I spent a chunk of time
studying nutrition over the last year, as anyone who has heard me complain
knows. It was useful and
interesting. I have one categorical
piece of advice: drink water.
Our personal chemistry
sets use water in almost all our processes.
We need it to digest, to transport, and to lubricate. Without it, we die.
I am not foolish enough
to try to take away anyone’s coffee.
That’s crazy talk. But we do need
to keep in mind that caffeine is a diuretic, so we may need to drink more water
along with that coffee (or tea…). We
also need to be careful about other liquids:
juice, soda, and alcohol. The
first two have a lot of sugar in them, which means they are full of calories,
while not being all that full of nutrition (fruits are better than juices,
mostly because we get lots of fiber along with the vitamins and phytochemicals
and other good stuff; diet soda is full of unpronounceable chemicals and in
general, fewer of them in the diet is better.).
Alcohol is also a diuretic, meaning we need to drink more water as we
increase our consumption. It has a lot
of calories, no other nutrients, and an ability to interfere with our bodies’
ability to absorb other nutrients.
Maybe it’s not fun to drink
water. There are at least two ways to
handle that. One is: suck it up.
Not everything we do is fun. The
headaches and performance impairment we get from dehydration aren’t fun,
either. We are adults and sometimes we
have to do stuff we’d rather not do because it is good for us. The other is to try to find a way to make it
more fun. If that means fizzy water or
lemon slices or cucumber slices or even a paper umbrella, do it.
We’re nicer, smarter, and
healthier when we’re hydrated. Drink up!
