05/18/2023
Drink water. Drink 6-8 glasses a day. Drink a hundred ounces a day. Drink a gallon a day.
I need a drink.
Today’s Moment of Science… Could someone just tell me the @ #$%ing deal with water?
I, too, have felt like a failure when I couldn’t polish off an entire 55 gallon drum of fluids. Of course, that fluid was l**e and I wasn’t drinking it. Point being, we shouldn’t stress about health goals that aren’t realistic and proven to be healthy for, ahem, whatever part of the body is being kept wet.
So the whole ‘eight glasses of water’ thing. Is there any science behind it?
Eh.
The first recommendation for water intake came courtesy of some alternative medical practitioners, the hydropathists. Along with drinking a “large” amount of cold water, they recommended swaddling up to perspire, cold baths, cold water enemas, wet bandages for rheumatism, and wet sheets for scarlet fever amongst other terrible fu***ng ideas. Some thought cold water acted as a detox, flushing “bad stuff” from your system. Quick reminder, you probably have a kidney or two for that.
In the 1842 book The Cold Water Cure, its Principles, Theory, and Practice about treatments from hydrotherapy movement founder Vincenz Priessnitz, twelve glasses a day are recommended at a minimum. Twenty or thirty was for the dedicated hydropathists planning to cheat death.
Then came water recs from some real sciencey folks, the US Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences updated Recommended Daily Allowances of 1945. The report is one of a few places sometimes dinged for the ‘8 glasses a day’ b***r. It started by saying 2.5 liters of water was “a suitable allowance” for most adults daily, but they didn’t say this had to be in the form of liquid water. Much to the contrary, the report next stated this would mostly be “contained in prepared foods,” then clarified that we should adjust intake as needed for hot weather or heavy work.
Sounds less like they’re telling you to add a few liters of water to your day and more like some super fu***ng reasonable s**t to me, especially from nearly 80 years ago. However, there wasn’t a shred of evidence to back it up. No studies, nothing.
Frederick Stare, an influential nutrition researcher, may have been the first person to put the 6-8 glasses idea out there in so many words. In a 1974 book co-authored with Margaret McWiliams, it said water intake should be “somewhere around 6 to 8 glasses per 24 hours and this can be in the form of coffee, tea, milk, soft drinks, beer, etc. Fruits and vegetables are also good sources of water.” Before you think it, coffee hydrates you more than it dehydrates you.
This was based on *checks clipboard* zero scientific studies, but once again… reasonable, no?
Somewhere along the way, ‘reasonable’ turned into ‘8 glasses or G**O you dehydrated failure pile.’
Then there were a lot of spurious health claims that prompted so, so many of us to buy (and lose) countless Nalgene bottles. More water to help your kidneys, digestion, skin, headaches, standardized test performance, sleep, s*x life, dogs and cats living together in harmony, MASS HYSTERIA!
…Sorry, where was I?
A lot of the health claims beyond ‘treats dehydration’ have been shown to be somewhere between ‘kinda bulls**t’ and ‘utter f**kery.’ Besides, even if you’re not sure what number of ounces, glasses, or liters to drink, your body is. You’ve had a damn near perfect gauge of how much water to drink built in all along.
It’s called thirst.
“But Mrs. Auntie SciBabe,” I hear you gasp as you put down your water bottle for a moment, “I’ve heard that by the time you’re thirsty, it’s already too late.”
Too late for what exactly? To respond to the body’s cue to get some goddamn electrolytes? There’s no damage going on if you’re thirsty just like there’s no damage going on if you feel your body cueing you to take a p**s. It’s just that; your body doing what it should, and telling you that you’ve gotta do some stuff. But by all means, try mixing those up and saying “it’s already too late” when your body gives you a nudge to p*e.
Today, there are a range of intake recommendations from several reputable organizations (generally in the 2-3.5 liter range). This quantity includes fluids from all sources and not just water. So unless you’re under doctor's orders for a specific amount of water intake? Stop freaking out if you prefer seltzer and don’t panic if half your fluid intake is in the form of Diet Coke every once in a while. Drink when you’re thirsty, get electrolytes in there if you’re working up a sweat, stop counting glasses, and you’ll probably be fine.
This has been your Moment of Science, feeling parched.
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