How much water do you drink a day?

The 8 glasses a day was apparently a misinterpretation of advice given many decades ago. Obviously it depends on the rest of your diet. Fruit, vegetables, tea, coffee etc all count. Go by the colour of your wee. Pale straw.

Agree with the other ladies when they said liquid is water.. even kitty !

kitty did you say five a day?

I drink at least a litre a day. I really like it - hate tea and dislike cola.

I think the fad for drinking water for the sake of it has now been debunked? Drink if you're thirsty. If you do something that you know WILL dehydrate you (like enjoying a bit too much alcohol) pre-empt it with a big glass of water before going to bed.

I try to drink 1.5 to 2 litres a day as I don't have a colon, one function of which is to store water. I was quite ill a few months ago with gastro-enteritis, didn't keep up the water and ended up in hospital being rehydrated.
Our tap water doesn't taste good, so I drink supermarket fizzy, very cheap.

Salter make bathroom scales that also give a Bmi and hydration read-out. Don't know how good they are.

The voice therapist I had to see some years ago warned me that tea and coffee dried out the vocal chords though they don't have an overall dehydrating effect, since they are made with water. The chorus master of a very prestigious choir told the members not to drink tea or coffee before a concert. I have a large mug of tea at breakfast and roibos thereafter, supplemented with water or soda water with sugar-free codial. I don't measure the amount of water I take on board during the day.

Any fluid works...it does not have to be water. Apparently milk is the perfect fluid to be taking in.

Cranberries are acidic so if you "can't be doing with an acidic drink", cranberry juice does not seem the brightest suggestion from that nurse, quite apart from the sugar load.

indi I'm lost for words

There is a low calories version of cranberry juice I think - someone will now say its full of something nasty!!

I do have an appointment with my dermatologist GP, but not till the end of June (he only works at the surgery 2 afternoons a week). I am suffering a horrendous psoriasis outbreak at the moment (yes, there as well ). When I saw the nurse for blood tests on Wednesday it was she who told me to drink cranberry juice, so that's why I bought it!

Oh didn't see your post Jane

Indiana cranberry juice is sugar laden

indi cranberry juice has loads of sugar in it. If you're sore down below get some proper drugs to sort it out! My experience tells me they're the only thing that really works

Yes I too watched that programme. Milk surprised me in the hydration stakes too. But of course, it's much more calorific, so I won't be drinking glass after glass of it.
I drink decaf tea with a dash of milk, or chamomile tea with nothing added. I am also drinking cranberry juice at the moment instead of my usual home made lemonade (very sore down below , so can't be doing with an acidic drink). Oh and yes, I do drink tap water as well. All these are liquids, for heaven's sake so they all hydrate.

I can't help thinking that a healthy body is probably better adapted to coping with fluctuating levels of hydration throughout the day than it is to being hydrated / over-hydrated all the time. After all, surely that is what it has evolved to cope with, given that constant access to safe drinking water is a very recent luxury.

My bet is that it's only a matter of time before the scientists decide that being permanently hydrated is actually harmful, and we are advised to limit our intake!

I have a glass of water with every meal and take another one upstairs to drink overnight if I wake up. Drinking water with a meal helps to make you feel full and not eat too much, according to one of those Michael Mosley -type programmes on the TV.

Just a word of warning to those who think that the sense of thirst will alert them to dehydration.

Apparently as we get older, our sense of thirst diminishes and it's possible to become dehydrated without knowing it.

Mr A demonstrated this a few years ago when he collapsed in style at a restaurant in Newcastle and had to be blue-lighted to the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He had turned blue and his blood pressure had fallen at an alarming rate.

It had been hot and he had been sailing all day, and the sailing had been so exciting that he had not bothered to drink anything.
After a worrying night, attached to monitors, when various tests were done, the diagnosis of dehydration was made.

Needless to say he is now not allowed out without at least a litre of water on his person.

I saw that too, Anya. Milk, surprisingly, hydrates you better. Who would have thought it?

I suppose it's what you're used to, but there have been places we've lived in this country where we have found the water very unpalatable because it is hard, and we have had to filter it; the South East, and Norfolk, for instance. Supposed to be better for your heart than soft water, though.

Just watched a programme on BBC 1 which suggested that drinking plain water is not the most effective way to stay hydrated.

If you think about the way our ancestors lived in the jungle they wouldn't have been drinking several litres a day. It would have been the water they got from their food, or what they could scoop or lap out of a pool or river.

I work on the basis that tea is made with water. I did look at the caffeine contact and, if I remember correctly, you can have about 8 cups a day without going over the daily recommended amount. I do try to be healthy as much as possible but I don't like water and life's too short to go without my lovely cuppa.

I don't know where you live Jalima. I've lived in various parts of the country where the tap water is perfectly fine but if yours is not the filter seems a good solution. Perhaps I'm too stingy too but bottled water.

I can't understand why people buy bottled water in this country where the tap water is perfectly good and wholesome.
Our tap water sometimes smells vile (over-chlorinated like a swimming pool) so I use a filter jug sometimes or resort to bottled water.