Good, healthy water is something that everyone should consider as a part of their everyday health plan. In my last post here at Health Image, I outlined some of the huge benefits of weight loss for health improvement overall. Here I want to take a closer look at that fundamental of all natural health sources, and one the human body cannot do without for normal functioning, water.

Before we continue on with this side of our lifestyle I mentioned in an earlier post about the importance of drinking enough water after exercise.

Well, it’s not just after exercise that you need to drink plenty of water. Read on…

Our bodies are 70% water and to lose even a small percentage of that will cause us to dehydrate. Dehydration can cause so many health related problems, I really don’t know where to even begin. Certainly, many headaches are caused by not drinking enough water in the day. Many digestive problems are also the direct result of not drinking enough water. From digestive problems you can branch out to an amazing selection of related health problems and illnesses that all have their root cause in the body being in a dehydrated state for prolonged periods of time.

This is so important that the message gets across to people everywhere because so many people do not even realize that they are dehydrating regularly and not replenishing sufficiently and then suffering all manner of related diseases and health problems that would not have occurred had they drank enough water every day to keep their level of hydration constant.

So what is the recommended amount of water to drink in a day?

That depends on where you live and what your lifestyle is, but a general rule of thumb is to drink at least two pints (roughly one and a half litres) of water per day. Obviously if you live in a very hot climate or you do heavy physical work, you’ll need to drink more water.

While you may think that it is all right to substitute this with fizzy soda drinks, or tea and coffee etc, while these will contribute to your overall liquid intake, they will do you more harm than good.

Tea and coffee contain caffeine, which acts to dehydrate you further, so whatever benefit you might get from that small amount of liquid is canceled out by the dehydrating effect they have on your body. Fizzy soda drinks contain a lot of sugar and artificial ingredients which are all bad for your body. Cola drinks also contain caffeine, and will dehydrate you similarly to tea and coffee. Low sugar, diet or sugar free drinks are even worse as they contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame that are believed to cause certain cancers amongst other hitherto unforeseen illnesses and conditions.

Don’t go arguing with me on that one, I don’t give a damn what the food industry says, it’s only protecting its own dirty backside. Artificial sweeteners are ALL bad so don’t do it if you want to be healthy – you have a choice and you can choose to say no to canned slow poison.

The only sure-fire way of staying healthy is to drink pure, still water.

If your local tap water is certified safe to drink, then it probably is but if you prefer bottled water, then do that or get a filter jug like a Brita and filter your own tap water – its cheaper than bottled and every bit as pure.

Terry Didcott
Health Image

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