What might be the greatest nutritional deficiency in America?

Do you ever have any of the following:

cravings?
fatigue?
anxiety?
muscle cramps?
headaches/migraines?
degradation in memory and ability to concentrate?
darker urine?
dry mouth?
thirst?

Did you know these are all early warning signs of dehydration?

I am not saying there aren’t other causes for these symptoms.

BUT have you considered when you’re experiencing on or more of these, the problem might be hydration?

Water is the most important nutrient in the body. And it’s the greatest nutrient deficiency among Americans.[1]

Typically, a person can go approximately eight weeks without food, but only days without water.

Our body’s mass is 55-60% water. In an average adult, that equates to 10-13 gallons.

You are probably sighing right now and sullenly saying, “I know. I should drink more water.”

BUT are you familiar with the essential roles it plays in the body?

Improves oxygen delivery to cells (We start breathing faster to keep up with the oxygen needs in the absence of appropriate hydration.)
Transports nutrients
Enables cellular hydration (Most of the volume of our cells and body fluid is water.)
Moistens oxygen for easier breathing
Cushions bones and joints
Absorbs shocks to joints and organs
Lubricates joints
Regulates body temperature
Removes wastes
Flushes toxins
Prevents tissues from sticking (When dehydrated, you get stiffer and have less flexibility.)
Improves cell-to-cell communications (Can you imagine what it would be like if your brain couldn’t tell your leg muscles to contract so you could walk? Or your bladder couldn’t tell your brain that you had to use the bathroom? Or you contracted an infection and your immune system didn’t get the signal to deal with it? Cells need to be able to communicate with each other to do these things.)
Maintains normal electrical properties of cells (Electrical signals are fundamental to nervous system function.)
Empowers the body’s natural healing process (In order to heal from injury, infection, or disease, you need good hydration.)

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What is the big deal about being dehydrated?

A drop of in the body’s water content of just 2%, can cause fatigue (we often do not feel thirsty till we have already reached this state)
A drop of 10% can cause significant health problems – digestive, cardiovascular, immune, and musculoskeletal.
And a drop of more than 10% can cause death.

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Water is not stored, necessitating daily water consumption for optimal health.

But how much water do you need?

Here is a reference guide from the Institute of Medicine of the National Acadamies[2]

Life Stage	Adequate Intake of water based on total beverages, including drinking water
Infants
7-12 months	20 ounces
Children
1-3 years	30 ounces
4-8 years	41 ounces
Males
9-13 years	61 ounces
14-18 years	88 ounces
19+ years	100 ounces
Females
9-13 years	54 ounces
14-18 years	60 ounces
19+ years	74 ounces
Pregnancy/Lactation
14-50 years	77 ounces

But you also need to consider bioindividuality:

Activity level (Physical activity and heat strain require greater water intake.)
Processed food and sugar consumption and diet in general**
Diuretic beverage intake ***
Urine color
Environmental conditions
Elevation (Higher altitude and cold require greater water intake.)
Chronic and acute disease
Pregnancy and lactation

** This is a huge factor in my opinion. Processed, packaged foods are dehydrating. If we weren’t eating them and instead were eating an ancestral diet, there likely would be no need to talk about staying hydrated.

Why? Because we’d naturally be getting sufficient water and minerals from all the fresh fruits and vegetables and meat stocks and nutrient dense foods and beverages we’d be consuming. We’d be nourishing our body instead of depleting it.

This is food for thought for you to ponder as you look at how staying hydrated can improve your health. And how changing your diet, not just your water intake, can improve your hydration.

*** Diuretics (such as coffee, tea, including some herbal teas, juices, and alcohol) slow the reabsorption of water by the kidneys. Water that should be moving back into the bloodstream is excreted instead. Thus, consuming diuretic beverages can increase the amount of water you need to drink.

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Water depends on electrolytes for proper absorption.

