by Fern Shaw | Feb 20, 2012 | Uncategorized
With the onset of winter and temperatures dropping well below our comfort levels, it is sometime hard to focus on correct hydration. Who wants to drink ice cold water when it is snowing outside?
Fortunately for everyone, using one of AquAid’s water dispensers you do not have to. Their water dispensers have adjustable thermostats that can regulate the temperature of the water that is available to you. You can now get fresh, filtered and safe drinking water at room temperature if you want, or as a bigger bonus the thermostat can be set to create hot water for teas or coffees.
The Aquaid water systems are extremely popular and they have over 30’000 free standing units in offices, homes and schools across the country, making them one of the biggest water suppliers in the UK. With the hot water option on their water units, you are able to make instant soup or warm a drink in seconds, with the added assurance that the water that you are using is pure and clean. Their water units are compact, convenient and noiseless. The area needed for an AquAid water dispenser in your office, home or place of work is minor and the free standing units look modern and professional. Having the easy adjustable thermostat, you can change the temperature of your hot water as you need it, or as the seasons change.
A further added bonus is that you are supporting two major charities with every cup of tea that you have from an AquAid water dispenser. For every bottle of filtered water that you purchase from AquAid, a percentage is donated to the African Trust and to Christian Aid. Last year, AquAid managed to donate £656 157 to the African Trust and £89 126 to the Christian Aid groups respectably. That is an impressive amount if you consider that for every 18.9L bottle 10p is donated to Christian Aid and 30p to The African Trust.
It is great to know that companies like AquAid have water dispensing units that are particle and convenient during all the possible weather conditions in the UK, and with their support of charities all their consumers can make a difference just by staying hydrated.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 8, 2012 | Uncategorized
There is a large misperception that no matter what you drink it will aid in your daily hydration requirements. Unfortunately, that is not true. Many drinks like coffee, certain teas, alcoholic beverages and sugar sweetened drinks will aid in the body loosing water.
Drinks like coffee, tea and most cola’s are not just very high in sugars and calories, they are loaded with caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic, meaning that it causes the body to lose water, usually through additional urination. The average person working from an office will have 5-6 cups of coffee or tea every day. The high volume of coffee with the additional caffeine will increase the loss of water from the body, and it will speed up dehydration. The added side effects will be that office staff will be less productive and more on edge from all the caffeine. A solution to the problem is to increase your water intake accordingly. If you ensure that for every cup of coffee you have, you drink a glass of water, then you will have sufficient hydration during the day.
The advantage of drinking enough water is that it helps your body to function at its best. Water hydrates your cells and it aids in the reduction of fatigue. Tests have shown that a person who is correctly hydrate is up to 20% more efficient than a person who is dehydrated. For most people the first signs of dehydration are often confused as signs of hunger, and this leads to a majority of people eat too much each day.
There is no need to panic and complete cut out all other drinks. Most coffees and teas are available in decaffeinated versions, allowing you to continue your intake with less caffeine. It is important to remember that this drinks’ option is not completely caffeine free, it just has less caffeine. Colas and sodas have up to 17 cubes of sugar in them for each 500ml bottle. That is a dramatic amount of sugar and calories for your body to absorb and use. If you consume too much each day, it can lead to an increase in body weight and cause health related problems. Drink sugar sweetened drinks in moderation and where possible drink sugar free drinks and caffeine reduced drinks to ensure you do not increase your dehydration.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 8, 2012
We all know that water is essential for our everyday survival and the effects of dehydration and water loss are well documented. We are told to drink loads of water each day, but what is the right amount of water? Is there a formula or magic number to ensure we stay hydrated and is it best to get all the water into our bodies as quickly as possible, or regulate our water intake for the day?
To answer the most important question, there is no correct or magic formula to follow to ensure you are properly hydrated each day. However, there are guidelines that you can follow to ensure that you get as close as possible to the perfect daily water intake. The most important aspects to take into consideration are your body weight, environmental conditions, diet and your level of fitness. If you take weight as the one of the main factors, then a person who weighs 65 kilograms and does an hour and a half of exercise will need less water than someone of 110kilograms doing only thirty minutes of exercise. The lighter person would on average need to consume about 3 litres of water in a day, where the heavier set person will require closer to 4.5 litres on the same day. When adding in extremely warm weather conditions, then water intake will increase dramatically as our bodies needs to sweet to try and reduce its core temperature. The average male is about 85 kilograms and does about an hour’s physical activities each day, whether it is walking to and from work, the physical activities at work or general fitness training. They will need around fifteen glasses of water each day to stay correctly hydrated. That is almost four litres of water each day just to stay correctly hydrated and to ensure that our bodies function at its best.
