Beyond
Walking

By Ronda Gates, MS

Ronda Gates, MS, is a pharmacy grad who traded her white coat for a pair of athletic shoes and never looked back. Her health promotion business, LIFESTYLES, provides motivational speaking, program development, and fitness assessment services to support people making a lifestyle change. She has developed health promotion programs for many organizations nationwide.
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An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

— Henry David
Thoreau

Water, Water, Everywhere!

We knows that water is good for us and that we should drink plenty of it even if we aren’t physically active. How much we need is the subject of much debate. You’ve probably read or been told that you need eight eight-ounce glasses of water a day. The origins of this recommendation came from a 1974 book published by a little-known nutritionist whose book had a major impact on our way of life. But this dictum has a catch. The amount of fluid we need every day varies. Moreover, our need for fluid replacement is satisfied not only from drinking water, but also from other fluids we consume and the foods we eat, especially during summer months when water-filled fresh fruits and vegetables beckon to us at our local farmer’s markets.

You may think that the amount of water we need changes with the seasons. That’s not so. Our body is about 60% water. Although our brain and lungs contain plenty of water, it’s the water in our blood that helps control our body temperature when we are physically active, whether we’re inside or outside. Physical activity, which makes the body warm, heightens this need. A rising body temperature triggers our sweat mechanism to keep the body cool. Sweat response varies from person to person, but typically in dry air, any sweat we produce can evaporate quickly, with the reverse occurring when it’s humid. We also lose body water as we exhale. If the water is not replaced, we may experience headache, dizziness, cramps, excessive fatigue, or heart palpitations. These are symptoms of dehydration.

Most folks believe thirst is the first sign of dehydration. This may be the attention-getting hint that you need to drink something, but once the thirst sensation hits, you are already dehydrated. Folks who rely on thirst to know when to drink water typically replace only one-half to two-thirds of what their body needs.

If you are active, whether it’s running errands, walking, playing tennis, hiking, or any of the many options summer life offers, drinking water should be your first choice to prevent dehydration. Sports medicine experts recommend drinking a cup of water before exercise and another one after. If you’re out for more than 20 to 30 minutes, the rule of thumb is to drink a cup of water every 20 to 30 minutes.

Beyond Water: Sports Drinks
When you’re sweating your way to a serious thirst, water may not be enough. In 1965, my husband and I accepted positions with the University of Florida. The buzz there was about a new drink formulated by university scientists: It was designed to provide the school’s “Gators” with the fluids and electrolytes they lost through the combination of physical activity and hot weather. The concoction was called Gatorade.

Since the advent of Gatorade, sports drinks have become the “in” thing with the sweat generation. They’re even being marketed to physically active children as a necessity after a soccer game or football practice. There is no doubt sports drinks are effective in combating dehydration. And, because they contain sugar, they have some nutritional value during long bouts of exercise or hard work. However, they are over-promoted and sold with a lot of promises that lead to their use by folks who don’t need them. The ads often also brag about the drink’s electrolytes — the minerals that regulate the water balance inside and outside body cells. Electrolytes are essential to survival, so it’s easy to be concerned that they could be sweated away during exercise. Since sweat is salty, it’s reasonable to believe you’re losing lots of electrolytes when you sweat. That’s not necessarily true. Unless you are engaging in a very intense workout that lasts longer than 90 minutes, water is just as effective at replacing your body fluids. Sport drinks are for fitness heroes who run marathons or take 50-mile bicycle rides.

Vitamin and Herbal Waters
America ’s interest in good health has resulted in a demand for more nutritious drinks. The marketplace has responded with a variety of vitamin-enriched waters. One example is Vitaminwater,® another is Smartwater,® the electrolyte-enhanced water endorsed by Jennifer Aniston; a third is Fruitwater,® a fruit-flavored water. Do you need them? No. The amount of nutrients, herbs, and flavors are so negligent they have no impact on your daily nutrition needs. If you want to be healthy, exercise and following a balanced and varied diet are still the best you can do for your body.

We now know that a human can live for up to a month without food, but no more than a week without water. If you want to be proactive about your health, support a healthy metabolism, regulate appetite, maintain moist skin, aid digestion, help prevent constipation, and maintain the high energy level active living deserves, then treasure your friendship with water at all costs.