Water availability in daily Paleo life, and ramifications?
 

I hadn't seen this addressed elsewhere in Paleo readings so thought I should ask here - has anyone read any studies or anything else on the Paleo approach to water use? That is, are humans really adapted to drink a relative lot of fluid - water for instance - all the time. Or did hunting and gathering periods naturally mean that water intake was more sporadic?

(Wondering what metabolic cues might be given in a Paleo sense from either water abundance or relative - minor - restriction at times.)

I would think that as a hunter, we would be naturally following the herds around. The herds would generally be travelling from water hole to water hole so there really wouldn't be much of a shortage for us.

I just know that if I don't get at least 3 litres a day, my hands start to shrivel up and look old.

I remember seeing the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy", about the Kung tribe in Africa. Anyway, it looked like they drank dew that gathered in the night, i.e. very little water. I don't think humans have generally been guzzlers of water beyond what their thirst dictates. The modern health fads have promoted that.

I'm thinking thirst is our built in water meter.

To repeat what I just posted on another thread ...

You just hit on a big pet peeve of mine -- these people who schlep around a water bottle all day, sucking on it every few seconds. I've always maintained that this was stupid -- and reflects poor etiquette. If you want water, use a glass. The worst is when they do this in business meetings.

I've read a bit on the water thing, including one study that was done at a major university. They collected everything they could find on the "8 8-ounce glasses of water a day." The came up empty-handed as to the origin of this "rule." There was one study a long time ago that said the human body needed approximately 64 ounces of fluid per day to function well. BUT, the second half of that sentence never got repeated -- that MOST of the 64 ounces comes in the form of regular food. They also found that coffee (if you're accustomed to drinking it) is no more dehydrating that plain water.

I could go on and on. There are the purists who say that the 64 ounces MUST be plain water, no flavoring or anything. Well, then they can't drink water with any food, since that's no different from adding a bit of flavoring to the water.

Did I say I could go on and on? Does anyone really think our paleo ancestors drank that much water every day?

I'm not against drinking water (or Irish whiskey, for that matter). I just don't think there are hard and fast rules that must never be broken.

I've cut back to only drinking when thirsty, or when I wanted a drink. It seemed unhealthy to drink when I wasn't thirsty or feeling like doing so. I have noticed that my dogs don't drink lots of water and they seem unconcerned that their urine is not clear.

How true. My cats, on the other hand, do seem to be worried at times that their urine is not clear. In fact, they're very concerned that it's all clumpy and gray in the litter box.

:lol:

LOL! Too funny, BawdyWrench.

My cat is just the opposite, he does his business and shoots out of the cat box like a dog is after him.

I'm pretty bad with my drinking habits. I drink for entertainment, not thirst. Or for a caffeine hit. :p

Maybe that his commentary on the state of his box!

Funny! We keep their box VERY clean and pleasant, thank you very much! :lol:

Dr. Batmanghelidj wrote a book called 'Your body's many cries for water.'

It is surprisingly enlightening and links lack of water intake to some chronic diseases and serious physical problems.

It's a wonder we live as long as we do with all we have to worry about - including my cat's litter box. Other cats learn to use the toilet, why not mine? My friend's Siamese taught herself to use it. That might add another 3 minutes to my life.

LOL! I wish my Siamese would teach himself. He's adorable, lovable, totally attached to me... but he's definitely not a rocket scientist, even by cat standards. I tried to teach him how to open the cupboard door where I keep his catnip, but he can't quite do it, it goes shut and thuds. But I get a giggle out of him trying and the sound of the cupboard door thudding closed over and over.

I can only speak of the hunter-gatherers that I have studied in anthropology--the Kung and Sans (bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. They maintained a primitive hunter-gatherer culture for over 20,000 years, until the 20th century and although there are still a few who live that way, for the most part they have been swallowed up by other African cultures. The Kung and Sans (Bushmen) had little water in the semi-arid Kalahari Desert. Droughts are common in the Kalahari. In fact it is so hot and dry at times that they would have to burrow in the sand and hollow out little nests for themselves like an animal. They would line the little hollowed out space with dry grass or leaves and then pee in it and then lie down in it during the day to keep cool. Since it was too hot a lot of the time to hunt during the day they would have to hunt at twilight or early dawn. Game (mostly rabbits and small antelope) are scarce in the Kalahari and the bushmen might search for days in order to kill one small animal. Their water requirments were met mostly by licking dew off leaves and from bitter melons and other fruit (including wild oranges and plums, small mangoes and berries) that are indigenous to the Kalahari. Tuberous vegetables similar to yams were also a staple. After eating the melons, they made bowls out of the hard melon rinds and caught water from the brief rain showers during the rainy season. Also they buried sealed ostrich eggs filled with water during the wet season and recovered them during the dry season. It is also interesting to note that fat made up approximately 60% of their diet. Their diets consisted of about 15 % protein, 25 % carbs and 60 % fat. Much of the fat in their diet was from nuts they gathered. Drinking anywhere near 64 oz. a day of water would have been impossible for the Bushmen. Sorry to go on and on, but I did a term paper about the Kung/Sans. :)

That was all fascinating, thank you! (Pretty extreme and amazing situation by today's first world standards... and I'm sure vice versa.)

I once made the mistake--in the presence of a nun--of declaring that I was sweating.

She was quick to correct me; "No Caveman. Horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow." Irish wisdom, I believe.

As naked apes, we sweat like pigs. Even pigs and horses--the famous sweaters of the animal world--aspire to the sheer volume of sweat coming out of the human body on a regular basis. Our skin is covered in pores and loaded with sweat glands.

Considering that our primary method of temperature regulation is by sweating or not sweating, and that when the environmental temperature is high and we are active we sweat more, it stands to reason that this water-costly method would have only been possible if water was abundant throughout our evolutionary history.

We could have kept our hair and saved ourselves a LOT of water. Chimps have a fraction of our sweat glands per inch of skin.

Today, we live in climate-controlled environments, for the most part, and we could suggest that because we need to do less sweating, we need less water. Maybe, and undoubtedly we must consume a minimum amount to keep the body from panic and costly conservation, and undoubtedly must consume more water as fully dressed construction workers in the 100 degrees, than a policy analyst working in an office building and with air conditioning in his car.

As for the 8-glasses-per-day rule: it seems that much scientific brainpower is being spent trying to debunk an old-wives' tale. The tale was reinforced by dieters who put a premium on filling up with water so as to give them a full feeling that would decrease their appetite. Some have posed that extra water flushes out fat or toxins or whatever, without much evidence to support these theories. The smart dieter recognizes that human metabolism works efficiently when the body is adequately hydrated.

To specify a minimum amount of water consumed per day might be wise, but any sort of hard and fast rule is confounded by so many environmental variables that we're better off letting thirst be our guide. With so many new beverages available to moderns, can we trust our thirst? Maybe what we think is thirst is just our bodies' cheap way of getting more caffeine or sugar or alcohol.

Dehydration is panic mode, and makes us do things like spend the afternoon in shallow pits to conserve energy, or at the very least, slow down and want to spend the afternoon indoors on an otherwise beautiful day.