Sunday, July 6, 2008

Day 53, For your reference

First, though, may I say, Indulgence Day upcoming! I would have indulged on some sweet, delectable treats yesterday but I think something might have been weird with the food I ate yesterday so my stomach was giving me problems. Remind me to never again eat green beans that have been sitting in the refrigerator for over a week since they apparently take a turn for the worse after that time. Eating rubbery, bland sticks of...unappetizing blandness is not good eats.

And it never will be.

Also, sleeping through your alarm clock for two hours is not my idea anymore of a good way to start off the day. I mean, what the heck was that about? I went sleep way earlier than I normally do and now I'm struggling to get this thing written and sent off (and with a keyboard that doesn't want to cooperate) so I can get to my exercises before it gets even later than it already is. Man is that frustrating.

So renovations are still ongoing so this one may be short since I need to get my exercises out of the way and hurry up to get everything ordered the way I want it to be.

It seems, my fair readers, that the drink industry is screwing us again (wait, was the precedent?). There is a long held belief that we are supposed to be drinking a certain amount of water each and every day otherwise our bodies will cease to function and we’ll all become mindless vegetables, bed-ridden and near death. Or something like that. I wasn’t necessarily raised on that, I don’t know if both of my parents being in the medical field had anything to with that (maybe they knew something everyone else didn’t), but there wasn’t a daily water quota to fill under any circumstances by the time we were put to sleep at night. I, of course, knew that drinking water throughout the day was probably a good thing to do but it certainly wasn’t forced on me or my brother.

So imagine my surprise when Patrick told us that all of that was a hysteria fueled fallacy created years ago that has thrived and still lives today when we are living in an age where we are supposedly more intelligent than we were when the eight glasses of water a day thing was concocted. Heck, it’s still alive on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water#For_drinking. Crazy, isn’t it?

So let me summarize Patrick’s enlightening lesson for all of you: it ain’t necessary. Sure drinking water during the day is undoubtedly good for you and I’m sure even strongly recommended--for we can’t survive on soda alone (although I’m sure Pepsi would like us to believe that)--but what everyone, including the Wikipedia article, forgets to mention is that while, yes, we do need approximately 2 liters of fluid a day, well, the key word there is fluid. Not just water but any kind of liquid beverage (well, besides, alcohol).

Crazy, right? I never would have known and now I do. So I can stop trying to consume bottle after bottle of water a day and just trust that whatever liquid I do take in will be enough when combined with all of the food that I have to eat while on the project, because food itself does have water inside of it which will make up for any deficiency that may occur during the day. I can relax and sleep easy now.

So there that is, off to floss now, you know, to keep my heart healthy. What am I talking about, you ask? Well, go ask Patrick because he can explain it better than I can, also I have exercises to do. Have a wonderful day.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah. I always thought people who say, "If you're thirsty, you're dehydrated" are kind of dumb because OF COURSE you're slightly dehydrated if you're thirsty! That's the definition of it! Wanting water!

Anyway, yeah I agree. If you're out in 110 degree heat for prolonged periods, you're obviously going to need more water. But if you aren't, you're not gonna die with less than that arbitrary 8 glasses a day.

Patrick said...

If you want to hear some crazy stuff from the Cola companies listen to this weeks Zen is Stupid : Consumerism to hear my tale of sitting next to Coca-cola's nutritionist on an airplane.

Anonymous said...

I think, like with everything else, regulating your water intake has it degrees of importance. In day to day life, I don't think too much stress has to be put on quantity but of course it's healthy to be well hydrated (I find It helps me wake up less groggy and have better skin) Just drinking water hopefully will replace taking bad drinks in, with sugars, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, etc. However If you ever go backpacking for instance you should keep track of staying well hydrated and depending on the temperature and amount of exertion you could find yourself needing 4 liters a day. it's all time and place I think. But nothing bad can be said about water, so why not drink it? and often?