Ok, I don’t know where this advice came from or if it is even really important or nutritionally correct but I hear it repeated time-and-time again. It might be 6 glasses – I don’t know for sure.
When I am in Thailand or some other South East Asian country where it is routinely the temperature of the interior of a radiator and with similar humidity, I find that drinking a bunch of water just kind of comes naturally. I think we have to drink water constantly or else we would likely die. Dehydration is staring you in the face pretty much all the time when walking to the mailbox results in a shower-worthy amount of sweat.
However, I am back in the USA for now, and arrived right at the point in time where most of the country is experiencing a transition from fall to winter – IE, it isn’t hot, and until nighttime or early morning, it isn’t really all that cold.
This has to be the least necessary-to-drink-water environment that I can imagine. I’m drinking beer, and I know that is mostly water – does that count? Ooh! I also have at least 6 cups of coffee a day (mostly in the morning) and I know for a fact that is primarily water.
All I am trying to say is that my friends and family that I have seen in USA since arriving don’t seem to have any sort of “water agenda.” No one is drinking bottle after bottle of water. Yet all of them somehow magically manage to not be dead. Therefore (and I just want to put this out there,) is it at least possible that the 8 servings of water per day might be a load of crap? And what is a “serving” anyway?
I’m not going to stop drinking water because I believe it is a government conspiracy or anything crazy like that but well, I guess I just don’t believe the hype so to speak. When I am in a hot environment, or at the gym, I will drink water but I don’t think there is a “one size fits all” amount of water that people are supposed to drink each day. I think I may have had the same amount of water that I would normally drink daily in Thailand in a week since I have been here in USA. Yet I experience very little in the way of ill side-effects because of this.
I don’t know what that point of this entry actually is. There isn’t one. If you live somewhere that has all 3 seasons and yet drink a bunch of water (not mixed with booze because that doesn’t count as it unfortunately turns out) do you actually feel any sort of health benefit? I would be interested to know if you have.