The Forgotten Essential Nutrient
A few years back, when I was sitting in a cold classroom studying the chapter on nutrition for my NSPA Certified Personal Trainer Certification, the teacher started by asking us as a group to call out the six essential nutrients. It didn’t take us long to come up with the first five: carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, but the room went silent as we racked our brains for a sixth. It turns out that we forgot possibly the most important essential nutrient: water! After all, you can survive for a few weeks without food, but only a few days without water! It makes sense that water is important to our health when you consider that 55-60% of our body weight is water.
Water serves a huge number of roles in keeping your body functioning at a high level. It helps the body digest, absorb and transport nutrients as well as flush waste through the formation of urine in the kidneys. It is used to maintain blood volume and aids in circulation, which is important for delivering oxygen and nutrients to the rest of the body. Water also provides a vital medium for the cellular biochemical reactions. It makes you appear younger by helping to prevent dry skin and wrinkles! Water is also great for your joints. Drinking water can even improve cognitive function by up to 30% due to the oxygen it carries and the balancing of electrolyte levels.
Water is also essential from a fitness perspective. It helps you lose weight by suppressing your appetite while simultaneously helping to burn stored fat. One simple trick for losing weight is to simply drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning. While sleeping, your body goes into a low power mode. When you eat or drink something, it kick-starts your metabolism and gets your body burning calories again. By drinking water when you wake up, you not only get your body to start burning more calories, but also do so in a way that both hydrates your body and doesn’t add any calories.
While most people feel it’s important to consume large amounts of protein to build muscles, water is even more vital! Water composes roughly 75% of each of your muscles. Because water carries oxygen to your cells, it also helps your muscles function longer and work harder before they feel tired.
For those of you who aren’t fond of drinking lots of water during the day or are intimidated by the prospect of radically increasing your water intake, I have some good news. Although drinking water is the best way to stay hydrated, almost everything you eat or drink plays a role. Most healthy people can get enough fluid through the beverages they consume every day. Even caffeinated beverages can help you stay hydrated if consumed in moderation. Experts say that the belief about caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea and soda always dehydrating you is false. It turns out that healthy people who consume a moderate amount of caffeine, 200-300 milligrams a day, don’t lose more fluid than people who don’t consume any. Furthermore, depending on your diet, roughly 25% of the fluid you consume comes from food. Water, however, remains the most effective way to stay hydrated due to its lack of calories and other harmful substances and due to the fact that it’s easier for the body to absorb.
We always hear that we need to drink more water, but there are all sorts of different theories in regards to exactly how much water to drink. A common adage that just about everyone has heard at one point or another is that we should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day. That seems a little too simple when you think about it though. Surely someone like Ray Lewis, who has a rigorous daily workout routine and weighed about 260 lbs during the Ravens’ 2000 Super Bowl season, needs more water than a 135 lb woman who only works out once a week.
It turns out that the eight glasses of water rule came out of a recommendation made by the Food and Nutrition Board in 1945 and is indeed an oversimplified explanation. It was based off the fact that the average diet at the time was about 1900 calories which after doing the math happens to come out to a touch over 64 ounces or eight 8-ounce glasses of water.
Since few of us consume exactly 1900 calories, you could instead determine your required fluid intake by multiplying your daily caloric intake by 0.034 ounces.
Daily Caloric Intake x 0.034 = How many ounces of fluid you need per day
The problem with this is that most of us don’t know exactly how many calories we consume in a given day. Worse, it can vary day to day. Additionally, since the math is complex, those of us who aren’t “mathe-magicians” would more likely just give up trying to figure out how much water to drink in a given day rather than counting calories and working out the math.
Another simpler method to determine how many ounces water you need during the day is to simply divide your weight in pounds by two.
Body Weight in Pounds / 2 = How many ounces of fluids you need per day
Since this doesn’t take into account exercise, it isn’t quite as accurate a method as basing it off our caloric consumption, but it is very close and an excellent way to figure out how much water to drink.
While both methods are remarkably accurate guidelines, neither of these methods is going to be 100% correct due to the numerous other factors affecting how much water you need including the weather, your health, and how much you exercise. A simple way to check whether you are hydrated is to look at your urine. If it’s a dark yellow color, you are likely dehydrated. Ideally, it should be fairly clear.
While it is possible to drink too much water, most of us don’t drink nearly enough to be concerned about that. A healthy adult human kidney can process approximately 15 liters of water per day. The rare instances where someone drinks too much, tend to be athletes in extreme conditions such as running marathons.
