Resources

Checkout these valuable resources on dehydration, heat exhaution and heat stroke.

• Are You Dehydrated? (pdf)
• Heat Exhaution & Heat Stroke - Symptoms and What to Do (pdf)

Quick & Easy Tips to Drink More Water

The following are some quick and easy tips to help you get those eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day!

• Add fresh mint leaves.
• Instead of setting down an empty glass, refill it with water and keep sipping.
• If you're feeling hungry and you've eaten recently, drink a cold glass of water, and wait a minute or two. You could just be dehydrated.
• Make your water more interesting by adding a squeeze of lemon or lime.
• Dilute your juice (apple, grape, or orange) with water.
• Make it a morning ritual. Start your day by drinking one or two glasses of water. Start early, feel better, Set the trend for the day.
• Have a big glass of water at every transitional point of the day: When you first get up, before you leave the house, when you sit down to work, when you go to lunch.
• Get a glass or water bottle you love.
• After each trip to the restroom, drink some water to replenish your system.
• Take a bottle of water with you on your walks.
• Freeze little bits of peeled lemons, limes and oranges and use them in place of ice cubes — it's refreshing and helps get in a serving of fruit.
• While at work, fill a big glass with ice and keep filling it up from the office water cooler.
• At home always keep a glass of water handy while watching TV, doing laundry, making dinner or surfing the net.
• Track it. One check mark for every glass consumed.

Benefits of Plain Water

By: Mallika Marshall, MD Contributing Editor, Harvard School of Research

"Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink." Unlike Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, who was surrounded by undrinkable salt water, most Americans have an unlimited supply of clean water to quench our thirsts.

Yet many of us turn a blind eye to it and instead reach for other beverages throughout the day, like sodas, juices, coffee, and tea, despite warnings from health experts over recent years about the added calories in sweetened beverages and the health benefits of plain water. Now a recent study in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics provides even more evidence that we should choose water over other drinks if we want to control our weight. For the study, researchers from the University of Illinois looked at data on the eating (and drinking) habits of 18,311 adults as recorded in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2005 and 2012.

Survey participants were asked to recall their dietary intake over two separate days. They reported their consumption of plain water (which included tap water, water from fountains and water coolers, and bottled water) as well as their consumption of other beverages like soda, fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, and sweetened bottled waters. Participants were also questioned about their intake of "energy-dense, nutrient-poor" foods, like cookies, ice cream, chips, and pastries.

On average, participants drank 4.2 cups of plain water a day and took in 2,157 calories. About 125 of those calories came from sweetened beverages, and about 432 calories came from energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods.

The researchers found that the participants who drank the most plain water in their daily diet consumed fewer total calories, drank fewer sweetened beverages, and took in less total fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt, and cholesterol. In fact, they discovered that increasing plain water consumption by one to three cups a day could decrease calorie intake by 68 to 205 calories a day. That could add up to a lot fewer calories over time — and result in significant weight loss.

These results support prior research on this topic, which has shown that drinking water before meals and that substituting water for sweetened beverages can cut down on calorie intake and improve weight control. That means people interested in losing weight and improving their overall health could benefit from incorporating more plain water into their daily diet.

So next time you're thirsty, instead of ignoring your kitchen sink at home or the bubbler at work, take a moment to savor the one drink that's free, refreshing, and actually good for us: plain old water.

• Losing as little as 2% of your body's water content can significantly impair physical performance.
• Mild dehydration (fluid loss of 1-3%) can impair energy levels and mood, and lead to major reductions in memory and brain performance.
• Drinking water can sometimes help relieve headache symptoms, especially in people who are dehydrated.
• Drinking plenty of water can help prevent and relieve constipation, especially in people who generally do not drink enough water.
• Increased water intake appears to decrease the risk of kidney stone formation. More research is needed in this area.