Is There Any Benefit To Drinking Water?
25 Feb
It’s a well know fact that we should try to drink eight glasses of water a day. Like a lot of well know facts it isn’t correct.
If we actually drank what was recomended we might well have to spend half of the day on the toilet. We would spend the other half of the day completely confused. As well as 8 glasses of water we have been told that a glass of wine a day is good for us. We have also been warned about the dangers of one glass of wine a day.
We are told that too much cafine is bad for us yet Drinking two cups of coffee a day cuts stroke risk by 20%. What is too much coffee? Three cups? Five cups? When my eye starts twitching and I am unable to focus on one thing for more than one minute have I had too much or not enough coffee?
The eight glasses of water a day myth was busted by Snopes years ago but how important is water? An Independant article from last year says:
The review of research by Dan Negoianu and Stanley Goldfarb, from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, found not a single study included the recommendation to drink eight 8oz glasses of water a day.
Although one small study suggested that drinking water could result in fewer headaches, the results were not statistically significant.
The benefits of drinking a pint of water before bed after a night’s drinking to ward off a hangover are, separately, well established.
No studies showed any benefit to skin tone as a result of increased water intake. Dehydration can make skin less plump, but there was no solid evidence to back up the claim water helps people maintain a youthful appearance.
The authors also found no evidence that drinking lots of water benefits the body’s organs.
It’s worth pointing out that 8 cups of black coffee a day (which i’m farely certain is an unhealthy amount) would contain the same amount of liquid as 8 cups of water. Beer and Wine are also hydrating even if the alcohol content can have a slight dehydrating effect.
The English drink Tea in vast quantities, infact i’m sure some of the elder members of my family drink nothing but. Perhaps the best plan is just to drink everything in moderation although if we were meant to drink Beer in moderation it wouldn’t be served by the pint would it?
