Your body needs an absolute minimum of six to eight glasses of water a day. Alcohol, coffee, tea, and caffeine-containing beverages don’t count as water.
The best to times to drink water are: one glass one half hour before taking food – breakfast, lunch and dinner – and a similar amount two and one half hours after each meal.
Thirst should be satisfied at all times. With increase in water intake, the thirst mechanism becomes more efficient. Your body might then ask you to drink more than the above minimum.
Adjusting water intake to mealtimes prevents the blood from becoming concentrated as a result of food intake. When the blood becomes concentrated, it draws water from the cells around it.
Water is the cheapest form of medicine to a dehydrated body. As simply as dehydration will in time produce the major diseases we are confronting now, a well-regulated and constantly alert attention to daily water intake will prevent the emergence of most of the major diseases we have come to fear in our modern society.
The body is under a constant drive to retain salt to keep water inside the system. It will take a gradual increase in urine to pass the excess salt out. Water will do it if its intake is increased very gradually. Salt is a most essential ingredient of the body. In their order of importance, oxygen, water, salt and potassium rank as the primary elements for the survival of the human body. Pliny, around 75AD, called salt “foremost among human remedies.” About 27 percent of the salt content of the body is stored in the bones in the form of crystals. It is said that salt crystals are naturally used to make bones hard. Thus salt deficiency in the body also could be responsible for the development of osteoporosis. Salt will be taken out of the bones to maintain its vital normal levels in the blood.
Low salt intake will contribute to a build-up of acidity in some cells. High acidity in the cell can damage the DNA structure and be the initiating mechanism for cancer formation in some cells. Experiments have shown that quite a number of cancer patients show low salt levels in their body.
The precaution to keep in mind is loss of salt from the body when water intake is increased and salt intake is not. After a few days of taking 6, 8 or 10 glasses of water a day, you should begin to think of adding some salt to your diet. If you begin to feel muscule cramps at night, remember you are becoming salt-deficient. Cramps in unexercised muscles most often means salt shortage in the body. Also, dizziness and feeling faint might be indicators of salt and water shortage in the body. If such occasions arise, you should also begin to increase your vitamins and minerals intake – particularly if you are dieting to lose weight or do not eat properly, including vegetables and fruits for their water- soluable vitamin and mineral content.
Rule of thumb for daily salt intake. For every 10 glasses of water (about two quarts), one should add to the diet about half a teaspoon of salt per day. Make sure that the kidneys are producing urine. Otherwise the body will swell up. If you sense your skin and ankles are beginning to swell, do not panic. Reduce salt intake for a few days, but increase your water intake until the swelling in the legs disappears.
Carrots (for their beta-carotene content) are an essential dietary requirement. Beta-carotene is a precursor for vitamin A and absolutely essential for liver metabolism, apart from its need by the eyes. Some orange juice for its potassium content should also be added to the fluid intake of the body. For further information visit www.watercure.com.au
