Why I still drink eight glasses of water a day

‘I know I’m courting fury by revealing that I still follow the rule and that I think you should, too. Come at me, debunkers’

We live in unsettling times. Old certainties crumble daily: Jeremy Corbyn leads the Labour party; colouring books for adults are bestsellers; man-buns exist. And now, most disorienting of all, it’s apparently not even true that you’re supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day. This bombshell comes from Aaron Carroll, a US paediatrician who’s researched hydration and who rounded up the evidence in the New York Times: the notion that most of us walk around dehydrated, he showed, is a myth. The web, which loves a good debunking only slightly less than a good shaming, went wild. So I know I’m courting fury by revealing that I still follow the eight-glass rule, and that I think you should, too. Come at me, debunkers! Although on second thoughts, could you hold on a minute while I run to the bathroom?

Here’s the argument for my radical stance: there is no suggestion eight glasses is bad; you’ll probably drink fewer sugary drinks; and those toilet trips will stop you sitting, unhealthily, at your desk all day. Plus following any such rule makes you more attentive to what you’re putting into your system. In other words: the eight-glass rule is wrong, on its own terms, but still useful. And I’m convinced all sorts of “rules for living” work this way.

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from Health & wellbeing | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1KUgiCV
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