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This Is How Much Water You Should Really Be Drinking
Water is the number one healthiest beverage to drink.
That is the (perhaps unsurprising) finding from The Beverage Guidance Panel, a group of five of the world’s foremost nutrition experts.
The panel did extensive research on the health benefits and costs of each beverage, and ranked them on a six-tier scale from best to worst.
Water emerged as the clear winner.
But how much water should we drink?
You have undoubtedly heard the popular recommendation to drink eight glasses of water a day, but that guidance is based on little scientific evidence. The eight-glasses-a-day prescription traces back to a 1921 paper, based on just one person’s urine and sweat analysis.
So what are more broadly-applicable guidelines for water intake?
After reviewing all of the best evidence to date, authorities from Europe, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, and the World Health Organization recommend 8–11 cups of water per day for women and 10–15 cups a day for men.
However, this guidance includes water from all sources, including food and water produced naturally by the body. Those sources account for about 4 cups of water per day, and therefore the daily recommended water…
