[Nfb-krafters-korner] OT 8 Glasses of water a day?

[Blindhands at aol.com]

This was over on the diabetic list by Mike Freeman and I found it so  
interesting  especially regarding soda and tea or coffee.  I am a diet  Coke 
person and I know that it is long, but it does state those beverages are OK  to 
achieve hydration.
 
Joyce  Kane

> I'm sure  we've all read and heard the old saw that one must drink eight
> glasses  of water a day to stay healthy and this is doubly true for
> diabetics. In  fact, in a good book published by the American Diabetes
> Association, Sex  and Diabetes: For Him and For Her, this instruction was
> given weight.  We've also been told that drinking large quantities of 
> coffee
>  or tea dehydrates us.
>
>
>
> However, it ain't so.  Normally, I just give links to Snopes stories but I
> hear this one often  enough that I'm pasting the entry, penned April 10,
>  below.
>
>
>
> Happy  reading.
>
>
>
> Mike  Freeman
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  snopes.com: Eight Glasses: Water vs. Coke
>
>  snopes.com
>
> j
>
>  Medical
>
>>
>
> Medical  Myths
>
>
>
>
>
> Water  Works
>
> Claim: The average person needs to drink eight glasses of  water per day 
to
> avoid being "chronically  dehydrated."
>
>
>
> FALSE
>
> Example:  [Collected via e-mail, 2001]
>
>
>
> 75% of Americans  are chronically dehydrated.
>
>
>
> In 37% of Americans,  the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often
> mistaken for  hunger.
>
>
>
> Even mild dehydration will slow down  one's metabolism as much as 30%.
>
>
>
> One glass of  water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the
> dieters  studied in a U-Washington study.
>
>
>
> Lack of water  is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue.
>
>
>
>  Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could
>  significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of  sufferers.
>
>
>
> A mere 2% drop in body water can  trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble
> with basic math, and difficulty  focusing on the computer screen or on a
> printed
>
>  page.
>
>
>
> Drinking 5 glasses of water daily  decreases the risk of colon cancer by 
> 45%,
> plus it can slash  the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less
>  likely
>
> to develop bladder  cancer.
>
>
>
> Are you drinking a healthy amount of  water each day?
>
> Variations: Some versions of this item are  titled "Water vs. Coke" and 
> tack
> claims about the supposedly  deleterious effects of Coca-Cola (which we 
> have
>
> covered  in a separate
>
> article)
>
> onto the end of this  piece.
>
>
>
> Origins: "You need to drink eight glasses  of water per day to be 
healthy" 
> is
> one of our more widely-known  basic health tips. But do we really need
>
> to drink that much  water on a daily basis?
>
>
>
> In general, to remain  healthy we need to take in enough water to replace 
> the
> amount  we lose daily through excretion, perspiration, and other bodily
>  functions,
>
> but that amount can vary widely from person to  person, based upon a 
> variety
> of factors such as age, physical  condition, activity level, and climate.
> The
>
> "8 glasses  of water per day" is a rule of thumb, not an absolute minimum,
> and not  all of our water intake need come in the form of drinking  water.
>
>
>
> The origins of the 8-10 glasses per day  figure remain elusive. As a Los
> Angeles Times article on the subject  reported:
>
> Consider that first commandment of good health: Drink  at least eight 
> 8-ounce
> glasses of water a day. This  unquestioned rule is itself a question mark.
>
> Most nutritionists  have no idea where it comes from. "I can't even tell 
> you
> that,"  says Barbara Rolls, a nutrition researcher at Pennsylvania State
>  University,
>
> "and I've written a book on  water."
>
>
>
> Some say the number was derived from  fluid intake measurements taken 
> decades
> ago among hospital  patients on IVs; others say it's less a measure of 
what
>
> people  need than a convenient reference point, especially for those who 
>  are
> prone to dehydration, such as many elderly people.
