Water
Hot water stimulates hunger, aids digestion, soothes throat, cleanses urinary bladder and relieves aggravation of Vata and Kapha doshas. It helps the body get rid of accumulated, undigested food and can soothe pain in the hips and back. Adding cumin, coriander, sandalwood, mint, honey or ginger to water helps with detoxification, metabolism and weight loss.
How Much Water Should I Drink?
For years, most of us have heard the suggestion that the best way to consume water is drink “8 cups of water a day.” Unfortunately it isn’t really that simple. In fact, each of us has a unique constitution and lifestyle that actually has different requirements to stay hydrated. The amount of re-hydration we need on a given day is directly related to how much hydration we have lost through the loss of bodily fluids.
When we eat, we need to sip just enough fluid with our meal to make our food somewhat liquid. In addition, if we can’t digest our water it doesn’t matter how much we drink, we never really get hydrated. It may seem strange to think that we have to digest our water but, just like anything that we swallow, water has to be digested and transformed into a suitable fluid for our body’s nutritional needs. We have probably all had the experience of feeling bloated and overly full after drinking water—this is a sign that it is not being properly transformed.And that is actually the most important factor. Our body is not like a sponge. Our bodily tissues don’t just immediately soak up the water we drink and suddenlyĺ
Best Way To Consume Water
Hot water stimulates hunger, aids digestion, soothes throat, cleanses urinary bladder and relieves aggravation of Vata and Kapha doshas. It helps the body get rid of accumulated, undigested food and can soothe pain in the hips and back. Adding cumin, coriander, sandalwood, mint, honey or ginger to water helps with detoxification, metabolism and weight loss.
How Much Water Should I Drink?
For years, most of us have heard the suggestion that the best way to consume water is drink “8 cups of water a day.” Unfortunately it isn’t really that simple. In fact, each of us has a unique constitution and lifestyle that actually has different requirements to stay hydrated. The amount of re-hydration we need on a given day is directly related to how much hydration we have lost through the loss of bodily fluids.
When we eat, we need to sip just enough fluid with our meal to make our food somewhat liquid. In addition, if we can’t digest our water it doesn’t matter how much we drink, we never really get hydrated. It may seem strange to think that we have to digest our water but, just like anything that we swallow, water has to be digested and transformed into a suitable fluid for our body’s nutritional needs. We have probably all had the experience of feeling bloated and overly full after drinking water—this is a sign that it is not being properly transformed.And that is actually the most important factor. Our body is not like a sponge. Our bodily tissues don’t just immediately soak up the water we drink and suddenly become hydrated. If we drink too much water, just as when we eat too much food, we can dampen our digestive fire. Drinking too little water can also weaken our digestion.
The simplest way to know how much water we should drink is to drink when we are thirsty. Modern nutritionists say this is probably too late, as we are already overly dehydrated by this point—but this may be because most of us have lost touch with the subtle signs of our thirst. It may take some time to redevelop that sensitivity.
In general, all of us will tend to need to drink more water from the middle of summer through the autumn and less from mid-winter through the spring.