The human body is a wonderful machine; it is so intricately interwoven and can do so much with so little that it is misunderstood and undervalued by most individuals. Just think, we can actually go without food for a couple of weeks and still survive, and once we eat again we can return to good health very quickly – how fantastic is that?
The one thing that we cannot do without of course is the thing that most of us never even think about, but without which we cannot survive for more than about three days at a stretch. No, I am not talking about oxygen; we all know that we need that – I am talking about the “Elixir of Life,†otherwise known as H20 or plain old water.
We need to drink water regularly in order to maintain the approximately 70% water level that our body needs to function at its best. One problem we have is that the human body cannot store water and when it becomes dehydrated it will draw water from certain areas to ensure that vital organs can operate optimally.
We lose water throughout the day via the gastro-intestinal tract (faeces); the kidneys (urine excretion); the respiratory tract (breathing); the skin (sweating). We need to replace this water as soon as possible to ward off dehydration.
The average adult loses around 2.6 litres of water per day under normal circumstances; 1.5 litres via the kidneys; .04 litres via the respiratory tract; 0.2 litres via the gastro-intestinal tract, and we sweat out around 0.5 litres a day.
Of course those figures are normal, average fluid loss on a regular day, but when is it unseasonably hot, we can double or even triple those figures, especially if we are performing physically. The hotter it is or the more we exercise, the more we sweat and the more fluid we lose, which is why we can feel fatigued, get a headache or get muscle cramps more easily when we are hot.
One can get around 20% of the daily required fluid intake via high water content fruit and vegetables such as watermelon, celery, tomatoes, oranges, lettuce, soups and broths and from other liquids, but the majority of fluid intake should be from drinking water.
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