Since I live in the land of the free and the home of the lawyers, I want to start out by saying that I am not a health expert and I am just writing down my thoughts, so please don’t take anything I write as fact because suing me won’t get you much.
I have learned much lately about natural health and I have found as many different opinions on the subject as there are people giving opinions. To filter through all these opinions I try to imagine what our prehistoric ancestors would do, and any advice I see that is different than what those ancestors would have done is probably flawed, in my opinion. Of course, since our world is so different, there are some things that we must also do different to stay healthy. It is a very complicated subject.
For years I have been hearing that we should all have at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. I then heard that we should have half of our body weight in ounces. This made a lot more sense to me and for the past five years or so I have been trying to drink six bottles of water every day.
That much water requires some effort and lately I have been trying to imagine our early ancestors drinking that much water and I don’t think it is possible. After all, they didn’t carry water bottles around with them and I suspect they were too busy foraging or hunting to spend too much time at the local stream or river. So how did they get enough water?
Many shows about early humans that I have seen depict them as hunters. They will show a group of men with spears going after a Wooly Mammoth and then they will show them bringing back the feast to the rest of the tribe. What they don’t show is when they all stop to get a big drink of water. If an anthropologist is reading this perhaps they could shed some light on the subject but I think that things were a bit different.
I believe we were not hunter-gatherers but rather gatherer-hunters. I believe we primarily forged for food eating whatever was easy, such as fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, etc. When those things were scarce, then we turned to hunting to prevent starvation.
It is in these plant based foods that early humans got their water. The amount varies among individuals but in general, adult humans are close to 60% water. Many, if not most, fruits and vegetables contain an even higher percentage of water resulting in a net gain for anyone who eats them.
I am not suggesting that everyone should switch to a 100 percent raw, vegan diet, I certainly haven’t, but including a high percentage of these foods in your diet is, in my opinion, a great way to not only improve your health but also get more fluids in you without having to worry as much about how much water you are drinking.
I typically bring to work a large salad and between four and six fruits. I eat the fruit throughout the morning, have the salad for lunch, and then, if I am hungry later, I will snack on some nuts or trail mix. Later, when I get home, I will have a normal meal with my wife. It is not perfect, but my health has improved quite a bit these last few years. I still try to drink a lot of water but I try not to stress as much about counting the ounces as I did in the past.
As I said, I am not an expert and I welcome any other opinions on the matter.
Newly Bent 