Water Wisdom: How Much is Too Much?

The Myth of “More Water is Better”

Water, the only liquid that cannot replace anything else. It is often underestimated and exploited into fancy drinks, but nothing can replace a nice glass of fresh water when it is most needed. But did you know that overhydration can do more harm than good?

Hydration has been most widely discussed off late and there have been many opinions about how much or what kind of water is best for our body. However, the answer is not as straightforward as it may seem. 

Each of us are designed differently; although we are all humans, there is a reason people have certain specific choices that are distinct from others. This is the prakrti or the nature of the body. Prakrti is one among many factors that decides how much water our body requires. Physical and mental work and strain is another important aspect that decides the quantity. The type of diet you consume and the climate of your surrounding environment also influence your water needs. So then, is it practical to standardize the quantity of water for each person? That is just over engineering. 

How Your Body Decides Its Water Needs

We lose water in three main ways: breath, sweat and urine. 

We might have all noticed that we pee very less during summers but a lot during winters. This is your body’s natural mechanism to reroute excretion of excess water and waste through more efficient ways. Sweating in winter is scanty due to low temperature and hence the body reroutes the waste through your urine. 

On regular days, when drinking more water makes you want to pee more, it is just your body’s way of telling- “Don’t give me more water, I didn’t ask for it! I’m going to keep throwing it all away until I have just enough!” 

And on those days when you didn’t carry your water bottle and feel extremely dry and tired, your body is saying- “Why didn’t you carry water! Now I am drying up from the inside!”

Your body has an in-built signaling mechanism called thirst for letting you know when water levels need to be replenished. Drinking water when not thirsty is like watering a plant when the soil is already wet. More water will only make the soil soggy and kill the plant. 

Water and Digestion: A Delicate Balance

For those of you who claim to drink more water to ease your bowels, here's my point: Water first goes to the stomach where it also mixes with the digestive juices throughout the tract. Which means, it is also getting “digested” and mostly reabsorbed into the blood through the large intestine. When you gulp down a lot of water, you are diluting these digestive juices in your gut and weakening your digestion, which might be the whole reason you have hard stools in the first place. This excess water can weaken digestion and allow undigested food to linger, leading to long-term inflammation

The kidneys are the filters of the body. They work round the clock to filter the blood for waste products and help expel them through the urine. They are actively involved in maintaining the water balance in our body by excreting excess and preserving when deficient. When we overload the system with excess water, the kidneys are forced to put extra effort in flushing it out. Prolonged stress to the kidneys weakens them over time and complicate blood pressure and renal functions. 

The Truth About “Detox” Drinks

This brings us to another popular misconception — detoxification.

Many influencers and health coaches recommend drinking herbal waters or juices claiming it magically detoxes the body. What we all ignore is the fact that the body has its own natural detox mechanisms to throw out metabolic wastes. Eating healthy and exercising well maintains the system in harmony without the need for any external detox agents. When the body is diseased, some wastes become oily or fat-like in nature. These can’t dissolve in water and tend to stay hidden in the fat tissues. Drinking more water may offer temporary freshness or hydration, but they often don’t address the deeper problem.

The Ayurvedic Way to Drink Water

Ayurveda says that we must drink water only when we are thirsty. That is the way we can naturally align with our body’s rhythm. Drinking too much water slows down the body’s metabolism and leads to many diseases. That's why it is said- “Even a healthy person has to drink water in moderation- पिबेत्स्वस्थोऽपि चाल्पशः”

How to drink water?

Drink it sip by sip. Instead of gulping it down at once, feel the water in your mouth. Your mouth has water level sensors that will signal your brain. Drinking at once will escape this signal to end up futile in your stomach. 

To stay healthy, sip on warm water in between morsels of food to keep the food hydrated and mix well for digestion. Drinking water before food will weaken your appetite and drinking water post meals will slow down your digestion. Warm water is light and doesn't weigh you down. Drinking refrigerated water especially on a hot day is like sprinkling water on a hot pan- all the water evaporates up like steam and damages the organs in your head, especially your eyes. Drinking cold drinks with hot food is also detrimental as it causes errors in digestion, confusing the body between heat and cold. 

Listen to Your Body

In this fast-paced world we have forgotten to listen to our body’s needs. There are no shortcuts to achieving good health. Being mindful is the only effective way to heal from within. Any short cut would only be a facade to a deteriorating internal health. Let us give the body the attention it needs, that's how we really care. Let's together nourish the body with the right amount of water just like a healthy plant.