Electrolytes are minerals that become capable of conducting electricity when dissolved in water. They can be obtained through good quality sea salts, bone broth (high in electrolytic minerals, which are easily absorbed by the body) and other mineral rich foods, and homemade electrolyte solutions, as noted below.

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Problems resulting from prolonged or chronic dehydration):

Heartburn – digestion cannot occur without water (This does not mean drinking a lot of water during a meal as doing so can dilute your digestive juices, rather maintaining proper cellular fluids.)
Joint pain (Our joints need fluids. As they dry out, we start to experience pain.)
Back Pain (Discs in the back are cartilages which require fluid, just like our joints.)
Constipation
Colitis
Exercise Asthma

Note: Stress is dehydrating. So, working to reduce stress levels will help mitigate the consequences of dehydration just noted.

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We are entering the hotter part of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere. This is an excellent time to give thought and action to keeping hydrated.

Can you imagine having more energy, reduced cravings, and better cognitive function simply by drinking more water?

Or overcoming exercise induced asthma as Allison M. relates: “I developed exercise induced asthma when enrolled in a breakdancing class. It was the highest intensity exercise I’d ever done. I’d come home and find myself coughing or wheezing for half an hour to an hour after every class. I went to the student health center and they prescribed an inhaler. I took this inhaler with me whenever I exercised. It wasn’t until I took a nutrition course years later, that I started drinking more water. And the asthma just went away. I never had it again. I could do high intensity exercise with no coughing or wheezing. I find it miraculous that just that small change, saved me a lifetime of inhaler use.”

Now you may be saying, “I don’t like water.”

Consider adding any of the following to your water to make it more pleasant and appealing:

Sliced lemon
Sliced cucumber
Sliced fruit or whole berries
Fresh ginger
Fresh herbs: mint, oregano, whatever is seasonally available that you want to try

To get your electrolytes, you can simply add a pinch of high-quality mineral salt[3]

When needing more intense rehydration or energy, try these cost-saving homemade energy drinks. No more Gatorade, no more blue, red or yellow dyes.

- - 1:1 coconut water and filtered or spring water, with lemon and a pinch of mineral salt
  - Add 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup to 20oz water bottle and a pinch of mineral salt. You can also add a squeeze a little lemon for flavor. “As a triathlete it’s my go-to hydration.” Amy K.
  - Switchel (an old fashioned sweet-sour-spice drink made from ginger, a splash of apple cider vinegar and optionally something sweet like molasses, maple syrup, or honey) – This easy to make home brew provides additional digestion and cold season benefits. Click here for the Switchel Recipe.
  - Solé (water that’s been fully saturated with a natural, mineral salt) – There are both anecdotal and scientific evidence that it aids in hydration, detoxification, energy, digestion, blood sugar, bone health, veins, blood pressure, muscle cramps, weight loss, healthy veins, and hair, skin and nails.[4] Click here for the Solé Recipe.
  - Cell Salt Sports Drink Dr. Schuessler (1821-1898) discovered that the body consists of 12 mineral salts, called Cell Salts or Tissue Salts. These salts regulate the nutrient supply in cells and stimulate the body’s self-healing mechanism. This easy to make electrolyte drink is a great way to start using them. Click here for the Cell Salt Sports Drink Recipe.
  - Homemade sauerkraut or pickle brine

One more tip:

And one important reminder:

Enjoy and stay refreshed!

Peace and grace,
Karen

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[1] F. Batmanghelidj, MD, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, Global Health Solutions, Inc., November 1, 2008

[2] https://www.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fnic_uploads/water_full_report.pdf

[3] “The most common forms of mineral salts, in nutrient dense order, are Celtic Gray Salt, also known as Celtic Sea Salt, Baja Gold Salt, Redmond’s Real Salt and Himalayan Pink Salt.” (GAPS, Stage by Stage, With Recipes by Becky Plotner). Getting a variety is good too.

[4] https://wellnessmama.com/health/make-sole/