The Water Myth

One of the most common piece of advice being thrown around right now in regards to health is that everyone should drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. This ubiquitous 8×8 rule (8 glasses, 8 ounces each) is religiously followed by many people, despite any real evidence to support this claim. With this article, I hope to dispel this ridiculous idea that you must drink 64 ounces of water per day in order to stay hydrated.

So just where did this myth begin? One possible source is a Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council that recommended approximately “1 milliliter of water for each calorie of food,” which would amount to roughly two to two-and-a-half quarts per day (64 to 80 ounces). The catch to this claim is that it did not say that you needed to actually drink 64 ounces of water per day; instead you should get a total of 64 ounces of water from various sources, including drinks as well as food.

Contrary to popular belief, our body actually can get water from drinks besides water, including coffee and alcoholic beverages. Out bodies also obtain a significant amount of water from the food we eat, which means that in reality the amount of water that we need to actually drink is far less than 64 ounces. As a general (but much more reasonable) rule of thumb, try to drink at least 2 or 3 glasses of water per day, and then increase this amount as needed if you exercise or are just plain thirsty. So don’t shy away from drinking things like coffee and orange juice because you think you will die of dehydration; trust me, you wont.

Unlike the proponents of the 8×8 myth, I’m not just going to tell you this stuff without some real scientific evidence. A recent investigation by doctors at the University of Pennsylvania researched the support for this myth and unable to uncover any credible study proving this claim. So they scanned all the literature available to them, and along the way disproved many supposed benefits of drinking 8 glasses of water per day.

In their research, not only did they uncover that there is no support for the 8×8 theory, but they also found a lack of evidence for several other popular myths. In particular, the Penn researches could not find any evidence that drinking water can help curb your appetite, which is a myth I personally have heard a lot about. Also, they found a lack of evidence that water can brighten your skin tone.

But please don’t read this article thinking I am somehow bashing on water; I’m not at all. In fact, I ONLY drink water and have not had anything else to drink for months (well okay, protein water). While I strongly believe that water is by far the healthiest drink available, I also believe that drinking 64 ounces of water in one day is preposterous. So please people, keep drinking water, its super good for you, just don’t force it.

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