dehydration!

what kind of liquid? Beer, coffee, juice, water? 2 measuring cups, or 2 glass-fulls?

In any case, the reccommended intake is 64oz, that's a 1/2 gallon or about 2 liters. Having said that, I think the theroy is silly. I think everyone needs to drink 'enough' liquids and that some need to drink more than 64oz and some less than 64oz. Depends on body type, activity level, enviromental factors, eating habits, drug habits, etc.

Most of your liquids should be water and the rest can be a variety of things, but no one can agree on which of the non-water liquids should count towards the total.

Without enough water you can run into digestive disorders for sure. And, well, your body is mostly water, I'd think all your organs need water to function properly.

From the nestle corporate website:

The body fluids contained in the different compartments perform the following important functions:

· Carry nutrients and waste products.

· Vital to the life and shape of every cell.

· Participate actively in many important biochemical reactions of digestion and metabolism.

· Assist with temperature regulation, i.e., cooling the body by evaporation from the skin as perspiration (sweating).

· Act as a lubricant around joints.

· Serve as a shock absorber, e.g., for the brain and the spinal cord or inside the eyes; in pregnancy, the amniotic fluid around the growing foetus provides protection against shock.

· Serve as a solvent for minerals, vitamins, amino acids, glucose and many other small molecules.

Nestle Corporation

There's more on the subject of water at the above link. It's very brief, but it's pretty good.

Ok well lately i've been drinking tea, so thats two coffee cups full. I can't see that being good for me at all. I just never have the urge to be thirsty. Thanks littlek for the info, that makes me think about the actual harm I'm probably causing my body.

If it's caffeinated tea, it's definitely not ok. If it's herbal, it's good, but not really enough. I have a lot of trouble drinking enough water, myself. Tap water makes me feel full, so I can't drink much of it. Lemon added to water helps to make it more palitable. But, in the colder months, tea is how I get most of my liquid.

Other things to consider. If you eat a lot of sugar, meat, drink a lot of alcohol, smoke, etc, your body needs more water.

Cheers (hoisting a cup of hot water in your direction)

It is caffeinated, I eat my fair share of sugar, lot's of meat and I smoke. Not lookin good for me. You've been very helpful, cheers to u aswel!

What is a good drink that will undehydrate a person with very little intake?

You could try Gatorade.

From WebMD:

Rehydration drinks, such as Pedialyte, Lytren, or Rehydrate, replace fluids and electrolytes. Sports drinks, such as Gatorade or Powerade, are good rehydration choices. Plain water doesn't provide any necessary nutrients or electrolytes.

You can make an inexpensive homemade rehydration drink. Measure all ingredients precisely. Small variations can make the drink less effective or even harmful. Mix:

1 quart (950 ml) water
½ teaspoon (2.5 g) baking soda
½ teaspoon (2.5 g) table salt
3 to 4 tablespoons (45 to 60 g) sugar
If available, add ¼ teaspoon (1.25 g) salt substitute, such as "Lite Salt".

Picture our ancestors hunting and gathering in the treeless savannah. Zoom in and note that each one of them is equipped with a half gallon thermos bottle so that no one becomes dehydrated.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

The last I read is that most (certainly more than half) of our eight cups of water can be consumed in solid food, particularly fruits and vegetables which have a high percentage of water.

Junk food, on the other hand, contains little liquid--and often a great deal of salt which makes us thirsty.

Noddy, you're not implying that the junk food industry makes salty snacks so we'll buy their sugary sodas as well, and possibly their overpriced bottled water, are you? <snicker>

Water is water; there is no substitute. Gatorade is designed to replace water volume (and hence blood volume) lost during very heavy exercise. It's purpose is not just to hydrate, but to replace the salts you've lost through sweating. By drinking sports drinks instead of water at normal exertion levels, you're not doing yourself any favors -- just shoving more salt and sugar into your body that it doesn't need.

One thing you might want to look for: if you take your socks off at the end of the day and they leave an imprint on your ankles, or if your face is generally puffy when you wake up in the morning, you need to drink more water. What's happening is that water in your body is being pulled out of the cells and into the spaces between your cells and into your blood plasma -- hence the swelling. (If this doesn't happen, though, it doesn't mean that you don't need more water.)

'k and noddy are right about the recommended intake, though: it really doesn't have much to do with anything. As with most health recommendations, behaviors are prescribed for the entire population so that a certain percentage -- in this case, the peope who need the most water (which would be the people with high-protein, high-salt, low fruit'n'vegetable diets) -- will get what they need and the rest won't be adversely affected. It's the same with the recommendation of a low salt diet: a little less than a third of the population were born with poorly developed mechanisms for excreting excess salt from their diet, and so we're all recommended to reduce the amount of sodium in our diet. (Which isn't a bad idea, anyway, esp. as most of us have no idea how well we do with getting the salt out.)


Incidentally, one of the effects of reduced water volume (as opposed to dehydration, which is a pretty extreme case of lost water and electrolytes) is reduced lymphatic circulation, which means the rate at which debris and contaminants are removed from your bodily fluid is decreased.

That's interesting, pd. It wouldn't be due to an overly aggressive elastic in the sock, would it?

I think he means an imprint from the knitting pattern in the socks. I've sometimes seen that on my ankles on especially hot summer days. I knew it was from my ankles swelling, but never connected it to dehydration. Thought it was an over abundance of salt.

It's an easy-to-read indication of edema. I'm sure the sock has some impact , but the fact that it leaves an impression is a sign of too much fluid in the extracellular space (including the plasma) and not enough in the intracellular space (including the red blood cells).

That's really useful, pd. I'll keep on eye on that. It's a handy indicator.

Good old fashioned black tea has been found to be a good protectant against a variety of internal cancers. So I've got another reason to keep drinking it.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this...but caffiene acts as a natural diuretic, which means it takes water out of your body. So drinking only tea isn't too smart.

nahhhhhhh

some black tea is in the daily mix of beverages, and i often don't have any tea on weekends. I'm trying to up my calcium uptake so i'm drinking choco milk and o.j. with added calcium as well. Had a strawberry yogurt smoothie this a.m. to help with the calcium as well.

So many things to keep in balance.

Aren't there more antioxidants in green tea than black tea, eh? 'T's what I've heard, anywho...

The edema thing is more a thing to look at as a pattern, not as a day-to-day thing. If you eat some salty food one night, you're likely to show a bit of edema in the morning, but it doesn't mean there's anything wrong.

pd would be right regarding antioxidants in green tea. I dunno, I just like water, ice cold, and lots of it. The kitchen gets hot, I need the water.