Water

[SmileyEH]

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As far as alcohol goes, in the middle ages they drank beer and grog as a primary source of water, right?

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I'm pretty sure the alcohol content of middle ages ale was closer to 0% than the 5% of today. (Rock on European Environmental History 101!)

[skunkworks]

Obviously water is better than diet soda, I was just nitting your post up.

[Thremp]

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Obviously water is better than diet soda, I was just nitting your post up.

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But to think a person is going to die of dehydration by only drinking, beer/soda for the rest of his life is just being an idiot.

[jah7_fsu1]

No, but this is "health and fitness," I always encourage the most healthy advice, even if I don't always abide by it myself. I wouldn't reccommend my diet from this week to anyone for instance!

[tdarko]

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tdarko, a side rant here:

If there's one thing I've learned in the past year or two, it's that 95% of the things to claim to "flush out toxins" are rooted in homeopathic voodoo garbage thinking. Not attacking you at all, but I just hate it because it's vague and unscientific but strikes fear. Toxins!

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Yea, I was just listing some things that I had read in passing on this OP subject to get the ball rolling in the thread. I actually haven't thought much of it b/c it doesn't apply a whole lot in my life b/c all I do is drink water so questioning it doesn't really matter.

[kyleb]

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I can't imagine this to be very necessary since whatever we don't get from directly drinking water we get plenty of from our food sources, other drinks, etc.

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Mmm...not so much? Alcohol, pop, etc actually dehydrate the body.

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Soda does not dehydrate the body. It has a net effect of hydration.

[avfletch]

AFAIK but I'm not expert ... everyone massively overestimates how much water they need to lead a sedentary life style, which is estimated to be around a litre a day (not a whole lot compared to the gallon being suggested by fitness experts).

On the other hand, everyone has a habit of underestimating what they need when they exercise. Play a competitive sport for 45 minutes and you'll easily use up that same litre and probably more.

The bottom line is to pay attention to your body. If it's complaining of being thirsty (not to be confused with craving a sugar/caffeine hit) or your find your urine turning a darker amber/yellow colour then you should drink more water. On the other hand, if you find yourself peeing hourly then you're taking in to much.

Just try to find a happy medium.

[dms]

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As far as alcohol goes, in the middle ages they drank beer and grog as a primary source of water, right?

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I'm pretty sure the alcohol content of middle ages ale was closer to 0% than the 5% of today. (Rock on European Environmental History 101!)

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Not positive, but if I had to narrow it down, I think somewhere between 0.5-2% sounds right.

[DeMaci]

From what I know, the crystal light packets are only 5 calories per one bottle of water, doesnt sound like much of a caloric worry as someone else said.

[Emperor]

Water does get boring.

Water - change the temperature. I like mine ICE cold. I have a friend who only drinks hot water. Hot water is supposed to aid with digestion and other things, but bleh.

I try to drink 1 cup of green tea/day, sometimes I can get 2 in. You get Anti-oxidants and zero calories.

100% Grape Juice is also great for anti-oxidants and other things. It has calories, but they are all natural sugars.

100% Cranberry Juice, Lemon, Orange,etc - also good for you, add a tablespoon to a glass of water and it really spruces up the water.

I avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup like the plague. It is empty calories. I get addicted to it, and then I want to drink mountain dew by the truckload, and it takes me a week to get off of it.