trends
LIQUID ASSETS
Drink and Be Happy Based on the potential benefits of proper hydration, such as reduced bladder cancer risk, how many cups of water should people drink every day?
BLUE ZONES BEVERAGE RULES
GETTING WATER RIGHT
Drink coffee for breakfast, tea in the afternoon, red wine at 5 p.m. and water all day. Never drink soda, including diet soda. With very few exceptions, people in Blue Zones drink water, coffee, tea and wine. Period. (Soda pop, which accounts for about half of America’s sugar intake, was unknown to most Blue Zone centenarians.) There’s a strong rationale for each.
The often-stated “drink eight glasses of water per day” has very little scientific evidence behind it. Many of the quoted amounts come from studies backed by the bottled water industry. According to Dr. Michael Greger, founder of nutritionfacts. org, the “drink eight glasses of water per day” recommendation has been traced back to a 1921 paper where the author measured his own urine and sweat and determined people lose about 3.4% of their weight each day, which comes out to about eight cups. So, for the longest time, the water guidelines for humanity were based on just one person. But now evidence indicates that not drinking enough water can be associated with falls and fractures, heatstroke, heart disease, kidney disease, constipation and other negative results. But generally, it’s healthier people who exercise who drink a lot of water, so who’s to say that people are getting sick because they drink less water versus that they drink less water because they’re sick? Greger adds that no one is going to pay for studies that can answer exactly how much water a person should drink per day because water can’t be patented—so who’s going to pay for the studies? People will have to rely on our own research as individuals to figure it out.
Coffee Sardinians, Ikarians and Nicoyans all drink copious amounts of coffee. Research indicates coffee drinking may lower rates of dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Tea People in all of the Blue Zones drink tea. Okinawans nurse green tea all day long—and green tea has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and several cancers. Red Wine People who drink—in moderation—
tend to outlive those who don’t. (That doesn’t mean people should start drinking if they don’t drink now.) Residents of most Blue Zones drink one to three glasses of red wine per day, often with a meal and with friends. Wine helps the system absorb plant-based antioxidants, so it complements a Blue Zones diet. These benefits may come from resveratrol, an antioxidant specific to red wine. But it may also be that a little alcohol at the end of the day reduces stress, which is good for overall health. In any case, more than two to three glasses a day for women and men, respectively, show adverse health effects. For women, the risk of breast cancer increases with less than one drink per day. Water Adventists explicitly recommend seven glasses of water daily. They point to studies that show that being amply hydrated facilitates blood flow and lessens the chance of a blood clot. Source: Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones Solution
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” —Leonardo da Vinci
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luckbox | may 2020
2005-trends-liquid-water.indd 40
4/13/20 11:54 AM
