Education

It is very common in today’s culture to have our breakfast in the car while we’re driving, have lunch at our desks while we’re still working, and have a quick dinner standing over the kitchen counter, hardly pausing before rushing off to our next commitment.

The trouble with eating while we’re rushing, working, driving, or even feeling anxious or upset lies in our central nervous system. Within our autonomic nervous system (the part that runs on automatic and regulates such things as heartbeat, digestion, and pupil dilation), there are two branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

Everyone always thinks that the first step in starting along the path to better health is to remove offending foods from your diet.  You know what I am talking about, ditch the grain, ditch the sugar, ditch the dairy.  Sound familiar?  Don’t get me wrong, removing offending foods from your diet is certainly necessary, however, sometimes it just seems less daunting to start by ADDING something simple.  You know, get a simple win under your belt before moving on to a more daunting task. And that simple something is WATER.

Water is the most important nutrient in the body, making up about 55% to 60% of total body mass, yet it is also one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in the United States. Water plays multiple key roles in the body and it is absolutely necessary to consume it on a daily basis as we are constantly losing water throughout the day as part of our normal metabolic processes.  While the amount and distribution of water are regulated within the body, it cannot be stored for long periods of time.  In fact, we can go about 8 weeks without food, but only a matter of days without water.