Water Water Everywhere..... BUT are you Drinking Enough?

Much of our planet’s surface is made up of water; it makes up our oceans, rivers, the great expanses of ice in North and South Polar Regions, and it also makes up most of us.

For humans, water is the essential medium we require for our physiological systems to function well. In this aquatic medium important metabolic processes occur. Its presence ensures the shape of the individual cells that make up our tissues is maintained, that our blood can flow and that our endocrine (hormonal) and immune systems function well.

It is also a medium by which we lose heat to the environment in evaporating sweat, and how we get rid of waste products excreted in urine.

So for humans the problem is that it must therefore be replaced constantly. Without adequate hydration our physiology at all levels (cells, organs, systems) will be placed under strain and we will struggle. Most of us will cope with this over short periods but being hypo-hydrated (under-hydrated) may be a factor in ill health should this be allowed to continue.

However, even when armed with this knowledge the advice on what to drink can be confusing; how much should we drink and when, is it enough or too much?

The internet is awash with pages of information. For example; a recent search on Google with the string “hydration advice” revealed 664,000 hits!

With our bodies being made up of almost two thirds water we must be constantly replenishing this with fluids that we drink and foods that we consume (did you know, depending on your diet up to 20% of your fluid requirements comes in the form of the foods you eat).  With this in mind what should we be drinking and how much?

This last question depends on many factors such as a person’s age, the weather and any activity undertaken. If its hot or you are sweating from exercise obviously you’ll need to replace more. However there are some good “Rules of Thumb” from European recommendations.

Women need about 1.6L per day and men about 2L in addition to fluid each of us get from our diet.

Does it really matter what we drink or can we make better choices? Water is clearly the choice most of us would go for; it can replenish the fluids lost without adding calories.  However, other choices include fruit and vegetable juices and smoothies. The advantages here are that they will contain some of the other micronutrients we require in the form of vitamins, minerals and depending on what you put in them various other plant substances from the fruit or vegetable.

The downside is that they contain calories and if made with fruit much of this can be sugar related. They may also be fairly acidic and this acidity along with the hidden sugars potentially affect the health of your teeth.  Our advice; drink water for your hydration and treat yourself to orange juice or similar whilst being very aware of any added sugars - if you can't juice your own fresh fruit, always read the label!

What about if we exercise, do we need to drink to a regime in anticipation of becoming dehydrated, or should we be drinking to thirst, in other words allowing ad libitum intake? Are there any issues with fluid related physiological stress?

Well the simple answer is yes. Without going into a long in depth scientific review (that has already been done by Cotter et al). The simple fact is that physiological, central nervous system and ultimately overall physical function can be acutely impaired by either drinking too little or by drinking too much in the acute setting.

Very often it is either lack of availability of both water (and salt) or behaviours that are inappropriate (like an obsession with drinking lots of water during exercise) that are problematic. Somehow we must get the balance right particularly so that over longer periods a state of chronic dehydration which has been implicated in the development of kidney stones and kidney disease is avoided.

There is evidence to show that being mildly dehydrated can alter perceptions of tiredness and fatigue, but this is in controlled work whereas under normal free living situations, the body’s stimulation of the very powerful driver thirst would be enough to mitigate against this.

Hydration is a subject that has experienced much argument and debate in the scientific communities around the world, especially when exercise is involved and a massive industry has risen up around it.

What do we advocate at The Strength Temple?

Firstly, under most scenarios of life where access to water is easy, drinking when thirsty is probably preferable.  In fact the old Zen maxim “Eat when hungry and drink when thirsty” would see us well in most of what we do. But this does mean that you need to have your drink with you so you can consume it when you need it. Therefore get into a habit of having a bottle with you.

Nalgene Wide Mouth Bottle - Blue, 1 Litre

£12.32

Bottles that are BPA free are preferable. This means that contaminants from the plastic aren’t going to leach into the fluid in your bottle and therefore end up in your system. I personally use bottles by the US manufacturer Nalgene, because they are virtually indestructible and perfect for chucking in my kit bag, in my rucksack and I even have one for the office and one for the car. Once you have one you can kept it topped up and take it with you everywhere. You can buy them from Amazon and we've included a link via the picture here if you'd like to order some.

