There are many things that we can do in our daily lives to be healthy. From adjusting our diets to exercising more often or getting more fresh air there are any number of things that science and doctors recommend for living a longer and healthier lifestyle. No advice, however, is quite so common as the simple suggestion of drinking more water. There are virtually no scientists, doctors, or dieticians that don’t suggest increasing water intake to feel better and healthier. So why is this advice so common and what are the main benefits of drinking more water. We will go through a few of the reasons below.
One of the primary and most commonly mentioned ways that water benefits us is in that of weight loss. Recently there was an experiment done by Havard concerning the consumption of water and its effects on diet. Over eighteen thousand adults were part of an experiment in which participants were asked about their diets over the course of a few days and some very interesting results were concluded. It was shown that those who drank more water ate less and consumed fewer sweetened calorie intensive drinks such as sodas and juices. The overall calorie reduction was found to be anywhere between sixty to two hundred fewer calories per day.
While this might not seem like a lot on face value any professional doctor, dietician, or otherwise will tell you that the key to successful dieting is maintaining habits over time and a reduction of two-hundred calories per day adds up to a significant amount over even just the course of a week. Not only does drinking water reduce the overall caloric intake but it also reduces the amount of fat, sugar, saturated fat, salt, and cholesterol consumed by reducing the general amount of soda and sugary beverages consumed. The best part about water is that it is typically readily available and free.
At the end of the day plain old water is one of the best ways someone can increase their health and live a better lifestyle. It is, however, a woefully underused resource that many people don’t take advantage of, instead favoring soda, juices, or caffeinated beverages. These drinks, while containing water, usually contain many other things that aren’t good for our bodies while still decreasing our “thirst” or desire to drink water overall negatively impacting our health.
In the future it would generally be a good idea to consider reaching for water next time we have the urge to drink something. That being said the best water for us to consume is filtered or purified water that is readily available in the form of store bought items or can be achieved in our own homes with the use of a water filtration equipment or water conditioners. These are usually easily affordable for less than the cost of what most people spend on purified water per month.
