About 60 per cent of a man’s body and about 50 per cent of a woman’s body is made of water. Water is often the forgotten nutrient, and yet the one probably most likely to lead to fatigue and under-performance. If you fail to hydrate your body, health suffers immediately. For example, if muscle becomes dehydrated by only 3%, there is about a 10% loss of contractile strength and an 8% loss of speed.
The muscles the drive movement are 75% water. Consider that bones are 25% water, the brain is 76% water, the blood is 82% and the lungs are 90%, and it is quite possible to see how important water is to health. When you consider that a severe deficiency of water will cause death more quickly than any other nutrient deficiency (other than oxygen), then water can be considered the most important nutrient.
Every cell in your body needs water to function properly. Involved in every function of your body, water controls body temperature, gives you energy, assists in weight control, helps transport nutrients and waste products in and out of cells, helps prevent you from becoming dehydrated after sweating, and is needed for all digestive, absorptive, circulatory, and excretory functions.
Many people believe that they get enough water from coffee, tea, fruit juices, and soft drink, but these do not fully satisfy the need for fluids. If you eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly, but don’t drink enough fluid, you will not burn fat efficiently.
The recommended amount of fluid intake from water is between six to eight glasses of water every day.
Alcohol
We are not designed to drink alcohol. Very few people actually like the taste of alcohol the first time they try it. If there were to be any benefit from an alcoholic beverage, it would not be the alcohol, but the grapes or source that the alcohol came from, nothing else.
There was some nutrition in beer fifty years ago, but today, even the best beer hops are grown on the poorest soils, assuring minimal nutritional value. Further, to make beer light and clear, a number of chemical agents are added. Alcohol being a simple chemical structure is rapidly absorbed through the stomach and small intestine. That is why it is used as a carrier agent for many medical drugs.
Research shows that the metabolism of alcohol in the liver may not only disrupt the liver’s ability to produce energy, but it may also drastically affect blood sugar balance leading to hyperglycemia, particularly if consumed on an empty stomach.
This, in turn, causes your pancreas to release insulin to lower blood sugar levels leaving you feeling hypoglycaemic which causes hunger pangs. This is why restaurants get you to order your alcoholic drinks before you order any food because they know you will become incredibly hungry from alcohol consumption.
Alcoholic beverages also serve as displacing agents. Each time you consume alcohol you displace the intake of health-giving fluids such as water and live vegetables, fruits or quality fat and protein sources.
With alcohol, you are taking on empty calories and when consumed near or at mealtimes it serves as a blocking agent, prohibiting the absorption or several vitamins and minerals. If you choose to drink alcoholic beverages, drink in moderation and consume fat and protein to slow down the body’s absorption.
Chris, myHealthCoach