“By the time you’re thirsty you're already 2% dehydrated” - Defeating Dehydration
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back. Registered Dietitian Sarah Keogh, good afternoon. Hi, Clare. How are you? We're going to talk about hydration today. We've talked about hydration breaks in the World Cup, but we should be having these breaks ourselves, shouldn't we?
How common is underhydration and are people drinking enough fluids daily?
I mean, how much should we be drinking? What to drink and why dehydration is a big problem? In general, Irish people, like, are we quite prone to not drinking enough fluids during the day as we're told we should? We're definitely better.
20 years ago, I would have said we were a bit catastrophic first, but we've definitely improved. The idea that you might actually drink something other than a cup of tea in the day has definitely taken hold, which is brilliant. But I think particularly with the warm weather, suddenly people are that bit more aware that actually they've got that bit of a headache or they're actually feeling a little bit lightheaded and it's dawning on them. Do you know what? I actually didn't drink any water today. So, you know, we're definitely better. And younger people, definitely better than kind of the middle aged and older. But it's improving. It is improving. How much should we be drinking in a day? Really, your minimum is sort of one and a half to two litres, which is about six to eight glasses of water a day.
And that's kind of just for normal body function. Now, that can be water. It can be a glass of milk. It could be a small glass of fruit juice. You know, it could be a herbal tea, your ordinary tea or coffee. A little bit of that will count in there as well. So it doesn't just have to be plain water if you're someone who doesn't like it. But on hotter days when we're doing that little bit more sweating and maybe not even aware of it because we're outside, you probably do need to add another couple of glasses of water in there as well.
So, you know, when people say, well, tea counts as a drink there or, you know, coffee, do they actually do they fall into the fluid intake bracket or does something like coffee? And I'm not you. You correct me on this. Could this potentially like dehydrate you more or be worse for you, in fact?
There's been a lot of kind of research on this. And some people have a little bit of a genetic quirk where it actually does dehydrate them a little bit. But the vast majority of people up to what they've looked at is up to eight cups of tea or coffee a day, which in Irish is eight or four mugs of tea or coffee a day is hydrating. After that, we are actually seeing a little bit of an issue with it. So sort of your four mugs of tea a day are going to count. But if you're getting if you're someone who's like a really big tea drinker after that, you probably need to just count in some water.
And tea and coffee, does it make any difference?
I always think in my head tea is maybe a little more hydrating, no? I would always go with how are you feeling? Like if it's actually hydrating for you and, you know, down to the basics is you need to be having a really good pee at least four times a day, you know, and that's kind of a good measure. If you're someone who just does morning and evening, you know, unless you have a spectacular camel bladder, you probably need to be increasing the fluid.
Yeah. I mean, it's something really to be aware of. Do you know what's made me more aware of it? Like just in in recent times and not so recent times, but the big beakers, the big water beakers they have and they're all marked out with not enough nearly there. Like, you know, it's lunchtime. Have you have you had your liter by now? Like these are these are a good thing. Are they like using these little tools and accessories to ensure that you're always sipping water?
Well, if it works for you, absolutely. Sometimes it's that reminder. I know loads of people who kind of get to dinner in the evening and think, you know what, I don't think I actually had more than a cup of coffee for breakfast this morning. So it is better over the day. I mean, drinking more in the evening is definitely better than nothing.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:14
2
How common is underhydration and are people drinking enough fluids daily?
0:14–3:40
3
How much water should an average adult drink each day?
3:40–5:37
4
Do tea and coffee count toward daily fluid intake or can they dehydrate you?
5:37–9:45