Have you heard about the latest Australia-wide water shortages? I'm not talking about the drought or the river Murray running dry - I'm talking about the shortages that exist in the bodies of the majority of our population
A Newspoll survey conducted by BRITA Water Filter Systems found that Australians are chronically dehydrated with 4.5 million adults (30% of the population) only drinking three glasses or less of water each day, well under the recommended minimum daily intake of eight to ten glasses.Research shows that dehydration causing as little as a 2% loss of body weight results in impaired physiological responses and performance.
For the first time last year water has been formerly recognised as an 'essential nutrient' in the revised National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand.The guidelines recommend that Australians need to increase their absolute minimum intake to eight to 10 glasses to prevent dehydration. For optimal performance however this value can be increased again. A good guide if you want to perform at your best is to drink 1 litre of water for every 25 kg of body weight per day. If you exercise a lot, its hot, you're pregnant or you drink lots of diuretics then drink even more. The consequences of inadequate hydration are both physical and mental. They include fatigue, dry skin, headaches and constipation as well as a decline kidney function, poor oral health, urinary tract cancers, colon cancer and mitral valve prolapse. You will also notice a reduction in strength, ability to exercise and concentration. In fact if you don't drink enough water and over the longer term, every body function will degrade more quickly. It really is as simple as that.
In fact water intake should not be increased in order to help ward off a particular symptom or to increased performance in a particular area. Water is as they say an essential nutrient that is required for all aspects of health and homeostasis. Health should always be the goal, less symptoms or increased performances are merely side effects of the good health that comes from adequate water intake.
Remember also that these totals are for water only. You should not include any other drinks in this. In fact many of the other drinks we drink (tea, coffee, alcohol, soft drinks) are diuretics and actually serve to leach water out of our systems. Non-caffeinated herbal teas can be a nice warming substitute for the tea and coffee as the temperature drops.
If you do decide to make some changes to your beverage intake remember that you don't need to do it all at once. In fact it is actually better for you to make these changes gradually. So gradually increase your intake of water and reduce your intake of tea (caffeinated), coffee, alcohol and soft drinks and see the changes in your health and your performance.
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