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Water is the essence of our life and is required in every cell of our body. We are made up of 60%-70% water, it is the main component of all body fluids; blood, including lymph, digestive juices, urine, tears and sweat. Knowing that it makes sense to understand that water is involved in almost every bodily function such as circulation, digestion, absorption and the all important elimination of wastes.
This is one of the most popular questions I’m asked by my clients. The amount you need varies from person to person, depending on size, diet, and of course activity levels, but that aside I would say that the recommended amount is and average for most people. The recommended amount is 4 pints per day, that’s 8 average size glasses. Dehydration causes stress on the body and that stress will cause even more dehydration. I always sip water through the day and never drink more than 2 pints in one hour.
Of course if I’m training at the gym then I use my judgement and drink more than that but on average, 4 pints (or 2 litres) of water per day is recommended for the average person.
Of course it is safe to drink tap water but in an ideal world I would avoid tap water, I buy glass-bottled water where possible.
Tap water has been known to be safe to drink but the cleaning process may not clear many unwanted environmental pollutants that could cause harm and stress to our body. If you do drink tap water invest in a filter to try and remove some of the impurities.
For those with a bit of spare cash, I’d always advice an under the sink filter systems that filters from the mains and come via it’s on tap; such as a reverse osmosis water system. I used these in LA and could totally taste the difference. This means that you can cook and wash all foods with amazing water!
Many believe that tea and coffee counts, however these drinks do not hydrate. In fact most of these are dehydrating and are causing stress due to the caffeine and stimulants involved. Flavoured water drinks are also unfortunately sweetened with artificial flavours, sugars and saccarins that are again stressful and not at all hydrating!
Carbonated, fizzy water contains carbon dioxide, and as we know that is what the body needs to get rid of so why would you want to put it back in again? In that case, I certainly would not recommend carbonated water to be the main water that you are drinking, but once every so often wont hurt.
Benefits of drinking water include increased energy, more life vitality, natural weight loss, natural detox, glowing and clearer skin, better digestion, better concentration, less painful menstruation, good regular bowel movements and many more!
If you are not drinking any water at all at the moment then begin to make a habit of drinking more each day, until you reach your 2 litre daily amount. A great way of getting your water quota in is to add a spoon full of goji berries to your water, this way you can get used to drinking more water and slightly flavour with these amazing antioxidant boosting berries.