So moving right along here, water, water is huge, you need to really, really stay hydrated. And we'll go over why that's so important. So, water is a vital component of proper nutrition. The average human body contains roughly 10 gallons of water at any given time. And, as we talked about before, the human body is made up of roughly 60% water. So it's recommended that at least 48 fluid ounces of water per day is needed.

This recommendation is suggested to replace water loss through daily sweat, urination and breathing. So these are our ways to detoxify ourselves. So actually, drinking more water helps in the detoxification pathways. This can change though it changes depending on your activity level and other lifestyle factors. For example, if you consume diuretics like coffee or alcohol, they're gonna allow you they're gonna make you urinate more often and you will need to take Get more water as a result. Now, other sources go as far to recommend the amount of water needed daily is equal to half your body weight in fluid ounces.

So for example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need to drink 75 fluid ounces of water at that. Dehydration has been shown to impair physiologic function and performance values during exercise. Water is also a necessary component for proper nutrient absorption and proper water levels allow for nutrients and minerals to cross cell membranes more easily. Water is the chief component of blood. Each cell in our bodies is suspended in a watery solution known as extracellular fluid. Water is also part of the fluid that cushions our joints.

Now, water is also needed to carry waste materials through the kidneys to be excrete it in processes that are known as filtration in your nation. Water is added to these waste products in the kidneys so that they're able to be excluded from cerebral spinal fluid which is important for encasing the brain and spinal cord it essentially acts as a buffer in a cushion so it doesn't get damaged in day to day activities. It also provides a medium for nutrients to be transported so the central nervous system can get the energy it needs via glucose. Water is part of digestive juices and bile, water can absorb and transfer heat within and outside of our body. So if you think of something like sweat, that's that's a way of mitigating heat and getting rid of heat. It also provides nourishment to ourselves and it helps maintain a proper body temperature.

So there are several factors that can lead to chronic dehydration. Some people just simply may not like the taste. If you recently just started exercising, you're going to lose More water due to sweat, so you need to replace that water. If you live in a dry and warm climates, something somewhere in like Arizona or Southwest United States. Again, just being exposed to drier climates, you would need more water. And again, if you're consuming natural diuretics, we went over certain drugs and alcohol and coffee regularly, you're going to be paying more often, so you need to replace that water in the body.

If you consume high amounts of fruits and vegetables, that's great because they contain water and that will contribute to your water content, which is another benefit to again, consuming more Whole Foods, unprocessed foods and revolving around a plant based diet. Water is also vital. On days again, when you exercise you're going to lose that due to sweat. And excessive respiration which is heavy breathing and breathing is another way we can give off water. So when we're talking about how to get water in Water Quality becomes an issue now in America at least. The water is filled with chemicals some on purpose I'm not.

But some sources of water can have pesticide residues, toxic organic compounds and chemicals, nitrates and heavy metals. And this is in addition to again chemicals like fluoride and chlorine that are in there in small amounts, and can actually be helpful if they're in again, those smaller amounts. That being said, sometimes the water quality gets even worse. And we've had an issue only a few years ago in Flint, Michigan where there was a lead outbreak in the water and if you have lead in the water, it can lead to things like developmental delays, fatiguing, your ability, learning disabilities, seizures, and as we saw even death so it's important that you check on the status of your local water supply. So it's true for your benefit to understand what is in or what might not be in your water. Cities and local water companies routinely run water analyses.

So you should be able to find them if you with a quick Google search and just find out what might be in your water. Now if you're going to drink tap water, it's recommended that you use a filtration system, especially if the waters not up to the highest standards. Now, ideally, talking about a filtration system, you would want to have either a reverse osmosis system or an active carbon filtration system. It ensures you're drinking the purest water possible, sometimes untapped, unfiltered tap water can have potentially cancer causing agents. If you're going to drink water from a plastic bottle, you should look for ones that have the numbers two, four or five as these are the safest, they're less likely to leak harmful visibles into the water. Again, it's it's much better to get a filtration system but if you need a plastic ball from time to time look for those.

A plastic bottle labeled number one is good for only one use and then should be thrown away and you should avoid bottles labeled with the numbers three, six, or seven. So when we talk about the chronic dehydration and what mild dehydration can do it actually it slows your metabolism, and it actually could potentially cause you to put on extra weight. On the other hand, if you're properly hydrated, it's been linked to significant weight loss and lower body fat percentages. So one study looked at 311 premenopausal women between the ages of 20 and 25 and 50. They were both assigned to a weight loss diet. Now one of them one of the groups drink four cups of water a day, which is only half the amount that's recommended.

And they was an additional five pounds compared to those who did not drink any water at all. And this was due to increased metabolic function Additionally, if you're drinking water more frequently, you will confuse hunger and thirst less often. Now sometimes we might eat thinking we're hungry, but actually we're thirsty. So this helps mitigate the chances of over eating. If you drink water before every meal, it will help you stay hydrated and again, you may eat less during meals again avoiding the issue of overeating. Staying hydrated will help you increase your energy levels and it will help you get through.

Tough day say at work or harder exercise if you're going for a harder day at the gym or something like that. Water will help improve metabolic function as we saw before and improve nutrient absorption. My biggest suggestion would be to carry a water bottle. Just having a water bottle handy. It's an easy way to track how much water you're drinking on a daily basis. So moving on, the next topic we're going to cover is electrolytes and electrolytes in proper balance are really important for health and we're going to get To that now, the main the major electrolytes found in the body are sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium and calcium.

So, proper balance of these electrolytes is necessary for optimal human function. So, what does this mean? Well, if we look at an example take a high sodium low potassium diet, this is very common. It's actually linked to higher risks of high blood pressure and cancer. Well, conversely, if you take the opposite, so higher potassium, lower sodium, it would lower the chances of developing these issues these diseases. So, electrolytes are also responsible for conducting electricity when found in the presence of water and consumed considering humans are 60% made of water.

Then you understand the role that our electrolytes can play. So, interestingly, we talked about how adding extra salt to food is a major issue. Well, today in modern Western culture in places like like the US where I'm based out of only 5% of our sodium intake comes from the natural foods. So basically unadulterated at all uncooked raw raw foods, raw fruits and vegetables contained only 5% of the sodium of the total sodium that we take in 45% of huge number comes from prepared or pre packaged food. So you're thinking like already pre made meals, or things you buy that are freezer friendly, and you pull them out. These are things that have a massive amount of sodium added to them and you might not even know it.

Another the other another large portion, another 45% is added while cooking. And that's generally fairly common when you're sauteed vegetables or something like that. Then Yeah, you're gonna add a little salt and then only really another five Present is used in the form of condiments and you could think of that as just your normal table salt. So, most Americans have a sodium potassium ratio of two to one. So in other words, what that means is they consume twice as much sodium as potassium. And this leads to a bunch of health issues.

Why? Well, many experts believe that the optimal dietary intake of sodium to potassium should be one to five, so that means you're eating five times as much potassium as you are sodium. And if you're just eating a standard American diet that's 10 times as much potassium as you would have sodium. It's very easy to incorporate more potassium in your diet if you start consuming more organic fruits and vegetables. So ways you can fix electrolyte imbalance are actually fairly simple. So incorporate More carrots, apples, potatoes, oranges, bananas, those are fruits and vegetables really high in potassium.

But the other part of the equation is lowering the salt intake and that's really where a lot of the other issues come from. So removing the salt shaker from the table so you don't have it as an option when you have dinner. That's a great way to limit your sodium intake. omit adding salt to recipes or maybe cut it in half. If you really want a salt type taste, you can try things like new salt or no salt. They're actually made with potassium chloride instead of regular table salt, which is sodium chloride, and they have a similar taste so that might be worth trying out.

Incorporate other herbs and spices so they're the spice racks when you go to supermarkets are massive nowadays and they all add these really nice pungent flavors. And if you're looking for that instead of salt, it's worth looking into it and Being creative and try picking up a few next time you go. A big one is avoiding cans or pre made soup, vegetables and soups. They usually contain a lot of sodium and it might not be apparent when you first eat it, but they're actually usually packed with a lot of sodium. So something to watch out for. Also when dining out, be aware of keywords that might trigger high sodium content.

So when you're reading a menu, you want to look for words like smoked barbecued pickled broth, teriyaki soy sauce, marinated cocktail sauce, Creole sauce, Parmesan, tomato base, these usually are indicators that there is some sort of extra salt added to your food in some ways and forms upon night might not be apparent from you just reading something. And the biggest thing is just read read your food labels. Look for keywords that contain sodium. So things like soy sauce, salt, brine and some of the others mentioned above. That would be a good way to limiting the sodium while you introduce higher potassium foods like the ones listed above.