“In health and in sickness, pure water is one of heaven's choicest blessings.
Its proper use promotes health.
It is the beverage which God provided to quench the thirst of animals and man.
Drunk freely, it helps to supply the necessities of the system
and assists nature to resist disease."
Ministry of Healing, p.237.1.
Drinking enough is important, everyone knows that. Water is often recommended as the best choice to drink. What makes water the best drink?
Drinking Water in the Blue Zones
People in the blue zones, places in the world where most people age the healthiest, drink mostly water. A new study shows that staying well hydrated, i.e. drinking enough water all the time, plays a key role in the ageing process. The study found that middle-aged people with higher sodium levels in their blood age faster. Their biological age is then older than their calendar age. They are also more likely to develop chronic diseases - such as diabetes, heart failure and dementia - and to die prematurely. [1]
Stimulates Metabolism
Drink two glasses of water on an empty stomach and you get a spike of the adrenal hormone noradrenaline in your bloodstream, similar to a few cigarettes or a few cups of coffee. The rate of your metabolism is increased by up to 30 per cent within an hour. H2O is thus the safest, easiest and cheapest way to boost your metabolism.
One glass can be enough to wake up the norepinephrine, but two or three glasses give a slightly greater effect.
Unfortunately, if you are taking a beta-blocker, this strategy will not work. Beta blockers are mainly prescribed for heart disease or high blood pressure and usually end in ‘-lol’, such as atenolol, bisoprolol, metoprolol or propranolol. This group of drugs block beta receptors, a type of receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline. If these receptors are blocked, the (nor-)adrenaline has no effect. So when people take metoprolol, for example, the metabolic boost is prevented.
Be careful not to drink more than three glasses (750 ml) per hour, as you will exceed the amount of fluid your kidneys can handle. Use good things in moderation! Stick to the amount of fluid indicated by your treating physician if you are dealing with heart and/or kidney failure.
With a pinch of salt or a nice flavour?
Should it just be water? Fluid is fluid, whether it has a flavour or not. It doesn't seem to matter, right?
In fact, it does matter. If you're trying to prevent fainting before a blood donation, something like fruit juice doesn't work as well as plain water. And if you're trying to prevent people from getting dizzy when they stand up, water does work. But the same amount of water with added salt does not work. What's going on?
We used to think that the expansion of the stomach was the cause. When we eat, our body shifts blood flow to our digestive tract, partly by releasing norepinephrine to bring blood from our limbs to stomach and intestines. But stretching the stomach with two glasses of salt water, does not boost metabolism. So stomach stretching cannot explain the effect of drinking pure water. Now we know that our bodies seem to detect osmolarity, the concentration of substances in a liquid. Diet soft drinks, like tea, have about 10 times more dissolved substances than tap water. Your stomach signals whether you are drinking pure water, broth or diet soft drink. How? That is still unknown, but one way or another, our body can tell.
Temperature
Does it matter what temperature the water you drink is?
Drinking Ice cold Water
To bring half a liter of water from room temperature to body temperature, the body needs only 6 calories. This does not have any impact on weight loss.
But what about really cold water? It is estimated that your body burns more than 150 calories if you eat about a liter of water in the form of shaved ice. You could compare that to the amount of calories it takes to run one mile. However, your body doesn't warm up the ice you eat by burning fat, but by making sure it loses as little heat as possible. Therefore, the blood supply to the skin is restricted by norepinephrine.
Ice cold water thus reduces blood circulation in the skin. No significant difference in blood flow is observed between water at room temperature and at body temperature.
Drinking Hot water
What about hot water?
In cold conditions, you can help your body by drinking hot water. Researchers found that your body detects the temperature of what you drink, and drinking hot water (52°C) quickly helped subjects maintain their body temperature more easily. This can be useful for people who work or exercise in cold conditions. [2]
In hot weather, it is sometimes said that hot tea helps better with heat and thirst compared to cold drinks, although many tend to take water from the refrigerator or freezer then.
In one study [3] subjects became slightly dehydrated from cycling in a hot, humid environment. Your temperature regulation tends to suppress blood circulation and further fluid loss through sweating due to dehydration and heat stress.
After exercise, subjects were given water to drink at 5°C, 16°C, 26°C or 58°C. The amount they were allowed to decide for themselves.
Only minutes after they started drinking, sweat production increased. But the colder the drinking water, the less sweat. Subjects drank the most of the cool water (16°C) and they drank significantly less of the hot water.
According to these results, drinking cool tap water could be the best choice in case of dehydration.
What does this mean for you?
Pure, clean water is the best drink in many circumstances.
Choose the temperature of your drinking water so that you can comfortably drink the right amount of it.
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