>
>  Back in 1945 the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research  
Council
> stated that adults should take in about 2.5 liters of water per  day 
(which
> is
>
> roughly the equivalent of eight glasses of  water), but it also noted 
most 
> of
> that intake level was already  satisfied through the consumption of food
> without
>
> the  need for the additional drinking of water. And as other nutritionists
> of  the time noted, any shortfall in water intake could be made up through
>  the
>
> consumption of beverages such as coffee, tea, milk, or soft  drinks; one 
> need
> not specifically drink water only in the form  of water.
>
>
>
> As Drs. Aaron E. Carroll and Rachel C.  Vreeman reported in an article on
> this topic:
>
> There's  nothing wrong with liking water, but there is no scientific proof
>  stating that you need to drink anywhere near eight glasses a day. One
>  doctor
>
> who has made this his research focus, Dr. Heinz Valtin,  searched through
> many electronic databases and also consulted with  nutritionists and
> colleagues
>
> who specialize in water  balance in the body. In all of his research, and 
> in
> all of the  research we conducted to double-check his work, no scientific
>  evidence
>
> could be found to suggest that you need to drink eight  glasses of water a
> day. In fact, scientific studies suggest that you  already get enough 
> liquid
> from
>
> what you're  drinking and eating on a daily basis. We are not all walking
> around in a  state of dehydration.
>
> Other medical experts have also disdained  the notion that one need drink 
> at
> least eight glasses of water  per day to remain adequately hydrated:
>
> Kidney specialists do  agree on one thing, however: that the 8-by-8 rule 
is 
> a
> gross  overestimate of any required minimum. To replace daily losses of
>  water,
>
> an average-sized adult with healthy kidneys sitting in a  temperate 
climate
> needs no more than one liter of fluid, according to  Jurgen Schnermann, a
> kidney
>
> physiologist at the National  Institutes of Health.
>
>
>
> One liter is the  equivalent of about four 8-ounce glasses. According to 
> most
>  estimates, that's roughly the amount of water most Americans get in  
solid
>
> food. In short, though doctors don't recommend it, many of  us could cover
> our bare-minimum daily water needs without drinking  anything during the 
> day.
>
>
>
> Certainly  there are beneficial health effects attendant with being
> adequately  hydrated, and some studies have seemingly demonstrated
> correlations  between
>
> such variables as increased water intake and a decreased  risk of colon
> cancer. But are 75% of Americans really "chronically  dehydrated," as 
> claimed
> in
>
> the anonymous e-mail  quoted in our example? Many of the notions (and
> dubious "facts")  presented in that e-mail seem to have been taken from 
the
>  book
>
> Your Body's Many Cries for Water,
>
> by  Fereydoon Batmanghelidj. Dr. Batmanghelidj, an Iranian-born physician 
>  who
> now lives in the U.S., maintains that people "need to learn they're  not
> sick,
>
> only thirsty," and that simply drinking more  water "cures many diseases 
> like
> arthritis, angina, migraines,  hypertension and asthma." However, he 
> arrived
>
> at his  conclusions through reading, not research, and he claims that his
> ideas  represent a "paradigm shift" that required him to self-publish his
>  book
>
> lest his findings "be  suppressed.''
>
>
>
> Other doctors certainly take issue  with his figures:
>
> [S]ome nutritionists insist that half the  country is walking around
> dehydrated. We drink too much coffee, tea and  sodas containing caffeine,
> which prompts
>
> the body to  lose water, they say; and when we are dehydrated, we don't 
> know
>  enough to drink.
>
>
>
> Can it be so? Should healthy  adults really be stalking the water cooler 
to
> protect themselves from  creeping dehydration?
>
>
>
> Not at all, doctors say.  "The notion that there is widespread dehydration
> has no basis in medical  fact," says Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of the 
medical
>  school
>
> at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in  Dallas.
