My Dear Readers,
Greetings from Maverick!
‘Chew your water, drink your food’ is an old zen saying that emphasises the need for everybody to keep sipping water right through the day.
Understanding our body’s need for water, some make it a mechanical exercise every morning to drink two litres of water hoping to complete the ordeal. That is no way to keep your body hydrated! For water to be useful to the body, it needs to mix with your saliva. Hence the saying ‘chew your water’ – roll water in your mouth like your were chewing and then swallow.
The second part of the statement is to remind us to chew our solid foods long enough to liquify. Try to chew the food in your mouth a minimum of 30 times before you swallow. People who follow this uniformly come up with the following two discoveries – when you chew 30 times, you no longer need to swallow for nothing remains in the mouth. Secondly and most importantly, when you chew so much the nutrients in the food become readily available. Also the act of chewing sends a signal to the brain that you are eating.
Both these results in your needing much lesser quantities of food. Many a time people have come to show me their half full plate with a grin – ‘I feel satisfied with much less!’. So ‘drink your food’!
Your body needs a lot of water. There are about a hundred trillion chemical reactions that are happening in our body every second and each of these need water. Water is crucial for movement of fluids across your body and for elimination. Keep hydrating your body with water right through the day. If you have not been having adequate water until now, you may find that you need to visit the loo too often with the increased water. Adding a pinch of rock salt or sea salt to your drinking water provides better absorption.
Ensure you use a good filtration system. Store your water in a cool place. It is best to drink water at room temperature.
If you are not giving your body adequate water, you are forcing it to recirculate toxic waste water. Trying to squeeze every last bit of water leads to constipation. The potty train has to be on time – everyday!!! Else you are causing enormous stress to your body’s other operations.
Thirst is the very last signal from the body when it is dehydrated. Don’t wait to feel thirsty to take a sip of water.
On a thumb rule we say drink your body weight in kilos multiplied by .033 litres of water. So if you weigh 70 kgs you need a minimum of 2.3 litres of water every day.
Water is considered to be the most common solvent on earth. A solvent is a liquid capable of dissolving other substances. The substances that are dissolved in the solvent is called the solute. Most of our clinical testing for parameters with regard to health of the human body has been in relation to the solutes – the salt, oxygen, sugars and mineral compounds like calcium and potassium. Measuring the various substances that are dissolved in our blood, urine, saliva, sweat etc, was our way of standardising the human body. The solvent, water in this case as 70 to 90% of the human body is made up of water, was considered as a mere space filler, a means of transport with no other functional need.
However, today research has revealed that all these solutes are able to travel around the body and contribute to the health of the individual only because they are dissolved in water. Most of modern day diseases are attributed to the chronic dehydration of the body !
Let us see an everyday scenario. We know that trying to make dough with inadequate water will not make your bread rise or your chappati soft. The right measure of water becomes crucial for cooking! Inside the body, similarly, the right amount of water to dissolve and transport each of these very important solutes becomes imperative. Indigestion or dyspepsia where there is a recurrent pain in the abdomen or feeling of fullness, bloating, belching, heartburn, gastritis are all a very important signal of dehydration in the body. They need to be treated with water – not medicine!
Forget laughter and walking, Water is the best medicine!
Yours in wellbeing
Gita Krishna Raj