About 20% of our water intake is from our diets, the rest we have to add by drinking water, fruit juices or other healthy fluids. Cool drinks offer some hydration, but not sufficient for continues intake. Also, bear in mind sugar sweetened drinks and fruit juices add additional calories into the body that is not needed. Incorrect hydration from parents is often the cause for children being overweight or obese as they are giving sugar sweetened cool drinks all day long. The average bottle of cola (500ml) has the equivalent of 17 sugar cubes in it. The sugar and caffeine actually causes dehydration and can lead to serious health issues if consume in excessive amounts each day. The mistake that many office workers make is to think that drinking many cups of coffee or tea will ensure that they are hydrated at work. In actual fact, tea and coffee add to dehydration as they cause the body to lose water faster.
The safest drink to ensure that you are always correctly hydrated is still water. The question of how many glasses or litres of water to drink each day is still a hard one to answer, but use the following as a general guideline. Start with 8 glasses of water each day as your average. Add a glass for every 30 minutes of exercise or strenuous activities around your home or office. Add an additional glass for extremely warm or cold days. Drink less coffee, tea and cola. Spread your water consumption equally across your day and add the additional glasses of water during your exercise or warm afternoons.
This basic guideline will ensure that you stay hydrated, healthier and looking younger as water will assist you with weight loss. The most important fact is to listen to your body. If you feel thirsty, drink another glass of water.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 1, 2012 | Uncategorized
There are many advantages of drinking clean, fresh water. The greatest benefit is that it keeps us alive. The fact that our body consists of about 70% water is the biggest reason why we need to keep our body properly hydrated. Our brain consists about 90% of water, our muscles 75 % and our blood 85%. When taking all these water based essential body parts an account, it is of vital importance to constantly keep ourselves hydrated. Water has many other great benefits, all of them valuable to our health and physical well being.
By just having a glass of water before dinner, you will feel less hungry, and it will aid in reducing weigh. This very simple weight loss tip can dramatically aid in better health. Water has no calories, and it is required for good metabolism. Drinking sufficient clean water is essential for ridding the body of harmful wastes and for removing toxins from our blood and lymphatic systems. Your kidneys, bladder and colon require water to flush them out and to reduce the risk of cancers. Studies have also shown that sufficient water intake can greatly reduce the risk of heart disease by as much as 50%. Our bodies require sufficient water to transport nutrients and vitamins. We also require water to control and regulate our body’s core temperature, and it is therefore vital to keep properly hydrated. Proper hydration has many benefits, and it will aid our immune systems to fight off diseases and infections. Our bodies are reliant on water for every function that happens in it.
Proper hydration will help reduce headaches, migraines and constipations. Clearly the benefits of clean drinking water far outweigh avoiding it. There is no clear divined amount of water to drink each day, but a good guideline to follow is still the recommended 8 glasses a day. Alternatively, you can drink as often as possible, or as the thirst hits you.
Keeping hydrated will keep you healthy, fit and problem free.
by Fern Shaw | Jan 25, 2012 | Uncategorized
Majority of people are under the impression that dehydration is only something that happens to athletes. The truth is that it happens to everyone, in all lifestyles, and of all ages. Athletes just experience dehydration faster, and with signs that are more visible.
Our bodies heat up when it works hard, whether it is during a long walk to the office or during physical training. To try to cool your body down enough to prevent heat stroke and to reduce our core temperature, our bodies have to perspire. The perspiration evaporates to assist the body to reduce temperature. The drawback is that during warmer and humid days that the perspiration is not efficient, and your body continues to sweat to try to reduce heat. As a result, dehydration accelerates.
There are a few tips that can assist you in avoiding dehydration during your sports training and daily life. The most important tip is to keep hydrated, and not to wait until you are thirsty. Drink water often, and at regular intervals. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already short of close to 1.5 litres of body fluids. It can take over a full day to recover from that type of dehydration! If you continue to work, train or exercise without sufficient hydration, your body can suffer from heat stroke. It happens quickest to unfit, elderly adults and overweight individuals, but everyone who risks dehydration is at danger.
A good indicator of your body’s hydration level is the colour of your urine. The more transparent and clear your urine is, the more hydrated you are. If you find that your urine is yellow or discoloured, then you are at risk of dehydration and need to increase your water and fluid intake immediately. Take your lifestyle and environment into consideration. If you are planning on walking a long distance to work or to a bus or train station, then plan accordingly and take a bottle of water with you. The same goes for people who are planning on exercising. If you know that it is going to be a hot or humid day, increase your water intake hours before your exercise.
About 0.5L of water 1-2 hours before your exercise should assist you to stay cool, increase your performance and reduce your risk of heat stroke and dehydration dramatically. Avoid coffee, teas and any drink with alcohol in it, as these will cause you to urinate more often, and increase your fluid loss. Remember that after your exercise, long walk or strenuous activity to drink lots of water. Do this as quickly as possible to give your body the help that it needs to recover.
