I can’t find any advice from any reputable medical science that show us it’s necessary to drink ½ our body weight in ounces of pure water per day. And believe me, I have searched! Fitness professionals like me believe that is the best practice for good reason, but we have been twisting the actual information which is roughly to: consume ½ your body weight in ounces in total water (more if you exercise, more if you are in hot climate, and especially more if you exercise outdoors in the heat).
Total water includes water in beverages and water in food.
So, this means, your beloved iced teas and “hydration” beverages are sufficient to hydrate your body.
However, things to remember are:
- Caffeine dehydrates a body.
- Non-organic products, like tea grown with pesticides, and taste chemicals made in a lab make your liver and kidneys work harder. And if you’re eating a typical SAD, or you take medications of any kind, your liver and kidneys already have to work pretty hard.
- If you are thirsty and interpret it as hungry (a common phenomenon) , you can gain weight. Or by the same token, if you are thirsty and your body has always satiated thirst with food, your habit for eating when thirsty can cause weight gain.
- If you don’t typically cook your own food from fresh, whole, organic foods, you are likely eating too much processed, and/or high-sodium, and/or damaging fatty foods that will harm your GI tract. If you are adding caffeinated, sugary, or toxic beverages, instead of pure water, to a GI tract that is already working very hard to function properly, your chances of truly hydrating your body are diminished.
Shall I go on?
Of course, I don’t know your diet, so this is food for thought. If you are consuming the recommended 9-13 servings of fresh organic fruits and vegetables every day, I’d say you do not need to supplement with ½ your body weight in ounces of pure water per day.
