What Drink To Stay Hydrated When It’s Hot?

Water is essential for life: an adult cannot survive more than 2 to 3 days without drinking. With high temperatures, this duration can even be reduced. Water serves many functions in the body and must be provided throughout the day to avoid dehydration. What drink to stay hydrated when it’s hot and how much should we consume to stay in shape? Here are some tips for staying hydrated during the summer.

How important is hydration (especially in summer)?

What are the roles of water in the body?

In our body, water occupies the largest place. It constitutes on average 65% of our body.

Water is present everywhere: in all our organs, in all our cells, but not uniformly. We even find water in the strongest and hardest tissues of our body, such as teeth (which contain about 1% water) and bones (22.5% water on average!).

Our body fat also contains water, but very little (about 10%). Women generally have a higher fat mass than men, which is why their bodies contain less water on average than men’s.

On the age side, fat mass increases as we get older, reducing the water in our bodies and increasing the risk of dehydration. For its part, the infant’s body is composed of 75-80% water!

Water has many roles in the body, for example:

• It participates in chemical reactions in our body
• It is the carrier of many molecules: nutrients, waste to be eliminated…
• It regulates our temperature: this role is essential during hot weather when our body struggles to maintain its temperature at 37°C.
• It facilitates digestion
• Water therefore allows our body to function, to eliminate harmful substances and to maintain the balance of all the constants (temperature, pH, etc.).

The water is then not stored and is eliminated through urine, perspiration, breathing and stool. It is therefore necessary to renew the contributions continuously.

What are the risks for my health if I don’t drink enough?

If you don’t drink enough, the risk is dehydration. The latter corresponds to a lack of water in the body, and sometimes of mineral salts. The lack of water occurs when the water losses are not compensated by the contributions.

Many factors can increase water loss: heat, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea… It is therefore important to increase your water intake accordingly.

During dehydration, all the functions of water mentioned above can be disrupted. The consequences can be more or less serious depending on the severity of the dehydration:

• Decreased physical and cognitive abilities: it is commonly accepted that 1% dehydration reduces our abilities by 10%
• Constipation, cystitis: water helps hydrate the stool and empty the bladder regularly, preventing bacteria from clinging to its wall
• Dizziness, malaise
• In the most severe cases, sudden death
• If an adult can survive several weeks without eating, however, it cannot survive more than 2 to 3 days without drinking. Proper hydration is therefore essential.

Why should we drink more in the summer?

When it is very hot, especially during heat waves, the risk of dehydration increases. The body regulates its temperature by sweating. Thus, the water eliminated in the form of perspiration to cool our body increases, going from about 0.5-1L per day in normal weather to several liters when it is very hot.

If we do not compensate for this loss of water by drinking, we risk becoming dehydrated.

Monitoring your hydration is therefore essential, especially when you get older. With age, the feeling of thirst decreases, the body is more prone to dehydration, and the phenomenon can be amplified by diseases or treatments.

what drink to stay hydrated when it’s hot

Water is the only drink essential to the body. However, other drinks can be consumed according to preference.

Tea, coffee (without excess) and infusions without sugar also provide water in another form.

What is the most hydrating drink when it’s hot?

The most effective drinks to rehydrate are those containing minerals and a little sugar, to pass the intestinal barrier more easily and reach the blood quickly. It is this process that is used for oral rehydration solutions in case of severe dehydration.

It is obviously not advisable to consume these solutions in the absence of dehydration and medical recommendations.

However, Scottish researchers studied commonly consumed beverages to find which ones were the most hydrating. At the top, skimmed and whole milks hydrated the most, probably thanks to their sodium content in particular.

Although milk rehydrates, it should be consumed in moderation. The National Health Nutrition Plan (PNNS) recommends a consumption of 2 dairy products per day, the equivalent of 2 yogurts or about 300ml of milk.

Water is unquestionably the drink of choice throughout the year.

To take full advantage of its benefits:

• Drink regularly, throughout the day, without waiting to be thirsty (thirst is a late signal of mild dehydration)
• Small sips are more effective than large amounts at once (which will simply pass out in the urine)

What drinks to avoid?

Ice water to cool off? When you are very hot, ice water seems like a good idea. However, the coolness of the water unfortunately does not cool the body.

Worse still, cold water can send a misleading message to the body, telling it that it’s finally not that hot and that it can stop sweating to cool down, or even that it needs to warm up. In addition, freezing water can cause stomach aches, stomach cramps and slow digestion.

The ideal is therefore to drink water with a temperature between 10 and 15°C.

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I hope you enjoyed this overview of ow to stay hydrated when it’s hot and found it useful. Comment down below what you think, do you agree, or share with us your own tips to keep hydrated during hot times.

Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!