Drinking enough water is essential for your health. Water improves your physical health, helping your organs are running properly, keeping your skin healthy and helping to feel alert and awake. It’s also good for your mental health too, improving concentration, which is very important for students.
Does The Water You Drink Matter?
Should you be drinking alkaline water? Is tap water okay to drink? Is Waiakea Water really from Hawaii? We all know we should be drinking more water, but it’s confusing to know whether we can just drink any water, or if we should be choosier.
Drinking any water is better than no water, so don’t worry too much about what you drink. Even tap water is perfectly fine to drink. Spring water, mineral water, alkaline water and other trends in bottled water are all good too, but nutritionists generally agree that which water you choose is really down to personal preference.
How Do You Know If You’ve Drunk Enough?
There are a few signs of dehydration that you can look out for. If you’re dehydrated, your mouth won’t produce enough saliva, which causes bacteria to build up on your tongue and give your bad breath. You’ll feel more fatigued and are more likely to experience frequent illness.
Water promotes good digestion, so if you’re not getting enough, you may experience constipation. Your skin will suffer from dehydration too, looking duller and drier. You may even experience more skin issues like acne.
Some people find not getting enough water gives them sugar cravings, due to the body’s lack of ability to use it’s stores of glucose. You’ll urinate less often too, and your urine will appear darker and cloudier, and may smell stronger.
How Can You Drink More Water?
A lot of people struggle to drink plain water, as they don’t enjoy the taste. If it’s still water that you can’t get on with, try sparkling to see if that’s better. If it’s the taste, you can add slices of fruit or vegetables like cucumber to improve flavour. Some people only like their water really cold, so try adding ice, or keeping a jug of water in the fridge to see if that helps.
Keep a water bottle with you all the time so you can sipping at it during the day and up your water intake without much effort. Having the bottle with you is a good visual reminder to keep drinking too.
Drink a glass of water before you have a meal. This is an easy way to get in a few more glasses of water without having to make too much effort. Swapping other drinks, like fruit juice or coffee, is also a good way to make sure you’re drinking something that is actually hydrating you.
If you’re struggling, you could try putting water on a schedule, like drinking some water on the hour while you’re at your desk. This has the advantage of giving you a screen break too, as you can get up and go and get more water to get a break from work for a minute or two.
