Day 16 of my top 30 for 30: The Many Ways you can Hydrate
You’ve likely heard people say that we need 8 cups of water per day for good hydration (or something similar). The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine has set guidelines, known as the daily “adequate intakes,” or AIs, for water consumption. These AIs are for people living in temperate climates, and do not take into account exercise, perspiration, sodium intake, humidity, etc., all of which may alter the amount of water needed to be “adequately hydrated.” Nevertheless, the AIs do give us reasonable guidelines.
The water AI for women is 2.7 liters (91 oz. or 11.4 8-oz. glasses) and for men is 3.7 liters (125 oz. or 15.6 8-oz. glasses). The recommendations take into account not only what we consume from drinking water directly, but also from beverages and food.
As we know, a raw food diet or raw food-focused diet is generally a high-water content diet, so what do these recommendations mean for a person eating a lot of high-water content foods? To get a clearer picture, I created some menu plans for various raw food approaches – the water content in them ranged from around 1.9 liters to more than 3.5 liters per day for 2,000 calorie menu plans. The more nuts, seeds, and dehydrated foods on these menus, the less water they contained.
For comparison, we also evaluated a sample standard western menu and found 1.5 liters of water for almost 3,000 calories. For a 2,000 calorie menu plan, the water content would be even lower.
The bottom line is that generally the greater the content of fruits and vegetables (and their juices) in one’s diet, the higher the water content. As we can see here, a diet based on fruits and vegetables can make a significant contribution to one’s daily water needs.
If you are interested in evaluating your own diet or doing your own set of comparisons, an online nutrient analysis program can be helpful – many of our students like Cronometer. Full transparency – we do not receive any remuneration from Cronometer. If you have any similar suggestions, please feel free to let us know which one you like!
What is the water content of your food?