Take your water and shove it
According to this article from the British Medical Journal, Medical Myths, one of my least favourite bits of quasi-medical nonsense is indeed just that: nonsense.
A local brand of bottled water used to have a series of ads in which people battled past eight animated glasses of water — a battle best won with the product, of course. The claim?
People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
The advice to drink at least eight glasses of water a day can be found throughout the popular press. One origin may be a 1945 recommendation that stated: A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 millilitre for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods. [My italics.] If the last, crucial sentence is ignored, the statement could be interpreted as instruction to drink eight glasses of water a day.
Another endorsement may have come from a prominent nutritionist, Frederick Stare, who once recommended, without references, the consumption “around 6 to 8 glasses per 24 hours,” which could be “in the form of coffee, tea, milk, soft drinks, beer, etc.” The complete lack of evidence supporting the recommendation to drink six to eight glasses of water a day is exhaustively catalogued in an invited review by Heinz Valtin in the American Journal of Physiology. Furthermore, existing studies suggest that adequate fluid intake is usually met through typical daily consumption of juice, milk, and even caffeinated drinks. In contrast, drinking excess amounts of water can be dangerous, resulting in water intoxication, hyponatraemia, and even death.
So: It doesn’t have to be pure water, but regular drinking like a normal person, and also eating like one.
What also irritated me was that the ads’ endorsement of this bogus claim never stated the capacity of the required “glass”. Besides, drinking too much water makes me feel bilious after a while.
Now, if I am in need of hydration, and do not feel like anything flavoured, I’ll opt for a bottle of water. Also the tap water here tastes terrible. But I’m not gonna be worried where I get my H~2~O from.
Posted in Randomness (News,Occasionals) by R Cruickshank 22/12/07 08:12 AM Tags: cosmic wisdom, health, links, received wisdom
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