Drinking water; how much must I drink in a day?

This is a very good question. Everybody knows water is important, but many drink less due to many reasons. We should not forget pure drinking water is the number 1 food for us. 60% of our body consists of water. Without water, there is no cell function and the body has no chance to live. The loss of water from your body is called dehydration. If 5% of the body water is lost we are totally tired and 15% water loss means sure death. Many have cramps in their leg muscles. Tons of Magnesium tablets are sold to relieve this. Do you know the easy way to come out from this difficult situation of muscle cramps? Drink immediately two glasses water and you can see how quickly the muscle cramps vanish.

The toxins and other wastes from your body must be removed continuously. The nutrients must be sent to all cells in your body and all these cannot function without water. Human body is not a closed system where there is no loss of water. There are continuous loss of water from our body due to breath, sweat, urine and bowel movements. The loss depends upon your work, the temperature and your health condition. Therefore, the water requirement of a person is individual. It is easy to understand that a person who sits in an air conditioned room loses less water than a person who is working in the building industry in the hot sun.

The skin needs moisture. Ear, nose, throat tissues and vagina need a moist environment to be healthy. Water is the most important for this moistening function.

You have to drink water regularly. Thirst means the dehydration has started already. The average persons must drink 2 to 3 liters of fluid everyday and 70% of that must be pure drinking water. It is told that 20% of the fluid intake comes from the food. It is correct when the meal contains enough vegetables and fruits. If you mostly eat processed or fast or junk food it is not the case.

More exercises, more physical activities and more sweating means, the body needs more water and this must be drunk. It is easy to find out from your dietician the required amount of water to you.

If you have kidney or other health problems consult with your doctor for the amount to drink. Pregnant women and breast feeding women need more water than others. The recommendations are:

• Healthy persons – 2.4 liters (8 cups)
• Pregnant – 2.7 liters (9 cups)
• Breast feeding women – 3.9 liters (13 cups)
• Others, according to their needs

If you drink enough the urine amount in a day may be approximately 1.5 liters and the color of the urine must be colorless to very light yellow. If you take vitamin B complex or other food supplements the vitamin B2 gives an intensive yellow color to the urine. This should not be mistaken as dehydration. I have seen persons who drank 6 or 7 liters and came to me afterwards and the villain was vitamin B2.

Too much of water is not healthy and it is important to consult your dietician at least once to find the optimum requirement.

Coffee and tea can be drunk, but not excessively. Fresh or packed fruit juices without additives and sugar are very good. Now and then you can have some soft drink. Soft drinks with artificial sweeteners must be avoided completely.

Now, I have given you all the information. Tell me how much fluid intake is optimum for you…

Food that reduce High blood pressure

What is normal blood pressure?

Several countries have fixed this 140/90 and World health organization gives 160/95 and the values above these indicate high blood pressure. Blood pressure is an important marker of heart health and it keeps also the heart healthy.


Which vegetables and fruits maintain or reduce the blood pressure?

Celery is known to reduce the blood pressure, but it has more sodium than other vegetables which can increase the pressure. Take one to two stalks and this is enough for a day.

Garlic is also important to reduce the blood pressure and the mechanism is dilation of the arteries. Onion and garlic have adenosine which is a smooth muscle relaxant. Raw or cooked, both are effective to control the blood pressure.

Fibres and antioxidants of vegetables and fruits are capable of reducing the blood pressure. Comparatively the fibres and antioxidants of fruits are more effective than those of vegetables.

Which is the function of vitamin C and magnesium?

Vitamin C and magnesium are the substances which remove the waste in the arteries so that they do not become narrower. Both, we have to take along with food, since human beings cannot synthesize vitamin C in our body. However many animals can do it, that is why the animals have very rare or no heart attack. One or two oranges and one banana a day is enough to get both.

What about the plant oils?

Olive oil, sesame oil and all the oils which are rich in monounsaturated or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are good to reduce the blood pressure. But, intake of oils is very important. Complete avoidance of oil will lead to heath problems.

Coconut oil has almost 90% saturated fatty acids, but out of that 70% are middle and short chain fatty acids and these are healthy. It is not necessary to avoid completely coconut or coconut oil. Sesame oil, coconut oil and groundnut oils are the best oil for our Indian way of preparing meals. The reason is they are heat stable.

100 g of any oil has approximately 890 kcals and so you must be careful with the daily oil intake.

Never forget, the dose makes the poison.

What role does calcium und potassium play in blood pressure?

Calcium is important to have normal blood pressure and it also functions as a natural diuretic to mild the effects of much sodium intake. Calcium supplement gives contradictory results, 80% benefit from the supplementation and 20% the blood pressure goes marginally up. Dairy products containing low fat and vegetables are also good sources of calcium. Talk to the dietician to know the position exactly.

