Health Benefits of Drinking Water
We all know water is good for us, but do we know the reasons why? Water makes up, on average, 60% of our body weight and is crucial to our health. From healthy skin to protecting joints and helping with the size of waistlines, water is necessary for good health! Read on as Truestar reveals why getting a minimum of eight glasses of eight ounces of water per day is beneficial to our health.
1. Healthy Skin. Proper hydration is essential for healthy, younger-looking skin. Drinking water helps to give your skin the moisture it needs to maintain elasticity and suppleness and to prevent dryness. The body also relies on water to detoxify properly, allowing yourself to look and feel your best. Avoid dehydrating foods and beverages such as caffeine (cola, chocolate, coffee, tea) and alcohol.
2. Optimal Body Function. The body depends on water for survival. This vital nutrient is involved in every aspect of the body’s functions, including digestion and excretion, as well as absorption of important nutrients. Water is responsible for maintaining normal body temperature, maintaining a normal acid/alkali environment in our system and for carrying waste material from the body. If we don’t get enough water, our bodies won’t function at an optimal level and we may not look or feel our best.
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3. Weight Loss. Drinking adequate amounts of water helps with weight loss in a few ways. Firstly, water helps to keep your body functioning at an optimal level, allowing all your systems, such as digestion and absorption, to work properly. Secondly, including foods in your diet with high-water content, such as fruits, vegetables, soups and shakes helps with weight loss by increasing satiety and fullness. High-water volume foods appear larger, provide greater oral stimulation, take longer to absorb and last longer in the stomach. Click here for a list of foods with high-water content. Thirdly, staying properly hydrated gives you the energy you need to exercise.
4. Removal of Toxins. Drinking enough water helps your body flush out toxins, lessening this job for your kidneys and liver.
5. Protection for Joints and Muscles. Water is one of the fluids that lubricates and cushions your joints and muscles, protecting them from shock and damage. If the body is dehydrated (lack of water) it may become more susceptible to ailments. Also, before, during and after exercise, drinking proper amounts of water can help reduce cramping of the muscles and early onset of fatigue.
6. Protection from Disease and Infection. Water is a wonderful mineral which helps to prevent many conditions. Water can help prevent kidney stones as well as reduce your risk for bladder, kidney and urinary tract infections. As well, results of a six-year study of more than 20,000 healthy men and women aged 38 to 100 found that women who drank more than five glasses of water a day were 41% less likely to die from a heart attack during the study period than those who drank less than two glasses. The protective effects of water were even greater in men.
7. Helps Keep You “Regular”. Water helps to prevent constipation by adding fluid to the colon and bulk to stools. This results in softer and easier bowel movements.
