Aqua Vita

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Aqua Vita HOW MUCH WATER A DAY YOU REALLY NEED TO STAY HEALTHY.

NATALIA INSHAKOVA SHAMIL GAR AEV

THESE DAYS SIMPLE WATER IS CONSIDERED SOMETHING OF A PANACEA  TWO LITERS A DAY AND YOU INSURE YOURSELF AGAINST A VARIETY OF DISEASES AND AN EARLY DECEASE. At least this is what marketing specialists are telling us, but many scientists are becoming skeptical about the miraculous effects of water.

Having spent a couple of years in the Chinese branch of his employer Alexander Heyne, a well-known strategic business consultant, moved to the US. Upon arriving

he soon received a corporate code of conduct, which among usual dress code instructions and a fine system listed a peculiar clause: keep a two liter flask with water under your desk. “This is how much water you should consume on a daily basis,” his boss told Alex. “Dehydration can be damaging to the brain and undermine health, which can affect our productivity.”

Colleagues shared with Alex how this rule was helping them feel good.

On the downside, they did have to excuse themselves every half an hour.

Alexander makes fun of this situation on his website Modern Health Monk – this is when he got the idea to create the blog.

A rare company goes this far, but the last decade has seen “water mania” of varying degrees of severity infect the globe. “Have you had your 8 glasses of water today?” – the majority of water coolers in the US come with this question. Smartphone apps designed for tracking water consumption like Daily

Water and Water Balance rate among the top at App Store.

Quite a number of celebrities claim water and only water is the secret behind their smooth skin and sleek hair. In one of her interviews Gwyneth Paltrow laughingly tells the story of her son, who having learned about the benefit of water at school, now diligently checks if she has had the

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required eight glasses, because he doesn’t want her to get ill and die. But does water really have this power?

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THE WATER FAD

Indeed, today every pupil knows that spring succeeds winter, lions live in Africa and two liters of water must be consumed daily. Why two exactly? Back

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in 1945 the United States National Academy of Sciences published official recommendations for the nation, according to which adults were advised to drink 2–2,5 liters of liquid per day.

For half a century this piece of advice was mostly ignored until the beginning of 2000s when a series of events created the “water boom”. In 2000 Frederick Stare, founder of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard’s School of Public Health, for the first time spoke

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publicly on American TV about the positive effect 6–8 glasses of water a day can have on health and longevity. Thousands of Americans were quick to follow the advice of one of the country’s most respected and experienced nutritionists (Stare died a year later aged 91).

That same year Dr Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, an English professor of Iranian origin, published a book called Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, where in a simple and engaging style he explained that asthma,

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allergies and many autoimmune diseases could be cured with the right (i.e. plentiful) liquid intake.

A lot of the readers clearly felt the positive effect of the advice and the book quickly became a best-seller.

Dr Batmanghelidj’s main maxim was that you ought to fill up another glass of water even before you feel the thirst and drink no less than 2,5 liters a day.

In 2000 the young research company Hydration for Health (HfH) announced their very existence in a grand manner by publishing the results of a series of groundbreaking research, which provided proof that dehydration was the cause of many diseases. An article in Clinical Nutrition magazine revealed that elderly people consuming less than 1–1,5 liters of water per day were more likely to have gallstones and suffer from cardiovascular illnesses. Due to dehydration the mitral valve loses its elasticity, which results in a higher risk of stroke. Their other study, published in Nephrology magazine, established a link between low water consumption and chronic kidney disease. According to Hydration for Health, two liters of water a day prevent formation of kidney stones and help women with recurrent urinary tract infections. Additionally, substantial drinking

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facilitates weight loss and improvement of skin condition.

One particular study created a worldwide stir. The results were first published in the British Medical Journal in April 2001, with global media picking up the story soon after. An experiment conducted in a number of British schools provided evidence that children who drank 1,7–2 liters of pure water during the day had better exam results than those who did not. 75% of our brain is water – so the dependency between brain functioning and water consumption should be quite apparent.

Naturally, the research was yet another project of Hydration for Health, a venture established and funded by the giant Danone, one of the largest manufacturers of bottled water in the world.

