OUR BODY’S WATER REQUIREMENT

Water and Our Body System

Without water, we would be poisoned to death by our own waste. When the kidneys remove uric acid and urea, these must be dissolved in water. If there is not enough water, wastes are not removed as effectively and may build up as kidney stones.

Water also is vital for chemical reactiosn in digestion and metabolism. It carries nutrients and oxygen to the cells through th blood and helps to cool the body through perspiration. Water also lubricates our joints. Without enough fluids, your body panis and clings to fluid, reulsting in loss of thirst, weight gain, swollen hands and feet, and constipation (the body will remove neede water from the colon). Diuretics can force out retained water, but will take essential nutrients with them. Water is a natural diuretic (prevents fluid retention).

We even need water to breathe: our lungs must be moist to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. It is possible to lose a pint of liquid each day just exhaling.

The amount of water we need is based upon a number of factors: our size; our activity level (which influces the amount of fluid we lose through sweat); the climate or temperature (higher environmental temperatures increase our fluid losses); and our diet. A diet high in fruits and vegetables provides more total fluids through food than a diet high in fat, meat, and diary products, for example. Special circumstances in which increased amounts of water may be needed include: fever, diarrhea, kidney disease, or any situation where excessive fluid losses occur through normal body elimination processes.

We lose water daily through our skin, urine, bowels, and lungs (as water vapor in the air). About half of our water losses can be replaced with the watrer content in our foods. The remaining half requires specific fluid intake, primarily from drinking water: tea, coffee, soda, beer, are basically water that contains other ingredients as well.

Should We Change Our Diet and Avoid Acidic Food?

The researcher and author of “Reversed Aging”, Sang Whang, has this to say:

“The danger is that we might omit important foods. Since the waste products that we are trying to discharge are acidic, the right kind of water is alkaline water…  My personal recommendation is to enjoy the foods that we like, but do not over-eat or exclude any food. Eat in moderation following the professional dieticians’ “balanced diet” concept, and let alkaline water do the job of cleansing acidic wastes.”