Why do we need to drink water?

Water has been called the ‘Cradle of Life’ because all living organisms require water to survive.  Each body cell is bathed in fluid and the basic substance of each cell, cytoplasm, is itself largely water.  Water is the body’s most abundant and important compound making up 75% of body weight.

• Fluid intake must equal fluid output
• No one feels good about going into a bank overdraft, neither does your body!
• Beverages dehydrate the body more than they hydrate

Through time, humans have constantly been searching for new experiences and tastes.  Consequently new flavours have been added to water to create what we now call beverages - tea, coffee, soft drinks, fizzy drinks, sports drinks and alcoholic beverages – beer, wine and spirits.  These all contain water and taste great but they also contain dehydrating agents.  This means water is being taken out of the body creating a state of dehydration i.e. not enough water coming in to what is going out just like a debit balance in a bank account!  Never feels very good!  Also remember the body loses water on a daily basis through the kidneys (urine), lungs (water in expired air), skin (by diffusion and sweat), and intestines (feces).

So the cardinal principle of fluid balance is this: fluid intake must equal fluid output, it’s as simple as that but we are talking pure water here not beverages!