I find that tea doesn't give me as much of a high as coffee, but it lasts longer without any come-down. Awesome.
No. From sources described at http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp:
Kidney specialists do agree on one thing, however: that the 8-by-8 rule is a gross overestimate of any required minimum.
"The notion that there is widespread dehydration has no basis in medical fact," says Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of the medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Doctors from a wide range of specialties agree: By all evidence, we are a well-hydrated nation. Furthermore, they say, the current infatuation with water as an all-purpose health potion — tonic for the skin, key to weight loss — is a blend of fashion and fiction and very little science.
From an LA Times reader:
The advice fully meets three important criteria for being an American health urban legend: excess, public virtue, and the search for a cheap "magic bullet."
Additional research and articles:
http://www.asn-online.org/press/pdf/2008-Media/Water%20Study...
The first article mentions "widespread dehydration" ..that's an exaggeration at best of what's being discussed here.
People do get dehydrated. We, as a nation, have the means of staying hydrated and therefore we don't have a major epidemic. But, dehydration is definitely an issue--and always will be.
I consider that statement equivalent to asserting "widespread dehydration" of the nation's populace. So I stand by the material I quoted.
> People do get dehydrated.
Of course they do, just like they get hungry when they don't eat. But we're discussing drinking water in excess of thirst. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by your last paragraph. The discussion here is about health primarily in the first world, not about the hydration problems in many developing countries.
By the way, I mentioned specifically too much water. You only need to drink when you're thirsty. I'm asking what benefit you get from drinking water when you're not thirsty.
By the way, "people are dehydrated a large majority of the time" -- citation needed.
Following the links on Wikipedia I got to this article: http://www.aafp.org/afp/991115ap/2269.html It lists low fluid intake (as well as restricted access to a bathroom) as a risk factor in kidney stone formation. However, another article (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12576800) reports some conflicting results. Apparently, as people drink more water, they consume more sodium to compensate, negating some of the benefits.
I wonder what someone who actually knows about this would say. Also, 2L isn't that much, but I wonder if I drink 8 glasses of water a day. An experiment is in order.
Toxins? Again, no specific answer, but the food is not necessarily "clean", so that's what our kidneys and liver are for.
Obviously, I can't speak for any large body of humans without some kind of rigorous scientific evidence, but passive observation of coworkers, friends, and family leads me to believe that most people don't drink nearly enough water. It could be different where you live though.
I also got taken in by the nice scientific sounding words before I realize that I should shout "CITATION NEEDED".
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/13-symptoms-of-chronic-dehy...