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DRINK TO LIVE

The campaign soon yielded impressive results. By 2008 global sales of bottled water had doubled in comparison with the early 2000s.

According to Beverage Digest, a scientific journal on the beverage industry, in 2012 every American drank an average of 220 liters of bottled water, or 0,6 liters a day. In Great Britain revenues from bottled water sales amounted to 1,6 billion pounds for 2013, a 30% rise from the previous year. The “water boom” generated a new market – a series of brands of improved healthy water. Numerous celebrities quickly endorsed the new drinks, becoming brand ambassadors. Jennifer Aniston, for example, advertises Smart Water, a vapor distilled bottled water with electrolytes. Actress Kristin Chenoweth admits that she cannot imagine life without Dream Water, which contains a heavy dose of antioxidants, while Madonna adores Coconut Water with potassium. Among the latest hits is Omega Water, a favorite beverage of Jennifer Love Hewitt, especially good for skin and hair.

Followers of the “eight glass philosophy” claim that no other liquids count. No matter how much tea, coffee or juice you have had during the day, you still have to drink those two liters of water. However, recently a number of studies appeared showing that products and food rich in water contribute towards your daily drinking quota. In an experiment, carried

out by the British National Foundation in 2009, scientists observed 1000 young women with skin and weight problems.

They were divided into two groups: the first one consumed 2–2,5 liters of water a day and kept to their usual diet, while the second drank no more than 3–4 glasses of water, but gorged on fruit, fresh vegetables, vegetable soups and ragout. In the end, members of the second group showed remarkable weight loss, while their skin condition had also improved. Participants of the “water” group displayed no noticeable change. “Water itself does not have a positive influence on appearance,” Heather Yuregir, author of the study explained in an interview with Daily Mail, “while fresh fruit and vegetables in addition to water contain vitamins

TA K E AWAY REQUIRED AMOUNT O F WAT E R P E R D I E M ACCORDING TO EUROPEAN FOOD SAFETY AUTHORITY

Children aged 1–3 1,1 L Children aged 4–8 1,6 L Children aged 9–13 1,8 L Men 2,5 L Women 2–2,3 L Pregnant Women 2,8 L Nursing Mothers 3,1 L Elderly People 1,5–1,8 L

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needed for skin and hair beauty. Vegetable soups and ragout, also containing a lot of liquid, are rich in dietary fiber, which facilitates weight loss.”

In 2011 professors at Mayo Clinic, one of the best medical practices in the world, carefully tweaked the “eight glass philosophy”.

They published new recommendations, according to which lack of thirst and normal urination (1,5 liters of light yellow urine a day) are the main criteria of sufficient water intake. The scientists stressed that plentiful drinking is only

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required in a few cases: if you are engaged in popularity of bottled active sports; live in a hot and humid climate water is behind it. or in the mountains; or suffer from indigestion The aforementioned and kidney stones. In cases of renal and liver experiment conducted failure and cardiac insufficiency, as well as in British schools, adrenal gland disorder and later stages of which proved the effect pregnancy the amount of water, on the contrary, of water on intellectual should be reduced. The “drink as much water as capacity, led to possible” advice in reality can lead to negative a change in the menu, consequences like development of hyponatremia with regular water which is a serious condition characterized by an substituting juices and abnormally low level of salt in the blood and an coca-cola at lunch. imbalance of the body systems occurring as a Besides, water result. It is caused by an excessive amount of does have a positive liquid in the body. effect on brain activity.

In one of her articles Margaret McCartney, A recent study by an a Scottish doctor, who for many years has been independent scientific exposing the “theory of eight glasses” argues group from Harvard that it cannot be explicitly stated that two demonstrated that liters of water a day is a healthy standard for three glasses of water everyone. Nursing mothers should drink more taken before an IQand teenagers under 20 less. Nonetheless, the test, improved results water fad has had a certain positive effect. fourfold. The CEO of According to Beverage Digest calculations, there Alexander Heyne’s has been a 20% decrease in consumption of company wasn’t that soda in the US since 2000 and the growing wrong after all.