Is it true that an adult needs to drink 2 liters per day, or eight glasses, water?

It is common that an adult needs to drink two liters, or eight glasses, water per day to maintain good health. We decided to check if this recommendation is confirmed by scientific data.

Information About this quantity drinking water Founds on numerous sites, dedicated Healthy image life. Supporters such an approach They promisethat compliance with this regime will accelerate weight loss, prevent headaches and the formation of kidney stones, improve attention concentration, give elasticity to cartilage and joints, strengthen immunity, activate the brain and even help prevent the development of breast cancer, rectum and bladder. To control the used liquid, even Special Mobile Applications.

Water performs a lot functions In our body: it is part of the blood, dissolves nutrients for better absorption, participates in many biochemical processes and removes waste waste. The body removes water thanks to the work of kidneys, skin and lungs. So, with urine per day, man loses on average from 0.5 to 1.5 l of liquid, and a little less than 1 liter Leaves Our body, along with breathing and in the process of sweating. Pathological conditions (prolonged vomiting or heavy diarrhea) can lead to loss of 4 or more liters of fluid per day. The main fraction of the liquid acts In the body through the digestive tract, a certain amount is formed in metabolic processes. Having summarized the above losses, the volume of 2 necessary liters (or eight glasses) of water per day seems quite obvious. But is it so?

In fact, you can even establish the most likely source of recommendations to drink 2 liters of water per day. Such an amount for the first time It appears In the recommendation of 1945, the Food and Nutrition Commission of the National Research Council of the United States. However, information about 2 liters was presented there in another context. The document said that adults are recommended to use 1 ml of fluid for each calorie eaten. For the average, such consumption standards were accepted: 2000 calories per day for women (therefore, 2 l) and 2500 calories for men (that is, 2.5 l). Separately, the document said that not only water is taken into account, but any liquid, including those coming from fruits and vegetables, which consist of a large extent consist of water. Almost 20 years later, a similar figure surfaced in the book “Food for Great Health” by Margaret Makouilms and Frederick Star. They Recommended Drink from six to eight glasses per day. This council no longer took into account other types of liquids (tea, coffee, soups, juices, etc.), as well as products with a significant share of water in the composition.

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In 2002 in the American Journal of Physiology was published Large -scale metrote on this topic. Scientists did not find any scientific evidence of the need to drink 2 liters of water per day. At the same time, they were able to distinguish several dangers that are in wait for those who decide to follow this norm: water intoxication and hyponatremia (lack of sodium in the body). These conditions are extremely dangerous for the body. In particular, Marathon runner Joanna Packenem Burnt Due to the oversight: in the middle of the distance, she fainted, was taken to the hospital, where she spent almost three days in a coma. Fixed Even deaths from water intoxication.

In the same metarer, scientists have considered the possible advantages of using significant volumes of water. In studies regarding the relationship of the frequency of various types of cancer, as well as coronary heart disease and daily water consumption, scientists were able to identify only correlation, and regardless. Moreover, the division into groups “drinking a lot” and “drinking few” was by no means took place on the border of 2 liters per day. For example, in a ten -year -old research The prerequisites for the development of bladder cancer in men were revealed in a group consuming per day from 1440 ml of liquid (and not water), and the highest - in those who drink less than 240 ml. And in six years research The ties of the volume of fluid consumed per day and the risk of fatal coronary heart disease in women were demonstrated that the risk is below those who drink from 1185 ml of fluid, and above those who drink less than 474 ml. Long -term cohort study also Not revealed The connections between the consumption of significant volume of water and the higher life expectancy. 

It is interesting that different drinks are equally good for maintaining water balance and, therefore, for the prevention of various diseases, although many still believe that caffeine contained in some drinks makes them either unsuitable or less useful for the body in terms of replenishing the water balance. So, in a randomized controlled research No significant difference in the effectiveness of water and black tea was found to maintain water balance. 2000 study Ovex Even more options for various drinks: drinks without caffeine containing caffeine, high -calorie (for example, various sweet soda) and non -calorie were analyzed. All four groups of drinks were recognized as equally suitable for replenishing the body's water balance.

Separately in 2014 Checked Coffee (there is an opinion that this drink does not fill the fluid in the body, but, on the contrary, leads to dehydration). Coffee in moderate doses (three to six cups per day) had the same “moisturizing” effect on the body, like water, therefore, was suitable for replenishing the water balance. Even alcoholic drinks Demonstrate Comparable to water, the ability to replenish fluid loss in our body. Thus, tea, and coffee, and sweet soda, and soup, and a glass of wine at dinner can be taken into account when calculating the fluid consumed.

Moreover, our body may well control the necessary fluid rate. “Control over hydration is one of the most complex mechanisms that the human body developed during evolution. We have a huge number of sophisticated techniques to maintain the desired level of hydration, ” - He thinks Irvin Rosenberg from the Laboratory of Neurology and aging of the University of Tafts in Massachusetts. Result Supplies The recommendation of the British Ministry of Health: It is recommended that an adult are consuming six to eight glasses of liquid. When calculating, water, tea, coffee, milk, fruit juices and smoothies, sports and energy drinks should be taken into account.

Thus, the recommendation to drink eight glasses of pure water per day to maintain the health of the body and the prevention of various diseases has no scientific basis. Six to eight glasses of any fluid, including the optimal for an adult in a temperate climate, are considered to be the norm of consumption, including the food received from food.

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What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

  1. Five elements: water
  2. Is it true that in the heat it is hotter to drink more useful than cold?

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