Chris Kresser on the 8 8oz glasses of water a day recommendation:
The best advice I can give when it comes to water consumption is let your thirst be your guide, and adjust your fluid intake depending on your lifestyle and environment. If you are relatively sedentary, live in a cold climate, don’t sweat much, or eat water-rich foods, you probably don’t need to be drinking eight cups of water a day. There’s no evidence to support those recommendations, and forcing down excess water throughout the day is not only unnecessary, but can cause damage if done too frequently. For most people, the body is its own best guide.
I agree. Evolutionary science is not my strong suit, but it seems unlikely to me that historically our ancestors were chugging this much water on a regular basis. And if they didn’t, then it seems unlikely it’s a necessity for us, unless, as Chris says, your specific situation calls for it.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health & food policy. And cats!
Sure, there’s no need to drink too much. But I don’t go along with the idea that ancient man was less water-oriented than the modern health fanatic. Originally he/she may originally have come from the jungle, where humidity was high. Later, they would have settled, or hung out around, water, for many reasons. They would have known about the importance of hydration.
Ya know, probably if you’re eating a lot of dry starch foods (bread, cereal) you do need a lot of water. But if not, you probably don’t need much at all. Roughly 3 years ago now we made the switch to canned foods for our then cats plural (now sadly cat singular). I now only change out the water to keep it fresh, whereas before I had to replenish it daily from the two of them drinking it (my surviving guy is so cute when he drinks water, he scoops it up with his paw and licks it off, I get to see much less of this cuteness now).
In this regard we can learn a lot from pets.