Potassium can also reduce blood pressure and it is proved that low potassium diet increases blood pressure. The mechanism behind is that too little potassium in the blood lead to sodium retention and high blood pressure. Fruits, vegetables and fish are rich in potassium.

Why do physicians advise persons with high blood pressure to avoid salt and salty food items?

The problem is that sodium narrows our arteries, thus increases blood pressure. We cannot avoid sodium completely because it is an essential element and it is better to avoid very salty food like processed foods, pickles, chips, snacks and salted fish.

Why alcohol causes high blood pressure?

If you have high blood pressure it is advisable not to drink alcohol. If you drink more than a glass beer (180 ml) then the benefits of low sodium diet and also the medicines for high blood pressure are cancelled. Alcohol is not essential to our body, we can completely sacrifice it.

What about coffee?

For 70 to 80% of the persons who have blood pressure we cannot find the reason. Mental stress is also an important factor for blood pressure. Coffee with mental pressure increases the blood pressure surely. Wait 45 minutes after drinking coffee, measure your blood pressure and find out whether coffee fits to your blood pressure or not. Two cups of medium strong coffee may be consumed daily.

What about the normal risks like overweight?

Overweight, smoking, mental stress and less physical activity are the big risks for high blood pressure. Too much drinking of alcohol is also a risk factor. Try to avoid all these risks and with correct food you can decrease the blood pressure.

What about tobacco and its products?

Tobacco and its products are harmful and should be avoided completely. This is applicable to passive smoking also. Never smoke in a room where non-smokers are there, particularly children and pregnant.

What about non-vegetarian food?

You can eat, but not too much. Eat meat without visible fat. Poultry without skin is better. One of the best meats is Turkey meat without skin. All meat from animals including milk has enough saturated fats and cholesterol. At the same time, all plant food has no cholesterol.

Never accept this argument – ear meat, but you must sacrifice coconut.

What about weight reduction?

Reduce the weight, it is always good for everything. Enough physical activities are a must.

Have you forgotten anything important?

Yes, you must drink lot of water, 3 l to 4 l in a cold country and 4 l to 6 l in a hot country. If you do lot of physical work and sweat much, then you must drink more than 6 l water. I mean, more than 6 l fluid intake per day and out of that at least 70% must be pure drinking water.

Drinking Water

Drinking water is an essential food to live. 50% to 70% is the water content of the body and blood contains 95%, liver 90%, bone 22% and fat has 14% water. Women have 5% less water than men.

Water helps to get rid of wastes, regulates temperature and provides a medium for biological reactions in the body. If one doesn’t drink enough water, he could become dehydrated. The symptoms of dehydration include confusion, restless behaviour, absence of tears, dry and warm skin, dark yellow urine, weakness, cramping in the arms and legs and headache. The symptoms of moderate to severe dehydration includes low blood pressure, dry eyes, convulsions, severe muscle contractions in the arms, legs, stomach and back, bloating, rapid or weak pulse and heart failure. 5% drop in body fluids will cause 25 to 30% energy loss and 15% drop causes death. 80% of world’s population suffers energy loss because of mild dehydration.

Healthy adults need between 3 l to 4 l water in a day. Hot weather and physical activity increases the need for more water, 4 l to 6 l. If the colour of the urine is pale straw the fluid intake is normally fine. If it is dark yellow, one has to drink more. Coffee, tea and fruit juices intake could be counted with water intake. Vitamin B2 makes the urine dark yellow.

Health risks can arise from drinking of water contaminated with bacteria, virus, toxic chemicals including environmental poisons and radioactive compounds. It contributes diseases in developing and in developed countries. Water helps to metabolize fat and helps weight reduction. Boiling water can kill most of the bacteria and virus. Chlorine can react with chemicals to form toxic substances.

Recent studies in USA and UK show that a number of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-epileptics, mood stabilizers and female sex hormones are found in drinking water. The found concentrations are very low – in parts per billion or trillion – which are far below the dose of medical dose. The water industry says that their water is safe. But the presence of so many drugs, prescription as well as over-the-counter medicines may have cumulative negative effects of long-term consequences to human health. We have to think of the mostly used drugs like paracetamol and ibuprofen. These can come from human excretions like urine or faeces and do not forget many throw the medicines in the toilets also. From the recycled or ground water these residues come to our drinking water.

The problems with hormones from the oral contraceptives are well known in Western countries.

The filters what we buy to purify our tap water are useless to filter these residues. Two things could help – the purifiers with reverse osmosis technique and the other one is simply distilling water. Rain water after 30 minutes of rain beginning is the most pure water if there is no industrial chimney in that area. The easiest, best and cheap method of purifying water from drugs and medicines is the distillation of water. Young scientists! Develop cheap distilling system which could be used in every house in this world. The cost of this should be distributed in such a way that the industry must subsidise this water distilling units to every home in our world.

If you have kidney problems or undergoing dialysis ask your doctor to know the amount of water to drink.