So, when in doubt, drink more!
Sources:
Water serves a huge number of roles in keeping your body functioning at a high level. It helps the body digest, absorb and transport nutrients as well as flush waste through the formation of urine in the kidneys. It is used to maintain blood volume and aids in circulation, which is important for delivering oxygen and nutrients to the rest of the body. Water also provides a vital medium for the cellular biochemical reactions. It makes you appear younger by helping to prevent dry skin and wrinkles! Water is also great for your joints. Drinking water can even improve cognitive function by up to 30% due to the oxygen it carries and the balancing of electrolyte levels.
Water is also essential from a fitness perspective. It helps you lose weight by suppressing your appetite while simultaneously helping to burn stored fat. One simple trick for losing weight is to simply drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning. While sleeping, your body goes into a low power mode. When you eat or drink something, it kick-starts your metabolism and gets your body burning calories again. By drinking water when you wake up, you not only get your body to start burning more calories, but also do so in a way that both hydrates your body and doesn’t add any calories.
While most people feel it’s important to consume large amounts of protein to build muscles, water is even more vital! Water composes roughly 75% of each of your muscles. Because water carries oxygen to your cells, it also helps your muscles function longer and work harder before they feel tired.
For those of you who aren’t fond of drinking lots of water during the day or are intimidated by the prospect of radically increasing your water intake, I have some good news. Although drinking water is the best way to stay hydrated, almost everything you eat or drink plays a role. Most healthy people can get enough fluid through the beverages they consume every day. Even caffeinated beverages can help you stay hydrated if consumed in moderation. Experts say that the belief about caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea and soda always dehydrating you is false. It turns out that healthy people who consume a moderate amount of caffeine, 200-300 milligrams a day, don’t lose more fluid than people who don’t consume any. Furthermore, depending on your diet, roughly 25% of the fluid you consume comes from food. Water, however, remains the most effective way to stay hydrated due to its lack of calories and other harmful substances and due to the fact that it’s easier for the body to absorb.
We always hear that we need to drink more water, but there are all sorts of different theories in regards to exactly how much water to drink. A common adage that just about everyone has heard at one point or another is that we should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day. That seems a little too simple when you think about it though. Surely someone like Ray Lewis, who has a rigorous daily workout routine and weighed about 260 lbs during the Ravens’ 2000 Super Bowl season, needs more water than a 135 lb woman who only works out once a week.
It turns out that the eight glasses of water rule came out of a recommendation made by the Food and Nutrition Board in 1945 and is indeed an oversimplified explanation. It was based off the fact that the average diet at the time was about 1900 calories which after doing the math happens to come out to a touch over 64 ounces or eight 8-ounce glasses of water.
Since few of us consume exactly 1900 calories, you could instead determine your required fluid intake by multiplying your daily caloric intake by 0.034 ounces.
Daily Caloric Intake x 0.034 = How many ounces of fluid you need per day
The problem with this is that most of us don’t know exactly how many calories we consume in a given day. Worse, it can vary day to day. Additionally, since the math is complex, those of us who aren’t “mathe-magicians” would more likely just give up trying to figure out how much water to drink in a given day rather than counting calories and working out the math.
Another simpler method to determine how many ounces water you need during the day is to simply divide your weight in pounds by two.
Body Weight in Pounds / 2 = How many ounces of fluids you need per day
Since this doesn’t take into account exercise, it isn’t quite as accurate a method as basing it off our caloric consumption, but it is very close and an excellent way to figure out how much water to drink.
While both methods are remarkably accurate guidelines, neither of these methods is going to be 100% correct due to the numerous other factors affecting how much water you need including the weather, your health, and how much you exercise. A simple way to check whether you are hydrated is to look at your urine. If it’s a dark yellow color, you are likely dehydrated. Ideally, it should be fairly clear.
While it is possible to drink too much water, most of us don’t drink nearly enough to be concerned about that. A healthy adult human kidney can process approximately 15 liters of water per day. The rare instances where someone drinks too much, tend to be athletes in extreme conditions such as running marathons.
So, when in doubt, drink more!
Sources:
- MyFoodDiary
- WebMD Feature
- WebMD
- FITDAY
- The Dr. Oz Show
- Public Domain Pictures
3459 Sweet Air Road
Phoenix, MD 21131 (443) 641-4400 |
© Quest Hapkido 2016
|