Health drinkingAbout 2 liters a day – that's all you need to know about drinking water – or is it?? In fact, there are several things we can do wrong when drinking water. To effectively hydrate your body, avoid these 6 drinking mistakes.
Everyone knows that drinking enough water is important for our health. But what else should we pay attention to?
Table of Contents
1. Drink cold water
Especially on hot days, we like to store the water bottle in the refrigerator, or add a few ice cubes to the glass. But in fact, this doesn't cool our bodies: ice-cold drinks induce a kind of cold shock. The body produces even more heat to compensate. For centuries, desert peoples have turned to warm drinks to get through hot days. Understandably, when it's 30 degrees in the shade, you don't feel like drinking a cup of tea. But reach for room temperature water rather than ice cold chilled drinks.
2. Drinking too much at once
You can't drink too much water? But in fact. By the way, our urine staining shows us very clearly how properly we have been drinking. If the color is orange or beer-colored, we have not drunk enough water. But if the urine is almost colorless, it is a sign of drinking too much water. A light yellow color would be perfect.
Too much water can lead to water intoxication in the body. The excess water then stays in the body and thins the blood, which can have life-threatening consequences. But don't worry, this will not happen so quickly: a normal, healthy body can tolerate up to a maximum of 10 liters a day.
3. Pre-drinking
Those who feel thirsty, drink too late? This half-knowledge circulates through society. Allegedly, according to this statement, the body would already suffer from water deprivation when the feeling of thirst sets in. One would have to drink thus so to speak before, in order to prevent this.
According to nutritionists, however, this is nonsense. Thirst signals us exactly at this moment that the body wants fluid now – not before or after. So just listen to your organism.
Of course, we should drink between 1.5 and 2 liters of fluid per day, and sometimes more, depending on the weather and activity. If you have difficulties with this, it is advisable to drink according to the schedule. If you don't like pure water at all, you can spice it up with fresh fruit – there are even extra infused water bottles for this purpose.
4. Drinking too fast
When it's really hot in the summer, or we've just had a strenuous workout, it's tempting to empty a whole bottle of water at once. But beware: If we consume so much water, it dilutes our saliva extremely. But it is important for digestion, because it stimulates the juices in the stomach. If we dilute it so much now, there is proportionally too little saliva in our digestive system. So the body can not absorb the liquid properly. Accordingly, our bladder fills up quickly and we pee out most of it again. Our bodies have barely enough time to retain water and absorb important nutrients.
5. Drink only water
Whether in summer or during sports: To keep your body hydrated, you need not only plenty of water, but also certain minerals. Mineral waters with magnesium, potassium, sodium and chloride are ideal to nourish the body. Sportsmen can with large exertion. A lot of sweat loss z. B. also have recourse to sports drinks.
6. Drinking too little
Throughout the day, the body should drink approx. 1.5 to 2 liters of water Supplied to the body in order to function optimally. With physical activity or by strong sweating in the summer more should be drunk.