With the return of summertime, water takes a particular importance for the wave of vacationers from everywhere, whether to dip into or to get soaked with.
In June 1875, French President Maréchal Patrice de Mac-Mahon was visiting the areas around the city of Toulouse where the waters of The Garonne River had been rising. Observing the importance of the flooding, the Maréchal burst into that phrase which still endures: “So much water! So much water!”
A different kind of flooding, though, is the multitude of water bottles popping from everywhere, a telling phenomenon of a society keenly aware of the need for good nutritional habits. That would be excellent, would it not, for once that humans seem to show some sensible behavior. Or is it?
We have all received much advice on the necessity for drinking enough water in order to stay healthy. What amount of the clear liquid? According to most common estimations, not less than eight glasses a day, which is the equivalent of two and a half liters. Not less. At that pace, is it any wonder water distribution companies thrive?
In 1945, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council did establish that adults should drink about two and a half liters of water every day. However, that institution also added that most of that liquid is already in the food in our daily diets.
A few years later, nutrition specialist Dr. Frederick Stare also stated that one needs to drink eight glasses of water every day but added that coffee, tea, milk, soda, or even beer, for that matter, would do just as well. Dr. Stare also pointed to the fact that fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of that beneficial water.
After much research as well as many interviews with nutritionists and colleagues, Dr Heinz Valtin – as Drs. Aaron E. Carroll and Rachel C. Vreeman report in their book “Don’t Swallow Your Gum!” — could not document any evidence supporting the theory according to which people must strictly drink eight glasses of water every single day.
There is more. In January 2007, as again, Drs. Carroll and Vreeman mention, a radio station in California organized a contest in which the goal was to drink as much water as possible, without visiting the restroom. That was certainly not a test of intelligence. Following that event, a female participant died from hyponatremia, a condition where excessive amount of water considerably diminishes sodium concentration in the blood. That physiological disorder causes a swelling of brain cells, which can lead to death. In fact, after leaving the station, the young woman had complained of a terrible headache.
So, yes absolutely, one can die for drinking too much water. And not just from drowning. Evidently, the idea is not to talk people into dehydration, but to stress the importance of adopting a correct balance – as in everything, indeed.
To be sure, it is certainly useful to restate the danger of dehydration. Actually, cases of fatality from dehydration are more common than the opposite phenomenon. Hence, all this discussion is about, is not to give in to excessiveness, one way or the other. In clear, drink but above all, I mean, really, do not get drowned in your water bottle.
Frantz P.
JOIN THE BOSTON FRENCH CONVERSATION MEETUP GROUP! YOU’LL LOVE IT!!
