Water Debate

Julie1984

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. The fact that a few of those articles were based on literature reviews rather than single studies lends them even more credence. Then again, I've never felt bad about not getting my magical 8 servings per day all of the time anyway...

Tri_Dad

I'm not saying you shouldn't drink water. Clearly we all need to stay hydrated. But I think it's interesting that there's so much passion around this issue. This is from WebMD:

Benefits of Drinking Water Oversold?
Researchers Say Evidence Is Lacking for Benefits of Drinking 8 Glasses of Water a Day(continued)
Claim No. 1: Drinking Water Helps Excrete Toxins
Drinking lots of water is widely thought to help improve kidney function and boost the clearance of toxins. One way it could do this, Goldfarb says, is by a mechanism called glomerular filtration, a measure of the kidney's ability to filter and remove waste products.

But in one study the researchers looked at, increased water intake by 12 young and healthy people actually decreased their glomerular filtration rate. And in another study, the rate did not change over time during a six-month period in which older men drank more water to try to improve bladder function.

In other research, increased water intake was found to affect the clearance of many substances by the kidneys, including sodium. But the studies don't prove any sort of clinical benefit, Goldfarb says.

"What almost certainly happens is, any toxins the kidney is responsible for excreting simply get diluted when the person is drinking a lot of water," Goldfarb says.

Claim No. 2: Drinking Water Helps Your Organs Work Better
Water is retained in various organs, so the thinking goes, and they work better with more water in them.

But Goldfarb and Negoianu say how much water is retained varies with the speed with which the water is taken in. If it's sipped, it's more likely to stay in the body than when gulped.

Even so, they could find no studies documenting that increased water intake helped the organs.

Claim No. 3: Drinking Water Reduces Food Intake and Helps You Lose Weight
Drinking more water is widely encouraged to help weight loss, the theory being that the more water you drink, the fuller you will feel and the less you will eat. "The [medical] literature on this is quite conflicted," Goldfarb says.

"Drinking before a meal might decrease intake [according to one study], but another study found [it did] not."

Even so, Goldfarb calls this claim one of the most promising for further study.

Claim No. 4: Drinking Water Improves Skin Tone
"From a quantitative sense, this doesn't make sense," Goldfarb says. The water you drink will be distributed throughout the body. "Such a tiny part of it would end up in the skin," he says.

"It turns out one small study showed there might be an increase in blood flow in those who drink [a lot of] water, but no one has ever looked scientifically [to see if it improves skin tone]."

Claim No. 5: Drinking Water Wards Off Headaches
Headache sufferers often blame water deprivation. But Goldfarb could only find one study that looked at this. The study participants who boosted their water intake had fewer headaches than those who did not, but the results were not statistically significant, meaning they could have been chance findings.

Second Opinion: Health Benefits of Drinking Water
The report provides interesting -- and sometimes surprising -- information, says David Baron, MD, a family physician and chief of staff at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center & Orthopaedic Hospital, Calif., who reviewed it for WebMD.

The most surprising finding, he says, was the lack of a scientific link found between drinking a lot of water in order to eat less. "I thought [the suggestion that] filling up your stomach with water might help lose weight makes sense," he says.

The report isn't dismissing the need to drink a healthy amount of fluids, he says. It simply showed no scientific basis to the recommendation to drink eight glasses of water daily.

"There is a lot of individual variation" in exactly how much water or fluid people need," he says.

Most of us, he says, are OK "by trusting our instincts" about how much to drink. "If you have a normal heart, normal kidneys, and normal thirst mechanism, it's not likely you will get dehydrated if there is a sufficient supply of fluids available," he says, and drink when thirsty.

Drinking Water: A Placebo Effect?
Might drinking a lot of water make us think we feel better, look better, and function better? Could there be a placebo effect to those eight daily glasses?

"I'm certain there is," Goldfarb says. "The placebo effect is very strong."

And if you're still convinced lots of water does your body good? No problem. "People say they feel stronger and healthier if they drink more water," he says. "That's fine. If they enjoy that benefit, so be it. [But] those who don't feel that way shouldn't feel obligated to drink the eight glasses."

All interesting but we live in a world where one week something prevents cancer and in the next week it causes it. I personally drink half my body weight in ounces a day and feel great and have lost 51 pounds in two months. so I am gonna stick with what works.

AmyNVegas

I know I feel better when I drink water and I know I feel like crap when I drink soda. I also know that studies have been done on nutrasweet/aspartame and it changes to formaldehyde in your body and attacks brain cells not to mention it gives me an instant chemical migraine I can't get rid of easily even with as much as a breath mint contains. So I will stick to my water and green tea. It works for me!:drinker:

Amy:bigsmile:

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sunshine_girl

This is interesting.
Personally, I like to chew and eat food and most of the time am happy to replace other beverages with water.

A big thing for me, I used to chug 3-4 cans of diet soda a day, then I went to the dentist. My teeth were terrible, I had no idea that the carbonation in them and in anything, like bubbly water or whatever is terrible for your teeth.

There are many articles that state that the body does not register liquid calories the same way it does food calories, but I just know what is good for me. I would rather have some dark chocolate than a can of soda and most days than a glass of juice, but that is just my personal preference.

Fitness_Chick

All interesting but we live in a world where one week something prevents cancer and in the next week it causes it. I personally drink half my body weight in ounces a day and feel great and have lost 51 pounds in two months. so I am gonna stick with what works.

:drinker:

healthier4me

All interesting but we live in a world where one week something prevents cancer and in the next week it causes it. I personally drink half my body weight in ounces a day and feel great and have lost 51 pounds in two months. so I am gonna stick with what works.

:drinker:

Ain't it the truth:drinker:

Fitness_Chick

All interesting but we live in a world where one week something prevents cancer and in the next week it causes it. I personally drink half my body weight in ounces a day and feel great and have lost 51 pounds in two months. so I am gonna stick with what works.

:drinker:

Ain't it the truth:drinker:

:laugh: :noway: :bigsmile: :flowerforyou: Yup:drinker: