this "too much water" warning comes up on every diet site I've seen...so odd. It can only happen under the most bizarre of circumstances--low sodium and potassium levels to begin with, then drinking a high percentage of you own body's blood volume in water within a few hours...quite unlikely! You'd be squeezing it in, your belly would be bloated, and you'd notice.

I did give myself a mild case of water intoxication 20 years ago in treating a UTI. I had about two gallons in two hours and, along with feeling my stomach very full of water, got mildly, pleasantly high. (like half-a-beer high) 30 minutes later, the symptom was gone. no permanent damage.

I did a search for stats on this (a habit I recommend getting into when someone tells you X is true, cuz X often is not true, you know?) and found most deaths (and they're quite rare--worry more about lightning hitting you) from water intoxication are in infants who are force-fed too much liquid. In adults, the few cases seemed to be mostly in conjunction with drug use, where the person was too zonked to listen to simple body signals that this was too much water.