>
>
>
> Doctors from a wide range of specialties  agree: By all evidence, we are a
> well-hydrated nation. Furthermore, they  say, the current infatuation with
> water
>
> as an  all-purpose health potion - tonic for the skin, key to weight loss 
-
> is  a blend of fashion and fiction and very little science.
>
>  Additionally, the idea that one must specifically drink water because  
the
> diuretic effects of caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, and  soda
> actually
>
> produce a net loss of fluid is  erroneous:
>
> Regular coffee and tea drinkers become accustomed to  caffeine and lose
> little, if any, fluid. In a study published in the  October issue of the
> Journal
>
> of the American College of  Nutrition, researchers at the Center for Human
> Nutrition in Omaha  measured how different combinations of water, coffee 
> and
>  caffeinated
>
> sodas affected the hydration status of 18 healthy  adults who drink
> caffeinated beverages  routinely.
>
>
>
> "We found no significant differences  at all," says nutritionist Ann
> Grandjean, the study's lead author. "The  purpose of the study was to find
> out if caffeine
>
> is  dehydrating in healthy people who are drinking normal amounts of it. 
It
>  is not."
>
>
>
> The same goes for tea, juice, milk and  caffeinated sodas: One glass 
> provides
> about the same amount of  hydrating fluid as a glass of water. The only
> common
>
>  drinks that produce a net loss of fluids are those containing alcohol - 
>  and
> usually it takes more than one of those to cause noticeable  dehydration,
> doctors
>
> say.
>
> The best  general advice is to rely upon your normal senses. If you feel
> thirsty,  drink; if you don't feel thirsty, don't drink unless you want 
to.
>  The
>
> human body already does a good job of regulating water  balance on its 
own,
> and you therefore need not force yourself to drink  when you are not 
> thirsty
>
> for fear of being dehydrated.  The exhortation that we all need to satisfy
> an arbitrarily rigid rule  about how much water we must drink every day 
was
> aptly
>
>  skewered in a letter by a Los Angeles Times reader:
>
> Although not  trained in medicine or nutrition, I intuitively knew that 
the
> advice to  drink eight glasses of water per day was nonsense. The advice
>  fully
>
> meets three important criteria for being an American  health urban legend:
> excess, public virtue, and the search for a cheap  "magic bullet."
>
> Last updated: 10 April  2013
>
>
>
> Urban Legends Reference Pages C 1995-2013  by Barbara and David P. 
> Mikkelson.
>
>
> This  material may not be reproduced without permission.
>
> snopes and  the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of  
snopes.com.
>
>
>
> Sources:
>
> definition  list of 9 items
>
> Batmanghelidj, Fereydoon. Your Body's Many Cries  for Water.
>
> Global Health Solutions, 1995. ISBN  0-962-99423-5.
>
>
>
> Carey, Benedict. "Hard to  Swallow."
>
> Los Angeles Times. 20 November 2001 (Health; p.  1).
>
>
>
> Carroll, Aaron E and Rachel C. Vreeman.  Don't Swallow Your Gum!
>
> New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2009.  ISBN 0-312-53387-X (pp. 
> 130-133).
>
>
>
>  Foreman, Judy. "The Water Fad Has People Soaking It Up."
>
> The  Boston Globe. 11 May 1998 (p. C1).
>
>
>
> Hoolihan,  Charlie. "Body Needs Plenty of Water to Work."
>
> The [New Orleans]  Times-Picayune. 31 May 1998.
>
>
>
> CNN.com. "Americans  Need to Shake Salt Habit."
>
> 11 February  2004.
>
>
>
> Los Angeles Times. "All That Water Advice  Just Doesn't Wash."
>
> 15 January 2001 (Health; p.  7).
>
>
>
> Los Angeles Times. "Readers Take Issue with  Article About Water
> Consumption."
>
> 25 January 2000  (Health; p. 5).
>
>
>
> The Toronto Star. "Distilling  Water Facts from Water Fiction."
>
> 21 March 1999.
>
>  list end
>
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