Water

Water covers all four corners of the Earth. This clear, colorless, odorless, tasteless, most widely used liquid solvent, is essential for most plant and animal life. As one of the four essential basic nutrients of a healthy diet, water makes up at least two-thirds of our bodies physical composition.

Water is essential for every one of our body systems. It is crucial for absorption, circulatory, excretory, and digestive processes. Furthermore, water is also essential for managing an appropriate body temperature and assimilation of water-soluble vitamins. Moreover, high quality water is beneficial for almost all health disorders.

Do you know human beings can survive almost five weeks without food? In contrast, without water death is eminent within three to five days. Even though water content varies from person to person and even within body parts, the average person’s body contains about 70 percent water.

You can make certain your body has all the water it needs to maintain good health by drinking at least ten 8-ounce glasses of water every day. Make sure you start your day with a glass of water. Drink throughout the day to keep a balanced body water level. It is important to replace water lost throughout the day through sweating and elimination.

You can ensure easy digestion and elimination by drinking enough water every day. Water is a natural appetite suppressant and flushes out sodium and toxins. A study by German researchers found subjects increased their metabolic rates by drinking water.

To increase your water consumption, eliminate all caloric drinks from your daily intake including:
sodas,
juices,
and alcohol.

The CDC conducted an interesting study on sugar sweetened beverages and caloric intake finding a correlation between sugar-sweetened consumption and increased weight in America over the last couple of decades. Instead of caloric laden drinks wiser choices are to drink:

water,
sparkling water,
unsweetened juices,
or unsweetened tea.

If you don’t care for the taste, try slices of lemon or lime in your glass of water.

Debby Bolen RN