According to studies, drinking the recommended eight glasses of water each day may exceed our real needs.
Given that over half of our daily water intake comes from meals, researchers estimate that we only require between 1.3 and 1.8 liters per day as opposed to two.
Prior research in this field relied on surveys administered to small samples of people, but now more than 90 scientists from around the world have partnered to assess water turnover using a new method.
They surveyed 5,604 individuals between the ages of eight days and 96 years old from 23 nations.
The participants ingested a measured amount of water that had been enhanced with deuterium, an element that occurs naturally in the human body and is perfectly safe.
They measured the pace at which deuterium left the body, which revealed the rate of water turnover within the body.
According to a study published in the journal Science, people living in hot and humid climates and at high elevations, as well as sports, pregnant and lactating mothers, require more water due to their increased metabolic rate.
Professor John Speakman, one of the writers from the University of Aberdeen, stated that the water turnover does not meet the demand for potable water.
‘Even if a male in his 20s has a water turnover of on average 4.2 liters per day, he does not need to drink 4.2 liters of water each day,’ he said.
‘Roughly 15% of this value reflects surface water exchange and metabolic water production.
‘The actual necessary water consumption is roughly 3.6 liters per day. Since most foods contain water, eating alone provides a large amount of water.
‘This study reveals that the widespread notion that we should all be drinking eight glasses of water is probably too high for most people in most scenarios.’
He added that drinking the suggested eight glasses of water is probably not hazardous, but is also unnecessary in most cases.
According to his estimations, a normal middle-aged male may need to consume between 1.6 and 1.8 liters of water per day, while a lady of the same age may need to consume between 1.3 and 1.4 liters.
This may decrease to roughly 1.1 liters per day for adults in their eighties.
However, much relies on the types of foods they consume. If they consume a lot of soup, for instance, they would need to consume less water.
Tea, coffee, carbonated beverages, and fruit juice are also included in the daily total, he noted, but they may include unhealthy ingredients.
Co-author Dale Schoeller from the University of Wisconsin-Madison stated, ‘The science has never supported the old eight-glass rule as an appropriate recommendation, if only because it conflated total water turnover with water from beverages, and a significant amount of your water intake comes from the food you eat.
This is the finest study we’ve done to date to estimate how much water people consume daily – the turnover of water into and out of the body – as well as the primary elements that drive water turnover.
It follows physicians’ claims last week that Bruce Lee may have died from drinking too much water.
The martial arts superstar and Hollywood icon passed away in 1973 at age 32.
The cause of his death, as determined by doctors, was brain enlargement, which was attributed to his use of a painkiller.
His death fueled rumors that he may have been murdered by Chinese criminals, poisoned by a lover, or cursed.
After analyzing the facts, researchers concluded that Bruce likely died from hyponatremia.
“In other words, we propose that Bruce Lee was murdered by the kidney’s failure to eliminate extra water,” doctors wrote in the Clinical Kidney Journal.
