How to survive the summer without dehydration? Listen to your body! Even watermelon can help you
As a preface, there is no single measure of how much water you should drink per day. Just as every car has a slightly different consumption under different conditions, you should tailor your drinking to your body and the exertion you are exerting. For starters, though, it's not a bad idea to stick to old wives' advice, which recommends eight approximately quarter-litre glasses of water a day. You can then adjust this amount to cover your body's needs.
Another rule of thumb states: If you're thirsty, drink. What else would your body signal to you but that it is running out of life-giving fluid? For most people, healthy hydration is simply a matter of "following your thirst" in the spirit of the old advertising slogan.
By the way, there's something to that other old wives' tale, too. Some of the pubs on the corner have a worn-out sign on the wall that says "Hunger is thirst in disguise." However, if you're hungry, it's also a good time to take a drink.
Dietitian Amanda Lemein says, "My clients have had the experience that if they are honest about hydration, they usually eat less during the day, especially snacking between meals."
She says people often confuse the ways in which their body lets them know if they are hungry or thirsty. Last but not least, if you've ever seen, say, the reality show Who Survives, or any other show about surviving in harsh conditions, you know that the body can also be tricked into drinking more water so that it's not hungry. Not that it's healthy in the long run...
It's also a good idea to pay attention to the color of your urine. Probably everyone knows that it's not good if you come out "orange juice", which most often happens after a sleepless night. But on the other hand, it's not always necessary to worry about the darker color. The healthy urine of a well-hydrated person tends to be faintly yellow, but not always. It also depends on diet and time of day. You know what beetroot does to your urine, but some vitamin preparations also turn it a richer yellow. Last but not least, morning urine is almost always darker than evening urine.
What to hydrate with? Unsweetened, caffeine-free soft drinks are ideal. Those who are not comfortable drinking water alone all day can stimulate their palate with diluted juice. Ionic beverages with electrolytes and minerals that you sweat out during sporting activity are also useful. However, some that you buy in the store tend to be too sweet, beware. Drinking coconut water and eating watermelon, which is actually mostly made up of water, is not a bad thing either.
By the way, there are also articles floating around the internet about how drinking as we know it today is a scam. The most famous name that subscribes to this theory is celebrity plastic surgeon Jan Měšt'ák. According to him, consuming two litres of water a day can lead to brain swelling and death. However, his opinion is refuted by physiologist Mikuláš Franěk in an interview for the server Lidovky. He admits that brain swelling from overhydration can occur, but a person would have to consume around ten litres of water a day. And he considers Měšt'ák's opinion that we should not drink even during sports to be really dangerous. "Lack of fluids during increased physical exertion can, for example, lower blood pressure, which puts the individual at greater risk than hyponatremia (a condition caused by excessive water drinking, which Měšt'ák threatens, editor's note)," said Dr. Franěk.
