How much water do you drink? Not juice. Not tea. Water! Your body needs water and by mixing sugar, caffeine, bubbles, dairy etc you may be increasing intake of less useful stuff and potentially preventing efficient beneficial hydration and tipping your blood sugars unnecessarily. Whether you should be cutting out caffeine or sugary drinks is personal to your circumstances, but making sure you drink plenty of water is universally beneficial. How much is enough? It depends – how much you exercise, sweat, what else you eat and drink through the day. But why is it so important? If drinking water is so important then why do we all know someone who barely drinks any and seems to still be alive?? Fundamentally it’s the difference between surviving and thriving.

Here’s a dozen reasons to start a love affair with the humble glass of water.

1) Eliminate headaches as well as other pains in the body. Many headaches can be caused by dehydration and so can be reduced by a simple glass of water.

2) Water is vital for the transportation of nutrients to cells and waste products away from cells. Drinking enough water will benefit every mechanism and every organ in the body.

3) As an essential part of the mechanism for flushing toxins out of the body, water in-take can help reduce inflammation and reduce nerve pain.

4) Lubrication and protection of joints is maintained by sufficient water in the system.

5) Did you know that hydration plays a major part in maintaining body temperature? So if you get to hot or too cold then you may find that drinking enough water as a regular routine could help.

6) The subconscious trigger for being thirsty can often be confused with being hungry, causing you to overeat when actually your body is just needing a glass of water. You could prevent overeating by having a glass of water prior to a meal to make sure that the body’s hydration is sated first.

7) Being well hydrated is directly linked to having efficient metabolism and drinking plenty of water every day can help to increase the rate at which you burn calories and maintain energy supplies.

8) Keep your skin looking fresh, hydrate dry skin, and reduce blemishes by increasing the removal of toxins as they can flush through a well hydrated body more easily.

9) Your kidneys filter about 200 litres of fluid EVERY day! drinking enough water will help this process occur to it’s full capacity and could prevent any problems occurring such as infections or kidney stones.

10) Your large intestine is the last place that water is drawn into your body and so if you’re dehydrated then you may end up with very uncomfortable hard, dry poo. Enough water and fibre = joyful poos! And we all love a joyful poo!

11) Water is essential for optimal brain function. You can easily prevent the effects of dehydration such as tiredness, brain fog, headaches, fatigue, confusion, sadness, and irritability. Where drinking coffee can give you a perk up in the short term, it will also have dehydrating effects on the body and will cause tiredness in the longer term. You might find that having some water first thing in the morning before your coffee will be more beneficial for your concentration through the day. Which leads us to our final tip:

 12) A tip from my fellow Kinesiologist, Simon Webb: A couple of warm cups of water first thing in the morning can help to cleanse your system by keeping your over-night waste removal and mineral balancing processes flushing through efficiently. Ideally, have 2 cups of water that is warmer than body temperature but not too hot to drink comfortably, and let it be the first thing that you have in the morning.

 If you can, aim to drink around 2 litres of water each day. Use a bottle or jug so that you can measure the volume and know how many bottles or jugs you need to get through your daily quota. Try not to drink more than a pint in any one hour. Really hate drinking water?? Try adding some cucumber, mint leaves or other herbs or have hot water with lemon or fresh ginger. Or try adding a tiny pinch of rock or sea salt. Note that carbonated water can be useful to get water in, it can also play a role in leaching minerals from the body so not ideal for all your water intake.