Why Water Rules!

This is an excerpt from the Sept/Oct 2004 issue of REMEDY magazine: WHY WATER RULES Water may not be very sexy. But it's vital to our health, so it most certainly deserves our respect. The general guideline is to guzzle eight 8-ounce glasses of liquid a day (about half a gallon), but your optimum intake depends on your size and activity level. Fitness experts suggest drinking a half-ounce of water per pound of body weight if you're sedentary, or two-thirds of an ounce per pound if you're active. What makes water so important? "It keeps your energy level up, helps digestion and elimination and make wrinkles less pronounced, " notes Tallmadge. Water cools the body through sweating, lubricates the joints and carries nutrients and oxygen to our cells- and waste away from them- through the blood. It even facilitates breathing, because our lungs must be moist to work properly. Drinking water also makes it easier to lose weight, because it not only helps fill you up but also helps promote fat metabolism. (The only thing I would change is the word "guzzle" in the first paragraph.) Tony G