The Low Down on Liquid

By Lola Runn

The human body is mostly water. About 50-70% of our body is made up of water, and depending upon your age and who you are individually, you may have more or less water. Young people have more water than older people, and females hold more water than males. Though, nary a woman on the face of the earth needs really to be told that fact.

Water is more important to our sustenance than food. Oh, food is important, and over time, even the most stalwart of fasters would die without any food stuff. But one could live without food for weeks. And while man cannot live by bread alone….he most certainly does have to drink water. In fact, man would die within a matter of days without drinking water. Water is the giver of all life, and the most essential thing we will ever put into our bodies.

The best way to think of water is to think of it as nature’s solvent. It dissolves other substances and carries them around the body, making it possible for all organs to do their individual job. You need water to digest food and dissolve nutrients so they can be dispersed through the bloodstream. Water is essential for carrying waste products out of your body, and is also a good medium in which biochemical reactions like metabolism can occur. Water regulates body temperature, and is necessary for conducting the electrical messages sent between cells so that muscles move, eyes can see, and your brain can think.

As much as three quarters of all the water in your body is in intracellular fluid; the liquid inside your body’s cells. The rest is extracellular fluid; things like blood plasma, lymph, bodily secretions and urine. The process of digesting and metabolizing food generates about 15% of the water you need each day. The rest of your water comes from what you eat and drink.

You can get water from many different sources. Drinking 8 10-oz. glasses of water daily is one way to replace nearly all that you’ve lost throughout the day. However, you also get water from other sources such as coffee, tea, soft drinks, juice, and milk. But not all liquids are created equal. Just because coffee has as much liquid as one of those 10 oz. glasses of water, doesn’t mean you’ll actually benefit from that full amount. Why? Coffee, tea, and soft drinks have caffeine in them and can rob water from the body because of their diuretic affect. Likewise, beer, wine and spirits have alcohol content, which is not only diuretic, it is damaging to the kidneys as well, and also increases elimination from the body.