Without water, life could not exist. It forms the basis of body fluids such as our saliva and blood. It also helps regulate body temperature through sweat, which is essential for life.1 According to the School of Water Science, your body moves water through your body by dissolving and transporting essential nutrients, minerals and other substances that keep your body moving.2
The most obvious way to keep yourself hydrated is to drink water throughout the day. But how exactly do you go about it? You may have heard the saying that drinking eight glasses of water a day is enough. As it turns out, this advice is incorrect and should be updated.
A message about moisture needs to be updated.
In a study on the elements3 Researchers wanted to evaluate food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) from different countries with the ultimate goal of promoting water consumption over sugary drinks. But that’s not all – they also include countries that have passed laws to tax sugary drinks. The researchers further explain:4
“While there has been significant progress in the adoption and implementation of taxes on sugary drinks globally, policymakers must implement complementary policies to enable access to free and clean drinking water for healthy hydration.”
No studies have reported healthy water supply recommendations for countries or jurisdictions that have enacted national or subnational sugary drink taxes or levies that are consistent with other policies.
For their study, they chose the six regions of the world named by the World Health Organization: Africa, America, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and Western Pacific.5 It then narrowed down the list to countries that introduced messages from 2000 to 2023 that simultaneously encourage water consumption and tax sugary drinks.
A country was excluded from the study if it abolished taxes on sugary drinks or had similar taxes on water and soda. Once this framework was completed, the researchers used the following questions to guide their analysis.6
- Between 2000 and 2023, how many and which countries in the six WHO regions enacted and/or updated sugar-sweetened beverage tax laws?
- What are the most current published versions of the national technical and graphic FBDG documents for countries with sugary drink tax laws?
- Which countries have issued healthy drinking recommendations to promote water and reduce, replace, or avoid sugary drinks, and how do the text and visual messages for countries’ healthy drinking recommendations compare with national FBDGs?
- What are the Healthy Water Recommendation (HHR) scores for countries with FBDG documents and sugary drink tax laws, and how do the scores compare to WHO’s 6 regions?
Using the four research questions as a guide, the researchers used a variety of analytical tools to conduct the analysis. In order to keep the public from drinking, they narrowed their results down to 93 countries and taxed sugary drinks. They reviewed each country’s message as an important element in promoting drinking water as a regular hydration choice.
Ranking countries with the best dietary guidelines
Of the 93 selected countries, 53 have implemented FBDGs. After an in-depth analysis, the researchers identified 48 countries with messages that promote drinking water and sweetened beverages.7 Using a ranking system, Bolivia, Brunei, and Peru had the highest HHR among the people tested. According to the study authors:8
“While water and/or sugary drinks are addressed in most of the FBDGs reviewed, only three healthy drinking recommendations (ie, Bolivia, Brunei, and Peru) included fully comprehensive guidelines emphasizing what, where, why, how, quantity/frequency, and visual Representation for both water promotion and discouragement of sugary drinks.
These results are consistent with evidence that FBDGs should provide specific information (i.e., what, where, why, how, quantity/frequency, and visual representation) to promote healthy and sustainable aspects of nutrition, including promoting water as a healthy default beverage.
You may be asking what is the importance of analyzing the messages of health agencies? This is because they have the power to influence public health, for better or for worse. As noted in the 2021 study,9 “Collaboration between health care, social services and other sectors will be widely promoted as a way to improve public health.”
In this context, nutrition researchers argue that modernizing government policies to achieve coordination can improve sustainability, food security, and water security.10 Unfortunately, of the 93 countries reviewed, only nine have specific policies to tax sugary drinks that directly support public health programs. In short, they are encouraging other countries to do the same. As one of the study’s co-authors, Vivica Kark, said:11
“Governments should ensure that national dietary guidelines are aligned with national sugary drink taxes when developing policies.
Our study has important implications for supporting countries, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, to develop culturally appropriate, evidence-based dietary guidelines and to standardize clean, safe and free water as drinking water. selected”
Do you only drink eight glasses of water a day?
From the Nutrient Survey, the United States received an average score for hydration policies relative to the tax on sugary drinks.12 One possible reason for this is the old encouragement to drink eight glasses of water a day.
This maxim is often repeated as a starting point for good hydration, but that is not the correct approach. Everyone has unique circumstances and forcing one-size-fits-all advice doesn’t help anyone. But where does this foundation come from?
