Why do we drink so much water?
Do we really need to drink litres of water everyday?
About 20 years ago, I came across an article that suggested to drink 2 litres of water every day. As Americans are not familiar with litres, 2 litres is commonly known as the “8x8 rule”, i.e. drink eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Then, I started seeing more and more articles of that nature, recommending that to maintain a healthy body, drinking water is very important, and the amount of water one needs to drink daily kept increasing — the maximum value I have seen is 3.7 litres (16 8-ounces cups/glasses) for men and 2.7 litres (11.5 cups) for women. And remember, this is the minimum recommendation for a sedentary lifestyle in a cool environment — the recommendation is to drink much more water in hot weather and while doing physical exercises or playing sports. Recently, I saw an article on Medium (I Drank 3.78 Liters of Water Daily for 30 Days), where the author struggles to drink 1 gallon of water a day everyday for thirty days. What is going on? I drink just 3 or 4 glasses of water a day and I have perfect health (I am 61 years old and am reasonably active.)
When people see articles that talk about drinking a gallon of water everyday day is good for health, they start putting themselves to torture to drink that amount of water everyday. Let me tell you that it is not easy to drink a gallon of water a day. To take advantage of this, businesses are selling dozens of types of “1 Gallon Motivational Water Bottle with Time Markings” costing up to $180 on Amazon and in sports shops. I see that many people carry a water bottle whenever they step out of their home or office, even for a few minutes. Do we really need to be stressed out about not drinking enough water?
What are the Recommendations for Drinking Water?
There is no uniform recommendation about how much water one should drink — it varies from no recommendation to 1.0 to 3.7 litres/day. According to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report published in 2004:
“The report set general recommendations for water intake based on detailed national data, which showed that women who appear to be adequately hydrated consume an average of approximately 2.7 liters (91 ounces) of total water — from all beverages and foods — each day, and men average approximately 3.7 liters (125 ounces) daily.”
On the contrary, Centers for disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has no recommendation for drinking water:
“there is no recommendation for how much plain water adults and youth should drink daily.”
According to the British Nutrition Foundation website,
In the UK, guidance is to drink 6–8 glasses of fluid per day (roughly 1.2 litres).
Confusion about Total Water, Plain Drinking Water and Fluids
There is a lot of confusion if the daily water recommendation is about total water from all sources or just plain drinking water. Notice that The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report clearly states, “of total water — from all beverages and foods”. Similarly, the British Nutrition Foundation uses “6–8 glasses of fluid per day”, and not “6–8 glasses of water per day”. However, people or even published articles often confuse between total water, plain water and fluids, and in the end it all becomes plain drinking water! In fact, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report clearly states:
“This report refers to total water, which includes the water contained in beverages and the moisture in foods, to avoid confusion with drinking water only.”
How Much Drinking Water Do I Really Need?
Definitely not litres!
Most of our body is made of water, which can be as high as 78% in babies to upto 50% in older adults. Our brain does an excellent job of maintaining balance between water and minerals in different organs and when it feels that the amount of water is decreasing in the body, it generates a feeling of thirst, and then we usually go for water or other fluids to drink. When we are in a hot environment or are doing physical work or exercises, we lose more water through sweating, and therefore, we feel thirsty more often. For healthy people, drinking water on a need basis is enough. Even if you believe in 2 or 3 litres total water requirements per day, you get a large percentage of that through tea, coffee, beer, wine, juice, milk, fruits, vegetables, yogurt (curd), pasta, etc. You may be surprised to know that some fruits and vegetables, such as apples, grapes, oranges, carrots, pears and pineapple contain 80% water. Even bananas contain 70% water.
I drink three cups of tea, eat yogurt, and eat lots of fruits and salads, so I am getting about 1.5 to 2 litres of water through these, and when I add 3–4 glasses of water that I drink everyday, I am putting enough water in my body. Besides, my brain will tell me to drink more water when required! I don’t need count glasses and bottles! Even the The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report states:
“However, on a daily basis, fluid intake driven by thirst and the habitual consumption of beverages at meals is sufficient for the average person to maintain adequate hydration.”
Is Drinking a Lot of Water Good For Health?
If you drink litres of water, it will result in more frequent visits to washroom, but does it help in improving the overall health of the body? Some people believe that by drinking lots of water, the male bladder functions improve significantly. However, according to the research paper, “Is it possible to improve elderly male bladder function by having them drink more water? A randomized trial of effects of increased fluid intake/urine output on male lower urinary tract function”:
“Conclusions: It seems possible to improve some aspects of male bladder function by drinking more water. However, the effects are too small to be clinically relevant.”
According to a randomized controlled trial, “The effects of 6 months of increased water intake on blood sodium, glomerular filtration rate, blood pressure, and quality of life in elderly (aged 55–75) men”,
“Blood pressure, sodium level, GFR (Glomerular Filtration Rate), and QOL did not change significantly in either group during the intervention period.”
According to another research paper, “How much water do we really need to drink?”,
“Everywhere around us we see people sipping bottled water. … The recommended total daily fluid intake of 3,000 ml for men and of 2,200 ml for women is more than adequate. Higher fluid intake does not have any convincing health benefits, except perhaps in preventing (recurrent) kidney stones.”
Prior to 1969, athletes were advised not to drink water during exercises. Slowly, the advice changed to drinking water during exercises, and now most athletes are being advised to drink water even before starting exercises! Drinking too much water may result in low concentration of sodium in the blood (hyponatremia), which can even be fatal! This has been discussed in the research paper, “Is drinking to thirst optimum?”
“Methods: Literature survey of all studies comparing the effects of drinking to thirst (ad libitum) and drinking to prevent any weight loss during exercise — the ‘zero percent dehydration’ doctrine.
Result: No study found that drinking more than ad libitum during exercise produced any biological advantage, but it could cause exercise-associated hyponatremia.”
While there is no denying that our body needs to get enough water to function properly, drinking too much water does not lead to any significant improvement in our health. In fact, drinking too much water may lead to hyponatremia.
Final Thoughts
Drinking to thirst is enough for most healthy people. Besides from drinking water, your body also gets water from other fluids, fruits, vegetables and foods, therefore, don’t tourture yourself by drinking too much water.
Some businesses may have vested interests in asking people to drink more and more water. Humans have been living on this earth for thousands of years without measuring how much water they drink — definitely we don’t need a gallon bottle!
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