wrinkles
• Muscle spasms
• Constipation

Most people are probably familiar with some of these symptoms.

Tea and coffee do not count towards your water intake, neither does juice.  Dr Batmanghelidj, who has written extensively for many years on the subject of water, inluding the famous book “Your body’s many cries for water”, states that “In advanced societies, thinking that tea, coffee, alcohol, and manufactured beverages are desirable substitutes for the natural water needs of the daily ’stressed’ body is an elementary – but catastrophic – mistake.  It is true that these beverages contain water, but they also contain dehydrating agents.  They get rid of the water they are dissolved in, plus some more water from the reserves of the body!  Modern lifestyles make people dependant on all sorts of beverages that are commercially manufactured.  Children are not educated to drink water; they become dependant on sodas and juices.  This is a self-imposed restriction on the water needs of the body…..  At the same time, a cultivated preference for the taste of these sodas automatically reduces the urge to drink water when sodas are not available, thus leading to dehydration.”

Caffeine also leaches nutrients out of food, so avoid drinking it with meals.  Iron is one such nutrient to mention, and most of us are familiar with the consequences of iron deficiency anaemia, a common problem in women.  Caffeine really should be kept to a minimum, an absolute maximum would be 3 cups of tea or 2 cups of coffee per day to promote optimum health.  There are so many herbal teas out there, and even coffee substitutes.  Sugary drinks causes the body to pull water out of the cells into the bloodstream in order to dilute the sugar, so they should be avoided as much as possible too.  Fruit juices are better diluted as they are high in sugar.

Lastly it would be extremely unlikely that you would kill yourself by drinking too much water, I have only heard of it in cases where the person was taking ecstasy, therefore their thinking and body functioning were pretty badly impaired already.

I know somebody who has recently cured their asthma through reading Dr Batmanghelidj’s book on water, and increasing their pure water intake.  I know how rubbish I feel if I don’t drink enough.  After a day I will have a headache, feel tired and be constipated.  Sorry, probably too much information!  I’d recommend reading the book and just seeing how you feel by increasing your intake of pure water.

Posted on June 15th, 2009 under Nutrition. Tags: caffeine and the body, caffeine vs water, functions of water, hydration, importance of water, needs for water, the one show, water and the body. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.