8 Glasses a Day Advice Doesn't Hold Water

Recently researchers writing in The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology wrote that drinking extra water is unnecessary, and that there is no clinical evidence that drinking eight glasses of water a day is beneficial to otherwise healthy people. [See Go Ahead, Put the Water Bottle Down, New York Times, April 19, 2008.]

I've never been an advocate of drinking a lot of extra water. Drink a glass when your thirsty. Don't if you're not. When you're on your bike riding hard it's a little different. You need to drink a little ahead of your thirst, because your muscles often need water long before you feel a sense of thirst.

At the same time, I am a big proponent of substituting water for other drinks during meals and with snacks. It took some time but I now much prefer fruit juice diluted at least half and half with water, if not more. To make it a little more interesting, mix juice with sparkling mineral water or club soda. It's actually cheaper to buy good quality juice (always look for 100% juice with no added sugars) and a large bottle of carbonated water than drinking straight juice (even the cheap stuff).

And it's much healthier.

So, drink water when you're thirsty. Can the soda completely. And dilute naturally sweet juices. You don't need the extra sugar . . . or the extra water.