According to Dr. Christopher Labos from McGill University, drinking eight glasses a day was a medical myth in 2010. In 1945, the US Food and Nutrition Board recommended 2.5 liters of water per day. This recommendation has no scientific basis.13
While so-called health professionals still push this claim, there are others who fight this issue. In the year In 2015, pediatrician Dr. Aaron E. Carroll published an article in the New York Times entitled “No, You Don’t Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day.”14 To simplify this myth.
If you’re not drinking eight glasses of water a day, what’s the best indicator of hydration? The answer is to listen to your body. Use your thirst as a guide to how much water you should drink to stay hydrated. Another tip is to check the color of your urine – a pale straw or light-yellow color indicates proper hydration, while dark yellow or amber-colored urine indicates dehydration.
Moisture is more than drinking water
While it is important to stay hydrated for good health, it is not the only factor in the game. You should also pay attention to the electrolyte balance for cellular hydration. These minerals, such as sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium, are electrically charged and play a role in important functions such as blood pressure, cellular waste removal, and muscle function.15
When you drink water to replace the fluids, there is a chance that the electrolyte balance will change, which happens when you drink too much water. On the Jay Feldman Podcast, registered nurse and independent researcher Mike Fave explains how electrolytes work with cellular hydration with water:16
“The interaction of water with electrolytes and proteins gives the water structure,[it]creates a gel state (Editor’s note: structured water or EZ water, which stores energy and strengthens mitochondria2)”. Fev explains.
“So … you need not only water, but also electrolytes and proteins. And then … you need energy to maintain the right concentration gradient, or the right ratio of electrolytes inside and outside the cell.”
In plasma membrane theory, you need the right amount of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is produced by oxidized phosphorus, to drive the membrane-based pumps that control the dynamics in and out of the cell.
In the gel state theory or the gel water theory, in order to maintain the protein structure and the specific charge of the water in general, you need the correct energy production of the cell so that they can interact correctly and take the correct shape.
In both theories, when you have a breakdown of energy production, you get cell swelling, and that’s because the cell can’t maintain the proper gradient between electrolytes from the inside to the outside, or just in the gel state theory. The correct interaction of the electrolyte with water and structure.
So now we have the big picture, where you need electrolytes to maintain proper tissue and cellular hydration. First, you need water, but you also need electrolytes, and you need the proper proteins and amino acids, and proper cellular energy metabolism… Just throwing water into the system will not solve the problem of dehydration.
You have many other requirements, and when you start taking in too much water relative to what your body needs, the process of removing the water is a bit of a waste for those other requirements.
Drinking too much water disturbs the electrolyte balance
There’s a reason it’s important to follow your thirst or check the color of your urine to measure your hydration—drinking too much water will deplete the salt in your body, indicating that you’re not getting enough sodium. The loss of potassium and magnesium causes the same stress response that causes cellular inflammation, inhibition of cellular energy production, and ultimately exhaustion.
This leads me to my next point – don’t fall into the trap of believing that high salt intake increases blood pressure. In fact, salt goes hand in hand with moisture. When you drink water with enough salt in it, it helps your body maintain the right amount of blood, which helps improve blood circulation.
Your salt intake is lower than normal and your body adapts to this stress by preventing your kidneys from excreting sodium in your urine. By containing sodium, your blood volume increases. However, the downside is that your blood vessels narrow, which increases blood pressure.
How to balance your water and salt intake
In Feldman’s podcast, while common recommendations limit salt intake to 1,500 or 2,000 milligrams or less, studies have shown that this amount is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality compared to the 4,000-high range. Up to 6,000 mg.17
“The point is, if we eat more salt than we’re told to eat, we’ll actually be much better off.” says Feldman.
“And as far as thirst goes, that brings us to the best food and drink options for hydration. We don’t just want to drink plain water. There are so many other places we can get plenty of fluids. The things we really need to stay hydrated.”
So what are the best options to hydrate you while maintaining electrolyte balance? Fev offers several natural options like mineral water, tea (loose leaf) with raw honey, fresh squeezed fruit juice, coconut water, grass milk, fruit and vegetable smoothies, cooked vegetables and ripe fruits. When drinking plain water, make sure it’s properly filtered to remove common contaminants like fluoride, chlorine, and pesticide residues.
Remember to replenish electrolytes by drinking plenty of water during exercise or other situations where you sweat profusely. If you don’t have any of the above drinks, bring some Himalayan salt dissolved in your water.
Other alternatives such as Mediterranean sea salt and Celtic sea salt are also viable. Avoid highly processed table salt, because it contains anti-caking agents and unwanted pollutants such as microplastics. If you don’t like the taste of plain salt water, add a little lemon or lime juice to improve the taste.
