The Importance Of Water

Wondering about the importance of water in your diet?

Imagine a vast ocean studded with islands. Between them, electrical currents dance through the waves, clearing the way for the sailing ships that deliver supplies between the crags of land. Elsewhere, huge maelstroms churn the water into a fury, and the waves wash pollution out of the ocean.

This ocean is your body. Without water we couldn't exist, and managing it is critical.

Most of you is H2O, and it accounts for between 45 and 75 percent of body weight, with the variance due to body fat levels. A very lean man may be 90 percent water (1).

If you lose just 5 to 6 percent of your water -not too hard in hot environments or during intense physical activity- you'll become groggy, your head will ache, and you may feel like vomiting. Renal failure begins around 8 percent. Your muscles will spasm, your vision will dim, your skin will shrivel and you may become delirious around 10 percent. By 15 percent water loss you're probably going to die (2).

Our very existence depends on the stuff, and with most bodily functions requiring it, you'd think we'd take more care in the quality and amount of water we take in, but it tends to get the short end of the stick.

The Importance of Water - The Overlooked Element

The true thirst quencher and hydrator, plain old water, isn't fancy, but it gets the job done.

When people think hydration, they usually think about drinking some liquid, but hydration begins with our food. Stick a potato chip or some bread through a juicer and see how much liquid comes out. Not much, eh?

Now try the same experiment with some celery and a pear. See the difference?

The Importance of Water - You Are What You Eat

Fruits and vegetables are the most water-dense food available to man.

Like our bodies, most of them are more water than anything else. Watermelon is at least 90 percent water, for instance.

Most people eat a diet based around dehydrated or rehydrated foods like rice and pasta, forcing them to rely heavily on drinking water to meet their needs.

Anyone on a healthy raw food diet has already reduced their requirements considerably, and given their system a boost. You'll probably quickly realize the importance of water once you've been on this diet and feel the health proper hydration helps promote.

Water is needed to flush the digestive system, for instance. When you're eating predominantly dry foods, the body must draw on its fluid reserves to carry out the chemical breakdown of food proteins. Any dry food has a dehydrating effect, while fruits and vegetables actually provide more water than is needed for their digestion, leading to a net fluid gain.

Many animals, such as goats (6) and rats (7) are actually smart enough, or attuned enough to their physiological state, to cut back on dry food consumption when deprived of water so their liquid reserves are not sacked at an unsustainable rate by the digestive process.

Due to their lack of water intake through food, the consumption of dehydrating substances like caffeine and salt -which can actually make you die of dehydration if you eat enough- roughly half of all Americans are walking around chronically dehydrated (8).

The Importance of Water - Dehydrated? Say Goodbye to Your Athletic Performance

Legs feeling tired on a hot run? Muscle fatigue, cramps, and spasms are an early sign of dehydration (9).

Mildly dehydrated exercisers fatigue 25 percent faster than well-hydrated ones, and even a small two percent decrease in hydration can cause endurance to drop seven percent (9).

The Importance of Water - Are you Dehydrated?

One easy way to tell is by the color of your urine. You're only properly hydrated if your urine is relatively clear. If it's dark yellow, your body has too little water to clean up too many toxins.

The average person needs at least one gallon of water a day, and if properly hydrated you'll urinate eight to 12 times in a 24 hour period (10).

You can reach your one gallon minimum however you like. Eating fruits and vegetables and eschewing harmful cooked, processed, dehydrated, denatured, and toxic foods, is a good place to start. Drinking healthy distilled water is your second best option.

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