Replace Other Beverages With Water for Health

For many of us, water intake happens only when we are taking pills, when it is hot, or when we are exercising, in spite of the fact that we have been advised for years to drink 6-8 glasses a day. New research indicates that that may not be enough for optimal health.

How much you need may be based on your body weight. If you weigh 155 pounds, you may need a minimum of 10 glasses a day. If you weigh 200 pounds, you could need closer to 14 glasses.

How do you manage to drink that much H20 without sloshing when you walk or, worse, spending the day running to the toilet? The truth is, if you keep a careful log of all the liquids you consume in a day, it would add up to 10 to 14 8-ounce cups each day. And you don't slosh, right?

For instance, how many 12-ounce cups of coffee do you consume throughout they day? How many ounces of soda or tea? How much juice? How many ounces of beer, wine, and other alcoholic drinks?

Take coffee, for instance. There has been a lot of hype lately about coffee being an antioxidant and that maybe the caffeine helps prevent Alzheimers disease. But it is definitely known to interfere with sleep, to interfere with calcium absorption. It causes a decrease of oxygen to the brain. It caused heart arrhythmias in a study on dogs. It can raise both cholesterol and homocysteine, two risk factors in heart disease. And caffeine contributes to incontinence. Water does not.

You can buy caffeine-free coffee, tea, and sodas, but they should not take the place of water. Artificial sweeteners in diet drinks have their own set of dangers. Phenylalanine in such sweeteners as Equal has been controversial for years. Some people cannot tolerate it to the point that it is dangerous. Sucrolose in Splenda seems to be less of a problem as it is a calorie-free derivative of sugar. However, the sweetness of it is interpreted by the brain to be sugar and causes a small insulin spike. Of course, using real sugar in your drinks really causes an insulin surge.

So fruit drinks are acceptable, right? Not really. Oh, they have a lot of vitamins, but they are also a concentrated source of sugar. Why not eat the whole fruits and get all the nutrients as well as fiber for a lot less calories and sugar.

And alcohol? I know one or two glasses of wine a day is supposed to lower the risk of heart disease. It is the antioxidants in the grapes from which the wine is made that is doing the lowering. The sugars in alcohol is turned into fat that goes straight to the waistline. Meanwhile, the alcohol is going straight to the brain where it is killing brain cells. Why not just eat the grapes?

If you replaced all those liquids with H2O you would; lose weight, have supple healthy skin, have better digestion and colon health, have a healthier urinary system, eliminate toxins from your system, and more efficiently deliver nutrients to the cells.

And you will feel so much better! It only takes a week to get over a caffeine addiction which is a physical addiction. There will be headaches at first and maybe tremors, but it goes away in a few days.

If you have an alcohol addiction, that will be a little harder.

The other drinks are just habits easily replaced.

I replaced my morning coffee with hot water boiled with a piece of cinnamon bark. I find it a pleasant alternative. I drink water with my meals instead of soda. If I go to a restaurant, I have decaf coffee. At home I drink only water. And I feel great.

Return from water to optimal health.