Health Benefits of Water

The human body consists of over 80% water. In fact, your muscles contain about 75% water, your blood has over 80%, and body fat has about 25%. Even bones contain water too, approximately 22%. How much water a body holds varies due to different conditions. A healthier body holds more water for instance, than an obese or overweight body does. Someone with more body fat, even at healthy levels, will have less body water than someone with less body fat, because muscles hold more water than fat does.

Because water is so prevalent in our bodies, and because every single area of our body uses water in one way or another, the importance of this substance cannot be stressed enough. Many people don't seem to understand why nutritionists, doctors, and other specialists keep saying to drink more water, but once you know how it's used in your body, how much your body depends on it, and how well it can make your body feel, you should be able to understand much more clearly.

Water helps supply nutrients to our cells, muscles, organs and bone structure within our bodies. It also helps remove and dispose of toxins and waste materials which can make us very sick. Without enough water, our bodies start giving symptoms of not feeling well. It's common to have headaches if you haven't had enough water for instance, and you can get tired and lethargic, have a difficult time concentrating, and even get kidney and bladder infections too.

Everyone needs different amounts of water to stay healthy. How much you need can vary from one day to the next because of temperature and humidity changes, and activity levels. A general rule of thumb though, is to drink at least 8-10 glasses of water a day. This should average out to about 2 liters, or 1/2 to 1/3 of a gallon.

If you exercise, or you're losing weight from dieting, or you're on various types of medications, you'll need to increase your daily water intake. It's not uncommon for many people to need at least one gallon of water each day.

Now many people can't figure out how to consume that much water every day. They try everything they can think of to increase their water intake, and it still seems like too much. The problem comes from consuming other types of drinks. If you didn't have anything else to drink at all during the day, you'd most likely get more than enough water. So the first step to increasing your water intake is to decrease the amount of other liquids you consume.

Drinking sodas for instance, has absolutely no health value at all. So replace those with water instead. If water seems boring to you, then by all means feel free to enjoy flavored waters instead. Fruit juices are also sources of water, but they often contain more sugar then you might want for your body too.

Coffee and tea are also sources of water, but caffeinated versions of these also act as diuretics, which will make your body lose water faster than normal. Coffee and tea do have more health benefits than soda though, so these are better options. If you drink caffeinated versions, be sure to increase your regular water intake too.

Go Back from Health Benefits of Water to Nutrition Articles