Thirst: What Your Body Wants to Tell You about Hydration
14-20th June 2021 is Nutrition & Hydration Week, the aim of which is to highlight and educate people on the value of food and drink in maintaining health and wellbeing.
Drink more water is one of the big messages. Most of us have heard it said often enough - and it sounds so simple. But, like most health advice, it has potential to land very differently at a personal level, and depending on your relationship with food and your body. For some people, the standard hydration guidance can become another daily wellness target to hit or to fail at.
So this blog is my ‘gentle’ take on hydration guidance and some ways to help you keep on top of it, without feeling obsessed with targets:
1. Let your body lead
Water is the medium in which a lot of what happens in the human body takes place. It helps transports nutrients, cushions joints, regulates temperature through sweat, and our hydration levels have a significant impact on our energy, concentration, digestion and mood.
Our thirst also happens to be one of the simplest places to practise listening to your body.
Official guidance suggests around 1.5 to 2 litres of fluid a day is the ideal target intake for most adults. However, the reality is individual needs vary from person to person and day to day depending on many factors including activity levels, the weather, body size, health conditions and what you have eaten. Also, roughly a litre of that fluid will naturally come from food rather than drinks, which is one reason why the familiar eight-glasses a day figure has always been a blunt instrument.
So rather feeling beholden to numbers that may not work for you, your thirst and the colour of your urine are your most reliable hydration guides. Dark urine like apple juice means it is time to drink. Straw-coloured suggests you are about right. Very pale or clear means you are already well topped up.
Paying attention to your thirst signal is is body awareness (known as interoception) in action, and responding to the signal is self-care in action.
Interestingly, many people who have spent years overriding hunger and fullness cues because they’ve followed diet plans or been engaged in restrictive eating, find that listening and responding to thirst can be a surprisingly useful place to start rebuilding that body trust, because it carries far less emotional charge than food.
2. Notice the stress connection
Even mild dehydration can affect concentration, energy and mood. So if the afternoon slump hits, a glass of water may be worth trying before another coffee.
That said, it is worth knowing that tea and coffee do count towards your fluid intake. The idea that caffeine meaningfully dehydrates you has not held up well in the research, at least at everyday intakes. Alcohol is a different story. It is genuinely dehydrating. So having a glass of water alongside each alcoholic drink you have is a kind thing to do for your body.
The stress-hydration link also works the other way. When life is busy and stressful, many people find that the basics including drinking enough fluids, can slip down the priority list. Clients often describe reaching the end of a demanding day and realising they have barely had a drink. This is why my next tip may be helpful:
3. Make your hydration habit easy and attractive
Behavioural science emphasises the role our environment can play in habit change. By making the things we want to do more of accessible and appealing, we increase our chance of following through.
This is why it is worth finding a glass or water bottle you actually like using and keeping it somewhere visible. Pairing habits can help too, for example pouring a glass of water each time you get up from your desk, or each time you put the kettle on. This ties the habit to something you already do, with no tracking required.
4. Eat your water
That litre of fluid from food I mentioned has to come from somewhere. Most fruits and vegetables are over 80 per cent water so meals that incorporate plenty of plants - soups, salads, vegetables with dinner, fruit through the day - will meaningfully contribute to your hydration levels.
5. Think ahead around heat and movement
As I have explained, thirst is a good guide most of the time. However, there are situations where it can help to get ahead of it.
One of these is when you know you are about to exercise. A glass of water half an hour beforehand may save you playing catch-up later and help keep energy levels steady.
Many people who exercise also ask about electrolytes. There is a lot of media hype and heavy marketing around supplementing these at the moment, yet most people do not need them for everyday activity and moderate exercise. The body regulates these minerals closely, and a balanced diet alongside adequate water provides the sodium, potassium and magnesium most people need.
Actively replacing electrolytes is really only necessary in specific situations: prolonged strenuous activity or endurance sport lasting longer than 60 to 90 minutes, particularly in hot or humid weather; excessive sweating; or recovery from severe vomiting or diarrhoea.
To replace fluid and electrolytes at the same time, unsweetened coconut water is one option, and so is water alongside a normal meal or snack. Either works perfectly well for most everyday situations.
A Final thought
Hydration is important, and it is true that many people would benefit from being more attuned to their need for fluids. But if meeting targets has started to feel anxious or preoccupying, or if drinking has become tangled up with food or body control in some way, that is worth being curious about too. It comes up more often than people realise, and it can soften with the right support.
Hydration is really important, and it’s true that many people could benefit from being more attuned to their need for fluids. But, if you feel anxious or obsessed about meeting targets or if drinking excessive amounts of water has become tangled up with food or body control in some way, this is worth being curious about too. This is something I see in clinic fairly frequently and it can be worked through with the right support.
Take a nourishing step forward today
If this resonated with you, you don't have to navigate this alone. I offer nutritional therapy and behaviour change support for binge eating disorder, emotional eating, disordered eating and yo-yo dieting patterns, and I'd love to help you find your way back to more ease and trust with food.
Explore my support options or book a confidential, no-obligation enquiry call to see if working together feels right.
