How do you know you are drinking enough water?

75% of the body is made up of water. It helps lubricate joints and eyes, keeps skin healthy by eliminating toxins, helps weight loss and facilitates proper digestion. So how do we know we are drinking enough water?

Mild dehydration can lead to symptoms such as;

Thirst

Fatigue and brain fog

Dry skin and acne

Headaches

Constipation

Dizziness and light headedness

Muscle cramps

Infrequent, dark, strong smelling urine.

Chronic dehydration can affect various organs in the body and could lead to an increased risk of kidney stones, cholesterol problems, constipation, liver, joint and muscle damage.

So how much water should we be drinking? Well, 2-3 litres of water a day seems to be the general recommendation, however more may be required if you are working out heavily.

So, if we don't really like the taste of tap water then how do we drink that much water?

Try filtering your tap water, this removes fluorides, heavy metals and disinfection byproducts and can often improve the flavour.

Try improving the taste by adding;

Slices of lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit.

Fresh mint leaves (either to hot water for a mint tea or cold water and left to steep in the fridge)

Fresh chopped ginger (to hot water and leave to steep for 5 minutes, this could then be cooled for a refreshing cold drink)

Fresh strawberries

or blueberries crushed.

A little coconut water to add flavour

Try swapping coffee and tea which contain caffeine, which is a diuretic and leads to dehydration, for herbal teas like fruit teas, camomile, liquorice or mint teas.