Celebs and wellness blogs treat water like a magic elixir that will make us the most attractive and healthiest version of ourselves. But do these claims hold water? And how much do we really need to be drinking to stay healthy?
I listen to this curious and informative podcast Science Vs with fun host Wendy Zukerman (love her accent). The show is about takes on fads, trends, and opinions to find out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. Science Vs is a team of friendly fact checkers that blow up firmly held opinions and replace them with science.
In the episode about hydration, Wendy and a friend take on the challenge: The Gallon Challenge. One Gallon of Water. Every day. I thought it was the old 8 glasses a day rule[3]. What happened was interesting, but to keep this post short I'll share one fact I learned and I reference it in the workout video Strength HIIT E47 Keep Up The Tempo.
Food sits in your belly for a while – because it needs to get digested. But water? It just doesn't hang around the same way. It gets absorbed pretty fast.
Water is more rapid than anything because there's nothing for the stomach to go, like, 'Well, I got to break this down. Like, there's nothing to digest, really.' It's not like it just sits there for hours in your stomach.
For example, if you drink two glasses of water - the majority will be out of your belly in 20 minutes. Solid food, takes several hours.
So - bottom line drinking water isn't some great weight loss drug… But curiously… - if you're trying to lose weight – some research has found that if the water instead of being in a glass beside your food – is actually in your food - that might help you lose weight.
The simple take home, add more 'foods high in water'. Google that phrase!
Here's the transcript of the Science vs podcast about hydration: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRqisJLEeSJP5XGaV-NhAIFdrReThfqb-0DLGBknKdNVdmMZk8jEGrknu5ypwPtsxihE-DV8xagGQsL/pub
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