How much water should I drink?

It's a well known fact that water is important to our bodies. A variety of research says that our bodies are anywhere from 55-75% water depending on age, gender, body make-up, and other factors. Whatever the percentage it performs a number of important functions in our body. It maintains body temperature and blood pressure, metabolizes body fat, helps with digestion and flushing out toxins, lubricates and cushions organs, and transports nutrients. That's pretty much every life preserving process in your body!

It is also important for water to be in the right places inside the body. It should be inside our cells or blood vessels. However diet, cell damage, and disease can displace water into what is called a third space which is water retention. Ways to avoid this are, ironically enough, drink more water, decrease sodium intake, avoid chemicals pesticides and pollutants that cause free radicals and cell damage, and maintain a healthy lifestyle to prevent chronic disease.

So how much water should you drink? Well this is not a straight forward answer, like you might think. The truth is your body will tell you how much it needs.  Some good guidelines are the old 8 glasses a day rule, or the more modern rule of dividing your weight by 2, and that's how many ounces you should drink per day. If you exercise regularly, live in a dry climate, drink caffeine or alcohol, or just sweat a lot then you should drink more. More is always better than less, your body can easily get rid of excess, but cannot produce more. Thirst is also a good indicator of your body's need. However we have filled our lives with so much business and our bodies with so much junk, that sometimes we don't even recognize the thirst signal, so pay close attention to your body!

Other water tid bits:

• Drink water consistently throughout the day, we cannot absorb it all at one time.
• Drink cold water, your body uses more calories to warm it up
• Another way to get more water is through fruits and vegetables
• Get a good BPA free container to keep it with you at all times
• Water with "stuff" in it, is not the same, if you don't like just plain water, add fruit!