The second thing to do is to decide what it is you want to drink. Water is preferable to something stuffed full of sugar and artificial flavourings, acidifiers, sweeteners, preservatives and stuff that makes it fizzy. When in nature or evolution did we adapt to consume this stuff? We haven’t, and therefore we are probably better off without it. That is not to say you can’t have these things on occasion. Just don’t have them all of the time!

What about whether it is tap or bottled water, or something that has been filtered? Well I guess that depends on whereabouts you live in the world and the quality of the water that is delivered to your tap. It probably isn’t harmful to drink tap water in most western countries but it probably could be improved. Certainly filtering tap water or using RO systems will remove many salt and other impurities but you could end up in a situation where you have to add minerals back into your water.

BRITA Marella XL Water Filter Jug, 3.5 L - Blue

£12.70

If you take me for example, I live in an area where the tap water is exceptionally hard. Therefore, as a family we use a filter before using water to drink, make up other drinks or to go in the kettle to make our tea.

Water can come from different sources, each with their own qualities. For example: water that is collected from rain may taste very different from water from a well. The difference can be the minerals dissolved in the well water or pollutants collected from air as it falls through the air. River and stream water collects specific qualities depending on its journey, if water falls from height or passes through rapids it may become enlivened, but it can also pick up impurities on its journey.

Water from lakes and big rivers will pick up impurities from farming and manufacturing processes. Water is cleaned and often recycled it contains bacteria and chemicals. Modern processing cleans the water but to what degree is debatable (and of course this depends where in the world you are too). Modern treatment works add other agents to act as disinfectants. The most widely used is chlorine which is pretty effective and in some parts of the world sodium fluoride is also added for dental decay prevention. Mostly this makes water safe for human consumption, but I suspect it could be made better and taste nicer, this is where my house hold jug water filter comes in.

I can taste the difference and not only that I can see it too, there is less of a visible layer on top of my tea made with filtered water compared to when I make it without. I got into a habit of topping up my BPA free bottle and taking it with me when I go out the door for work in the morning. It sits on my desk beside my PC acting both as a reminder to drink and also so it is readily available to drink the moment I feel thirsty.

Get a bottle and make hydration part of your healthy body maintenance routine, and don't forget to.......

#RespectYourTemple

Dr Dan Roiz de Sa

Spicy Coconut Rice with Poached Eggs

OK so it’s a real quick recipe today.  I’ve just knocked this up for breakfast and it was absolutely amazing.  I’m planning on doing a pretty intense workout this morning and needed some carbs to get me in the mood!

The rice base is an excellent ingredient to use in many dishes, so I've made a little extra here to save for later and have with some fish.

Ingredients:

2 sticks of Celery
1 large carrot
1 green pepper
1 baby leak
3 spring onions
1 large clove of garlic
coconut oil
4 eggs (2 per person)
wild rice (as much as you would cook for 2)
1 tin Coconut milk
1 teaspoon freshly ground chilli powder
Watercress
Freshly cooked beetroot
Salt, Pepper, Fish Sauce (optional)

Open your tin of coconut milk and pour into a saucepan.  Add your wild rice and start to simmer.  Whilst this is cooking….

Take your celery, carrots, green pepper, leak, spring onions and garlic and cut into very small cubes.  If you haven’t done this before it’s quickest if you cut them into strips them take the knife across them to get your cubes.

Heat some coconut oil in a large pan and gently sweat off the vegetables with the teaspoon of chilli powder.

By this time the rice will have been been cooking for about 10 minutes and will have reduced in volume a little as the rice absorbs the coconut milk.  Add this rice and milk mix to the vegetables and stir.  If you're using fish sauce, add about a table spoon at this time.  If not then season with salt as you usually would.

Leave this on the heat until the rice is cooked.  It’s a little bit like a risotto, but because I used wild rice, there is less starch so it’s not as sticky as you’d usually expect with a risotto.

When the rice is nearly ready (it will take about 20 minutes if using wild rice) get some water on the build and poach your eggs.

To serve place the rice on a plate and top with some fresh watercress.  Add the eggs in the middle and then place a quartered cooked beetroot around the edges.

Hey presto!  A delicious breakfast that will keep you going all morning.

Enjoy!

#respectyourtemple

Breath - are you going deep enough? Try this...

#Breath is one of the #7pillars of your Strength Temple.  Our guest contributor, Elizabeth McQuillan explains why.......

Few of us pay much mind to our breathing. Like walking or talking, we accept it as something that just happens, an incidental adjunct to getting on with life. However, each lungful of precious air has the capacity to help us heal, burn fat and energise the entire body.

Sadly, we just don’t do it very well. Without “trying”, simply consider your breathing. If you are like most folk you pull a shallow breath in that barely inflates your lungs. Now really try to breathe in, and notice what happens. If your shoulders have lifted towards your ears, and your chest moves upwards, then you are doing a good job of inflating the apex of your lungs. That leaves a big void of lung tissue redundant.

Years of breathing in this way, exacerbated by holding tension and stress in the neck and shoulder area, means the body is rationed in vital oxygen. It cannot possibly function to best ability. Without inhaling enough oxygen (O2), or exhaling enough carbon dioxide (CO2), problems can manifest in the form of mental fogginess, fatigue and reduced tissue function.

Current recommendations for non-medicinal treatment of stress, anxiety and even depression are rooted in cognitive therapy used alongside the practice of “mindful” breathing.

The sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for our fight-or-flight response, can cause all manner of knock-on unhealthy effects when placed under constant stress. In chronic stress, where cortisol and adrenaline are continuously being pumped into the system, it is not uncommon to find depression, muscle pain and tension, insomnia and gut troubles.

Deep and mindful breathing is one of the best ways to offset these effects. It quickly kickstarts the parasympathetic nervous system, which counters the sympathetic response and invokes relaxation. Breathing like this swings the pendulum so that the body chemistry changes to take us from a status of high alert, to feeling altogether more chilled out.

Shallow breathing is also not our friend if we are on the quest to burn fat and lose weight. To metabolise fat stored in the body, our system needs plenty of O2, and a deficit means that what we do have is channeled to more essential places.

Available oxygen will not be used for non-vital body functions (ie fat burning) and will be directed instead to vital functions. Breathing awareness will increase the oxygen circulated by the blood, and the increased oxygen supply will enhance the cells’ ability to turn the stored fatty deposits to energy that the body can use.

In cases of poor general health, cancers, viral illness and poor organ function, it is important to consider the wellbeing of our lymphatic system. This is part of our immune system and is essential in the disease-fighting process. It collects cellular waste, and carries it away for disposal.

Shallow breathing and immobility allow the lymphatic system to become sluggish and congested, organ function to become compromised, and a build-up of toxins to stagnate within the system. This can lead to oedema (perhaps seen as swelling in the feet and ankles) and may even trigger cell pathology.

Since there is no pump to circulate lymph, we rely on arterial pulsations, organ compression, body movement and muscle contraction to do the job. Importantly, we need the pressure changes in the thorax that breathing provides. Shallow breathing simply won’t provide adequate means to get the lymph moving.

Stig Severnisen - Can hold his breath for more than 20 minutes!  Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.

Deep and mindful breathing will also increase sporting performance by providing an increase in lung capacity. World Champion freediver, Stig Aavall Severinsen – the first man in the world to hold his breath for over 20 minutes – certainly has the technique down to a fine art.

Remember how a baby breathes, with its tummy rising and falling. Each day set time aside to stand, sit or lie down in a quiet place for five minutes. Don’t force your breath, but allow the air to be drawn into your lungs, and feel your tummy rise. Relax your throat, neck and shoulders, trying to pull the air deeper into your lower chest.

Gently let the breath out (without disturbing an imaginary feather under your nostrils). Play with the breath, and imagine pulling the air into different areas of your chest and body. Be quietly aware of sights, sounds, smells and thoughts that come to you. Don’t dwell on them, but acknowledge them and let them go.

If you practice mindful breathing, the benefits start to manifest themselves really very quickly. Skin is clear and glowing, health and wellbeing improve and there is definitely a renewed calmness and control within life. Well worth a try.

Elizabeth McQuillan x

#respectyourtemple