Why Do I Need to Drink Water?
One of my favorite questions that patients bring into the office- ‘Why do I need to drink water?’ How about why NOT!? Our bodies are about 70% water, so if we are not bringing any into our systems, we are not helping ourselves out by any means.
My favorite 2 statements I hear- 1. ‘well Pepsi has water in it’-insert my eye roll emoji here and 2.‘I do not like the taste of water’ – insert at least 2 eye roll emojis right there. Come on people-let me get real with you, for starters, your body is not made of Pepsi or any other soda you put into your body along with the 45 plus grams of sugar that’s in one can. Oh but you drink diet? Even better, add that fake sugar into the body, I am sure that won’t ever have any side effects down the road….just saying. For all my ice tea drinkers-no this does not count as water either, once again, is your body made of ice tea? Last time I checked, no! Also, Gatorade is not your bodies go to for rehydration, even though the commercials show athletes sweating drops of Gatorade, once again, last time I checked my brain was not made of Gatorade. Gosh Dr. Katie you are so mean, yeah yeah like I haven’t heard that before. I am just preaching some truth to you and sometimes the truth hurts! Let’s dive into why water is so fantastic, shall we?
Water hydrates your body, it is in your muscles, your brain, your joints, your discs in between your vertebral bodies, your eyes, your digestive track, your organs, water is EVERYWHERE in the body! Your kidneys help to flush toxins out of your body, I bet if you added more water into your daily routine you would not be prone to kidney stones, and your kidneys would thank you as well. Do you get headaches? Ever think that may be brought on by the lack of water intake throughout your day, week, month, LIFE?! ‘My muscles are so tight, always, they won’t ever relax,’ hmmm interesting, how is your water intake? Oh you don’t drink water, EVER, hmmm also very interesting. How is your skin looking? Really dry? Do you feel like you are constantly tired? Brain fog? Are you hungry all the time? Is the color of your urine REALLY yellow? Are you constipated? Having trouble going to the bathroom all together? How do you feel overall? Achy and sore often from doing a whole lot of nothing? Interesting, all very interesting…
Are we catching on here? Look how important water is in our bodies! I love water! I preach it all over to everyone. You come to my house, I offer you water, that’s it. I don’t have juice, or sodas, or whatever else people claim they need to make it throughout the day. (I do drink coffee, black at that!) If you don’t like the taste of water, add some fruit-lemons, limes, oranges, berries. They even make water bottles that infuse the fruit into the water. Try it out, its very refreshing, especially in the summer time!
How much water should I be drinking? Take half your body weight and that is how many ounces you should be drinking a day. If you sweat a lot and are drinking coffee you should try to add a little more on top of that.
Give water a try, what’s the worst it could do for you besides make you go to the bathroom more often (flush those kidneys out!)? If you have any more questions about water intake or nutritional questions please contact the office today, I would love to dive more into this with you!
To your Heatlh,
Dr. Katie