Welcome back the third part of my Healthy Eating blog posts.
Part 1 talks about the health benefits of grapefruit and why eating half of one every morning is good for you.
Part 2 talks about the benefits of a couple of slices of toast and how a diet high in fibre is good for you.
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For the past few years now we've been told water plays an important part in our diet. Government guidelines state you need to drink around 8 glasses (1.5 litres) per day. I'll be honest with you - I struggle with this. Water is so boring!
Having researched 'the benefits of drinking water', and watching lots of YouTube videos on the subject I was quite surprised how much water can help you and improve your day to day life. I can recall in school - during health class they went over why it was important to drink water and what it did but that was over 7 years ago for me ...
Here are 5 interesting facts and information about how drinking water can affect you and your lifestyle:
1. Drinking water can help to reduce your appetite. For example instead of snacking on some crisps or a chocolate bar - grab a bottle of water.
2. You have to remember that your brain is mostly water (around 75%) and so when we get a headache or when you stand up quickly and feel dizzy - it may be that your dehydrated. Drinking water can help reduce this or even make it go away. (I normally reach for the paracetamol so I will have to try this).
3. Water is great for the skin - it helps to flush out the toxins, dirt and bacteria - basically anything that shouldn't be in your body and this helps to clear your skin up and keep it looking fresh.
4. A really important point - it supports your heart - what's more important than that? When we are dehydrated and haven't consumed enough water - our blood becomes thicker - which means our hearts have to pump harder to get the blood around our bodies.
5. Sometimes we are told by professionals (nutritionist or doctor) to increase the amount of another nutrient into our diet to help our bodies (ie in the form of a vitamin or a supplement such as fibre). Certain nutrients require additional factors such as increased intake of water to work. If for example you are suffering from piles or haemorrhoids then you will be told or advised to increase your fibre intake which helps with constipation but for the additional fibre to work you would need to increase your water intake.
I decided to try some different ideas to make drinking water more appealing and well ... fun to drink.
You may think its difficult to increase more water into your diet - here are some tips to help:
1. Major supermarkets do multi-packs of water - I normally buy 8 volvic for £2.99 I believe.
2. If you don't want to spend money on bottled water. You can just drink tap water.
3. You can buy a Brita Fill&Go water bottle which has a filter in to purify your tap water. They're on Amazon for £8 and you get 5 filters which last 3 or 4 years (change every 6 months)
4. Buy some diluting juice (not the healthiest option) but it flavours the water.
5. Not a fan of diluting juice - add a squeeze of lemon or lime or better yet, slice a lemon or lime and add it to the water. You can even use cucumber aswell.
6. Eat fruit or vegetables that are high in water - for example cucumber or lettuce - in other words start putting a bowl of salad on the dinner table.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post ... as I always say on these posts - its a bit different to my normal posts and is a bit 'health-freak-orientated' but I think its good to have a range of different posts on my blog.
Let me know if you try out of any of the above :)
