Taking into account that about two-thirds of our body is made up of water, it may seem obvious to us that water consumption is important for our health. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois (USA) has also found that increasing our regular water intake can help us control our weight by reducing our intake of sugar, sodium, and saturated fat.
How does drinking water affect our health parameters? Based on this question, the experts used a nationally representative sample of more than 18,300 American adults from the 2005-2012 National Health and Nutrition Survey. The researchers asked the participants to recall all the foods and beverages they consumed over a 3-10 day period.
Drinks such as tea or coffee were not included as a source of natural water, only pure water. After analyzing the amount of water that the participant layer consumed, on a daily basis of 2,157 calories, the volunteers consumed around 4.2 glasses of water, that is, slightly more than 30% of their total water consumption; 125 calories from sugary drinks and 432 calories from non-essential foods (sweets, desserts …).
All those people who increased their water intake from one to three glasses a day, reduced their energy intake by 68-205 calories a day and reduced sugar by 5-18 grams and saturated fat foods by 7-21 grams.
” This finding indicates that promoting plain water intake could be a useful public health strategy to reduce energy and specific nutrient consumption in adults, especially young people,” explains Ruopeng An, leader of the work.
The study has been published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics .
