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Do We Need Less Water?

RawsikiRawsiki Raw Newbie

Everyone knows about the daily requirement of water intake is 8-10 cups a day. And anyone who has tried this knows that it is almost impossible!!

I have actually been drinking 9 cups of water a day and the only way I have been able to do this is by constantly being glued to a water bottle and forcing myself to drink, often not being able to swallow immediately since I am not thirsty. I also pour water into my meals (which is ridiculous, but the only way to get 8 cups a day). I will eat peas with water, broccoli with water, rice with water…everything. I feel that something is wrong here. 8-10 cups just CAN’T be right for everyone and certainly forcing myself to drink seems wrong, especially since my body is not telling me to drink out of thirst.

So, my questions are: Does pouring water in food and eating it still count as part of the 8-10 cups of water that is required (or is it an exception since it is digested with food)? Do we need less water on this diet because of the fruits and vegetables? And how much water do you drink?

Honestly, I can’t do this anymore. I feel like drinking water has taken over my life. Someone help please!!!

Comments

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    The 8-10 cups rule is a general rule for the average person. More appropriate is half your body weight in ounces, but that is based on the average person’s diet, which is mostly cooked and therefore not rich in liquids. If you are eating 100% raw with lots of fresh fruit & veggies, they have a lot of liquid in them, so you may only need half that amount of water (so only around 1/4 of your body weight in ounces of water). If you eat a lot of dehydrated foods, exercise, spend time in the heat, etc. of course you will need more, but forcing yourself to drink because someone said you should doesn’t sound like a good idea. I generally drink less water the more fresh, juicy foods I am eating, and more water when I eat more dehydrated foods. If you really need water and it doesn’t taste good, try putting some lemon in it for flavor.

  • i heard somewhere to try to get half your body weight in ounces.. like if you weigh 130 pounds you need 65 ounces of water.. but i often wonder if the water in fruit and veggies count at least a little.. i dont know.. but if you make an effort to drink plenty of water each day, you are already doing better than a lot of people..

  • omshantiomshanti Raw Newbie

    heres a question, i drink alot of water, two to three liters a day in the hot months, but my skin looks dried out sometimes…if i eat high fat for a few days my skin starts to look good again, could i be drying out my skin with to much water?;0/

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    omshanti – Water drying out your skin haha! :D I get the same thing. Sometimes my hands especially seem dry (even when I drink 3 or 4 liters of water a day), and avocados, flax, etc. are what fix it.

  • suryadayasuryadaya Raw Newbie

    You get a lot of water from your diet. The average diet of a non-raw person contains about 3-4 cups of water, and your body’s metabolic system creates about 1.5 cups of water also. If you are eating raw, you’re likely getting a lot more than that. Its still important to get a lot of water, but if you don’t feel that you need a full 10 cups a day, cut it down. I find that drinking a big glass of water as soon as I wake up takes care of 1-2 cups of my daily requirement. Then I have a few juices which is equal to 3-4 cups during the day, and another big glass of water before dinner, maybe a cup or so before bed. Thats a lot of water but it really doesn’t feel like it when I space it out. haha.

  • suryadayasuryadaya Raw Newbie

    Omshanti – I realized the same thing now that I’m working in the desert! My face especially seems to get extremely dry, and my lips. I agree with angie – flax seed and avocado. I just recently figured out that taking flax seed pills or adding it to my smoothies, and eating fatty avocados really balances out my skin. I think I’ll try having coconut oil in the morning too! Maybe add it to something. I think its the same principle as showering too much drying out your skin. You have a lot of water and you wash away all the oils. :) Thats my theory and I’m sticking to it.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    suryadaya – nice theory :)

  • I think we need to ignore what these so called “health experts” are telling us. The ones telling us how much water we need to drink are the same ones telling us we cannot be healthy unless we eat dairy, meat and grains. The food pyramid is also ridiculous. I think you should drink water whenever you’re thirsty. If you eat watermelon, pears, celery, etc… you barely need any water in your diet. But everyone’s bodys are different. If you exercise a lot you will definitely need more water than someone who doesn’t. If you live where the weather is hotter, you will also need more water. Just listen to what your body is telling you, and I bet that every day you will drink different abouts of water just based on the different foods you eat, weather, and physical activity.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    The “half your body weight in ounces” comes from my holistic health care person, but is still for average people, and she uses muscle response testing to give people specific recommendations tailored for them. That’s how I used to figure it out, before I ate raw and learned to listen to my body. Either way, it shows that people are different.

  • suzyqsuzyq Raw Newbie

    I just came across this in the NYT today and thought of this thread:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/health/resear…

    Looks like even the “health experts” are coming around. Drink when you’re thirsty! Don’t worry about meeting some arbitrary water intake goal :)

  • We definitely need to drink less water on a raw diet, unless we consume heaps of dehydrated foods.

    A good indicator of the fluid status of your body is to check the colour of your pee against the toilet bowl.

    If it’s pale yellow, your body has adequate water. If it’s dull and dark, you need to drink more, and/or consume more juicy fresh fruits.

    As gross as it sounds, learning to check the colour of your urine is one of those key health indicators which will help you successfully monitor your overall health. :)

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Yay! It’s nice to hear that “experts” are becoming more wise. :)

  • Hello there,

    I found that when I started eating a fruit based diet I was very rarely thirsty and needed a lot less water. Fresh fruit and veggies have a lot of water in them and it makes sense that raw fooders would require a lot less water than cooked fooders.

    If you are eating a lot of dehydrated food though, you might still need more water.

    Blessings,

    Audrey 

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    I probably drink at least 20 glasses a day. my mouth is constantly dry due to this damn medicine i am on. gotta get off of it soon. if i don’t drink enough i can barely speak.

  • Take it from an old git like me, you’ve nothing to worry about, i’ve been 6yrs raw and 5yrs dry, i pee just like anybody else. People say, still not drinking jack, and i tell em no, i get the purest drink in the world, pure living nectar, i say, filtered by roots, vivified by the sun, and stored in solar batteries called fruit. Bottled water is polluted with biphenols, tapwater, even rainwater contain pollutants, only fit for washing purposes. Forget water, eat juice. cheerio for now

  • germin8germin8 Raw Master

    The water is in raw foods (undehydrated). I would agree you need half your weight in ounces.

    I drank 64 oz of water a day for years… and recently cut back. I notice a difference. Water also helps ‘flush’ you… but, I guess in a raw diet with foods containing liquids you wouldn’t need as much.

    And, I agree with color… it should be clear by noon.

  • have_merseyhave_mersey Raw Newbie

    Like Suryadaya said drinking a large glass in the morning gets some out of the way. And if you make smoothies you generally add water to that and it counts. Although fruits and vegetables do have water, I still don’t think going “dry” is good, especially with all our modern air pollution etc, we NEED something to wash us out, not just move the food. I do think we can cut down our consumption eating raw, but not completely. I always looked at the 8 glasses as what you need to survive and get by. 10 to be healthy. We get MOST of it from vegetables, but I still drink several glasses a day. Depending on what all you eat you could easily cut down to 3 or 4. I think safer is always better than sorry. I also just LIKE water, and I know it isn’t healthy, but I am a guzzler. So I think I still get my 8 in. Oh, and watermelon, although full of water isn’t actually a good source of your moisture because it is diuretic and actually makes you urinate. But yeah, don’t worry over it. Drink when you feel like it. Keep in mind chia, flax and certain fruits and vegetables actually absorb more water and expand. They would be sucking water from you if you don’t drink something.

  • RawsikiRawsiki Raw Newbie

    Okay, I feel so much better after reading everyone’s answers. I have actually calculated that I need about 6 cups of water, according to the half-your-weight rule. So I have cut back and feel much better. I actually am not glued to my water bottle anymore. The strange thing is, all the symptoms that I had when I drank 8 cups of water-clear urine, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night-are still there! For some reason, I will wake up every night and feel like my bladder is going to burst, even though I am drinking 2 cups less. Does this mean I am still drinking too much?

  • suzyqsuzyq Raw Newbie

    Waking up during the night could have more to do with when you stop drinking water than how much you’re drinking. Give yourself an hour or two to process your last cup of water before you go to bed!

  • have_merseyhave_mersey Raw Newbie

    It also may depend on how clean you are. I noticed I urinate more (and in the night alot) when my body is getting rid of extra toxins.

  • I love water and lots of it, but I have noticed that when I eat some kind of cooked food I just feel so dehydrated like all the water in my body is gone. I never felt like that before going raw but I find it interesting.

  • I drink one litre (or close to) all at once in the morn. and one litre at once after work. I do not have a job that allows me access to a bathroom all day so this way My body gets rid of it all at once as welldone.

  • Hi Rawsiki, You could have a bowel infection like candida, its easy to check, just spit into a glass of water, if strings of spittle develop underneath you’ve got it, D-Mannose is the natural cure, stops adhesian of bacteria to the urinary tract and bladder, its naturaly available in cranberry, raspberry and blueberries, eat a small amount three or four times daily. cheerio for now

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    The food and water intake “rules” are basically for cooked food people. If you are on a raw lifestyle you have a different kind of rules. If you drink green juices,smoothies,eat salad,fruits you have pleanty of water already,you don’t have to drink the” 8 cups daily”.This is for cooked food people. Greens have pleanty of water in it.

  • CarmentinaCarmentina Raw Newbie

    I hate getting up to pee at night, so I always stop drinking anything after 9pm. I don’t believe in hard fast rules, but thirst is a good indicator of when to drink. I don’t think drinking it all at once is good either – I’ve read that if you drink more than 2/3 cups at a time, it just goes through your system without actually “watering” and “cleasing” it. Who knows?

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