Table Leg #1- Water

Tables need four legs to support whatever meals you lay on the table top.  I feel the same way about a few important elements in the food and nutrition universe;  water, fiber, fruits and vegetables, and organic food.  I am not trying to say they are the most “important”. Rather, they may posses the greatest potential for making a positive impact on the American diet because we are deficient in these areas. Let’s start with the element that makes up 60-80% of our body; water.  So why should we be concerned about our water intake?  Because water interacts with every cell in your body and is crucial for numerous life- sustaining interactions that happen within.

TAKES AWAY TOXIC DEBRIT
We all want to look younger longer, right?  Being dehydrated accelerates the aging process of your body because water is crucial for transporting building materials and taking away waste products to and from our cells and organs. A dehydrated body is like a construction site without trucks to bring the correct building supplies and take away the debris that accumulates. Your skin may be the first indication that all is not well, but other undesirable effects of dehydration that make you feel and look worn out are headache, tiredness, inability to think, indigestion and heart burn, and even depression. (1)  We should probably try drinking more water on a regular basis first before reaching for other things to help !

IMPORTANT TO HEALING JOINTS
Though no one else can see our aching joints, they sure do make you feel older, and the cartilage that cushions your joints is made up mostly of water.  Some of that joint pain could be the construction site continuing on with faulty machinery while waiting for the supply trucks to come, or in other words, damaged cartilage being used without being repaired properly. (2)  We wouldn’t want the house we live in built under those circumstances, and your body is your house too!

HOW MUCH?
So how can we make sure we are drinking enough water?  We’ve all heard the advice to drink about 1/2 gallon, 64 oz., or 8 cups of water a day.  Or some say take your body weight, divide in half, and drink that many ounces of water a day. (140 lbs.=70 oz. of water needed daily.)  Try drinking a full glass of water when waking up, bringing water to sip on wherever you go during the day, drinkng a cup whenever you get the urge to snack on something (and snack on fruit instead of other things), and making water your drink of choice most of the time.  I like to float a tea bag in my water.  After about 3 minutes it has a very subtle and delicious flavor of the tea I have chosen, and it makes drinking more water much more interesting!

THIRSTY? TOO LATE
And remember that thirst is not a good indicator of your need for water because at the point of thirst you are not going to be dehydrated; you already are! (5)  Lots of small changes throughout the day can easily add up to a fully hydrated, efficient and active cell repair system in our bodies.  For me personally, I’ve just accepted the fact that water is what I drink, just as I have accepted that I eat whole grains rather than refined.  More on that coming next week by the way.  Stay tuned for Table Leg #2 of Orange Tree Lane: wonderful Fiber.  Just like water, it is one of your nutrient “best friends”.

But for now, H2O here we come,

Molly

(1) http://studenthealth.oregonstate.edu/answerspot/message.php?message=2038  (2) http://nutritioninfo.tripod.com/id19.html

(3 http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=148  (4) http://www.nursingcenter.com/prodev/ce_article.asp?tid=939252
5) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283/NSECTIONGROUP=2