I think it’s fair to say that we all know water is our friend. We need it, we can’t live without it, but sometimes it’s hard to keep ourselves hydrated. Why is it so hard to focus on keeping ourselves hydrated? In my experience, it’s been difficult to stay hydrated for many reasons. One of the main reasons is because we have so many beverage options, and if you grew up in a latino household like I did, then soda and juice was the preference when it came time to eat. Even if you didn’t grow up with a latinx background, the standard American diet is full of sugary drinks. Most of this sugar comes from juices and sodas. Having so much sugar in your drinks isn’t hydrating, if anything it makes you more thirsty! This causes a vicious cycle of thirst, more juice or soda, addictions, cravings and never fully quenching our thirst. 

As a latinx, I grew up drinking coffee as a kid, which is totally unnecessary, but that started my coffee cravings. Caffeine is another big issue when it comes to sweet beverages, addictions and cravings. I’m not saying I don’t have my cup of coffee here and there anymore, I still crave it, but it’s taken me a long time to learn how to drink coffee in a beneficial way. Yes! For you coffee lovers out there, there is a way to drink coffee *responsibly* which sounds so silly, but it’s also very real. Drinking coffee is more natural than drinking a caffeinated soft drink, and you can actually get some antioxidants from black coffee. You can’t do that with soda, it’s all just chemicals and sugar! Coffee and tea on the other hand, has beneficial antioxidants. Green tea even has probiotics! This is all good for you, but when you add a ton of sugar and milk or creamer, it essentially cancels out all the beneficial stuff you want to have. Generally speaking, the less sugar you have in these beverages, the better! You still want to drink plenty of water afterwards, tea and coffee are diuretics (they make you pee a lot!) and they also dehydrate you. Teas are preferable because they’re not as strong in caffeine levels, and they have so many other health benefits, but that’s a whole other topic that requires an entire blog post to elaborate on. 

Just like with soda, juice and coffee, my culture loves to drink alcohol. We all know that alcohol dehydrates the life out of you, but do we drink water to replenish afterwards? You should be! The same rules that go along with a healthier coffee and tea drinking experience, go for drinking alcohol. Not everyone likes alcohol but if you’re going to drink, here are some tips to reduce the headache you’re willing to have the next day. First off, sugary drinks are not hydrating so mixing sugar and alcohol is a double whammy of dehydration. Second, the quality of alcohol has a lot to do with how it’s processed in your body. Of course all alcohol will get you drunk and can be detrimental to your health if abused, but similar to everything you ingest, you want the best and most pure kind to be metabolized in your body. A mixture of alcohol, sugar, caffeine and other unnatural chemicals does not compare to just having pure good quality alcohol. Opt for something of better quality, and yes that means it might be more expensive but not necessarily. This last recommendation is simply to not drink too much all at once, even drinking too much water can make you lose vitamins and minerals through your urine. This concept holds true across the board with any beverage, but especially alcohol! Similar to coffee and tea, there is a way to get some benefits with alcohol. Red wine is a good source for antioxidants and probiotics, this is great news to some folks, but remember, balance is key. Too much of anything can be detrimental to your health, and as always, remember to drink water afterwards! Alcohol is a very fascinating topic when it comes to beverages because it’s the most dehydrating, and can cause so much damage in your body such as liver failure and many other health problems but it’s also beneficial in small amounts and to a certain degree. . 

The last recommendation I’m going to make is to simply drink water. I know it can be challenging, I even find myself having trouble drinking enough water some days, but it’s just a habit that needs to be formed. Surprisingly, water is undervalued as a drink even within my own family. I notice that some people feel like only poor people drink water, and people with money should be able to afford other exciting beverages with lots of flavor. This fear of judgement, unconscious belief and even uneducated “truth” for some folks is what gets in the way to see the bigger picture. Humans are made up of mostly water, up to 60% of the human adult body is water. According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, lungs are about 83% water, skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and bones contain 31% water. When we take these numbers into consideration, and the fact that sugar is more addicting than cocaine, we should all be drinking a lot more water as a whole. 

There are levels to quality of water, mineral content and pH balance. All of these factors are important, and it’s good to consider what’s inside the water you’re drinking. Filtered water is a basic necessity to get any harmful bacteria out, but when water is filtered, it’s also stripped of valuable minerals. Look for water that has a good balance of pH and minerals. There are also mineral drops that you could purchase and add into your filtered water for maximum benefits. I like to use the brand Trace Minerals, my partner found them on Amazon after we watched an episode of Down to Earth with Zac Efron. It was very eye opening to know how undervalued water is, and how vital it is for us to function properly. We were immediately sold on added minerals to water. It has also been a game changer in terms of taste and I always feel more hydrated with those added mineral drops. We also bought a Waterdrop reverse osmosis filter for our home. These filters can be pricey but I highly recommend them because you reduce plastic from purchasing water bottles, the filter will last you a long time and you are investing in your health after all. What people don’t realize from purchasing water bottles is that in the heat, the plastic is absorbed by the water. In the end, you are drinking filtered water with added plastic chemicals. Make sure to buy a BPA free reusable water bottle to prevent this from happening, and for goodness sake do not reuse disposable plastic bottles to drink out of! In the end, water is essential to all of our bodily functions and prioritizing that will create a domino effect where you are helping yourself and the environment by reducing plastic bottles. 

So now you have the tips and tricks, what now? Put it into practice! When you are hydrating yourself, you can look online to remember how much water you should be drinking for your height relative to your weight. A simple Google search can help you identify this volume. Generally speaking, it’s recommended to have 64oz of water in a day, but this number is not universal for everyone as we all have unique body types. I started out by using a water drinking reminder app called “Drink Water: Drinking Reminder”. In this app, you can put your personal information that includes height and weight. You put all the beverages you consume in a day, including the non-water beverages, and the app calculates how much more water you need in a day. If you say that you have had a glass of wine, it calculates that you have depleted your hydration, and will tell you to drink more water than usual. This is a simple way to always stay hydrated.