There are many options for what to drink , but water is the best choice for most people who have access to safe drinking water. It is calorie-free and as easy to find as the nearest tap. Water helps to restore fluids lost through metabolism, breathing, sweating, and the removal of waste. It helps to keep you from overheating, lubricates the joints and tissues, maintains healthy skin, and is necessary for proper digestion.
Water is an essential nutrient at every age, so optimal hydration is a key component for good health. We drink fluids when we feel thirst, the major signal alerting us when our body runs low on water. We also customarily drink beverages with meals to help with digestion. But sometimes we drink not based on these factors but on how much we think we should be drinking.
Aside from including water-rich foods, the following chart is a guide for daily water intake based on age group from the National Academy of Medicine:. A healthy body is designed to send thirst signals when the body becomes depleted of fluids. Thirst is the desire to drink, and is not only driven by physiological cues but behavioral cues. We are also often influenced to drink and eat more in social settings. Research has shown that both of these factors are impaired in the elderly.
A Cochrane review found that commonly used indicators of dehydration in older adults e. People may also voluntarily limit drinking due to incontinence or difficulty getting to a bathroom. In addition to these situations, research has found that athletes, people who are ill, and infants may not have an adequate sense of thirst to replete their fluid needs. For example, aim to fill a ounce water bottle four times daily and sip throughout the day, or drink a large glass of water with each meal and snack.
Like most trends of the moment, alkaline water has become popular through celebrity backing with claims ranging from weight loss to curing cancer. The theory behind alkaline water is the same as that touting the benefits of eating alkaline foods, which purportedly counterbalances the health detriments caused by eating acid-producing foods like meat, sugar, and some grains. From a scale of , a higher pH number is alkaline; a lower pH is acidic. The body tightly regulates blood pH levels to about 7.
