Why drink so much water?

LOST BENEFITS OF TAP WATER
Water fluoridation is endorsed by nearly every major health and safety-related organization in the world. Communities make it a common practice to "fluoridate" their drinking supplies in order for the general population to benefit from this inexpensive and effective preventative treatment. According to the American Dental Association, more than 144 million U.S. residents in more than 10,000 communities drink fluoridated water, most rom public water supplies with sodium fluoride added artificially.

Available studies indicate most bottled water contains fluoride at a level below 0.3 parts per million. Can the consistent use of bottled water result in individuals missing the benefits of optimally fluoridated water? Can home water treatment systems (e.g., water filters) affect optimally fluoridated water supplies? The answer is yes to both. The optimal level of fluoride recommended by the ADA is 0.7-1.2 parts per million (the levels are the same when reported in milligrams of fluoride per liter of water). Majority of bottled water on the market do not contain optimal levels of fluoride. And, some types of home water treatment systems can reduce the fluoride levels in water supplies potentially decreasing the decay-preventive effects of optimally fluoridated water.

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I believe that water is the most healthiest form of liquid. There are drinks that are healthy, but water is the best. This is because it is such an important part of our bodies. Humans were created because of water, and our bodies function normally in watery environments. Since this is a dental website, I want to point out that sodas and other drinks contain sugar and drinking sugar can harm your teeth. For instance, if someone has a cavity and he/she takes in some sugar, his/her teeth will begin to feel pain when the sugar by accidently gets inside the teeth. Sugar also nourishes bacteria, which causes plaque to build up. Sugar in soft drinks also come with other harmful products that makes the tooth enamel to deteriorate. Frequent consumption of soft drinks can also cause the tooth enamel to deteriorate because they contain acids. Therefore, water is important to us, and we should drink so much water so that we don't need sugary drinks to quench our thirsts.

Folks, I always thought that drinking a lot of water was a health benefit. A recent study seems to indicate otherwise. Please see below. Any comments? Thanks, Frank How much water do we really need to guzzle? Press Trust of India Washington, August 20 "Drink at least eight glasses of water a day" is an adage some obsessively follow, judging by the people sipping on water bottles at every street corner - but the need for so much water may be a myth. Fear that once you're thirsty you're already dehydrated? For many of us, another myth. Caffeinated drinks don't count because they dehydrate? Probably wrong, too. So says a scientist who undertook an exhaustive hunt for evidence backing all this water advice and came up mostly, well, dry. Now the group that sets the nation's nutrition standards is studying the issue, too, to see if it's time to declare a daily fluid level needed for good health - and how much leaves you waterlogged. Until then, "obey your thirst" is good advice, says Dr Heinz Valtin, professor emeritus at Dartmouth Medical School, whose review of the eight-glass theory appears in this month's American Journal of Physiology. It's about time for all the attention, says Pennsylvania State University nutritionist Barbara Rolls, a well-known expert on thirst. "There's so much confusion out there." "There's this conception it can only come out of a bottle," and that's wrong, notes Paula Trumbo of the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board, which hopes to decide by March whether to issue the first official water-intake recommendation. In fact, people absorb much water from the food they eat. Fruits and vegetables are 80 to 95 per cent water; meats contain a fair amount; even dry bread and cheese are about 35 per cent water, says Rolls. And many of us drink when we don't really need to, spurred by marketing, salty foods and dry environments, Rolls says. "For most of us, that's not going to matter - you're just going to need to go to the bathroom more," she says. But for people with certain medical conditions, chugging too much can be harmful, sometimes fatal, Valtin warns. Even healthy people - such as teenagers taking the party drug Ecstasy, which induces abnormal thirst - can occasionally drink too much. So-called water intoxication dilutes sodium in the blood until the body can't function properly. Conversely, no one disputes that getting enough water is crucial. Indeed, the elderly often have a diminished sensation of thirst and can become dangerously dehydrated without realising it. People with kidney stones, for example, require lots of water, as does anyone doing strenuous exercise. But the question remains: How much water does the typical, mostly sedentary person truly need? And what's the origin of the theory, heavily promoted by water sellers and various nutrition groups, that the magic number is at least 64 ounces? Valtin, who has spent 40 years researching how the body maintains a healthy fluid balance, determined the advice probably stems from muddled interpretation of a 1945 Food and Nutrition Board report. That report said the body needs about one milliliter of water for each calorie consumed - almost eight cups for a typical 2,000-calorie diet, but that "most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.