Media Fail: Busting the Water “Myth”

A few years ago an editorial in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrologyⁱ started a flurry of media reports claiming that the widely accepted suggestion that one should drink 8 glasses of water a day was baseless—basically an urban myth.

The authors of the editorial concluded “nobody really knows” where the ‘8 x 8’ recommendation (64-ounce daily target) got started,ⁱⁱ and, “there is no single study—and therefor no single outcome—that has led to these recommendations.” The implication was that there is no wisdom behind drinking eight glasses of water a day. Really?

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Is what you're drinking helping or hindering your weight loss efforts?

What you drink does impact your calorie intake. The average American currently derives 21% of their caloric intake from beverages, which adds up to a whopping 464 calories a day! The majority of those are empty-calories coming from sweetened beverages.[i]

For a little perspective, decades ago, the earliest soft drinks were sold in 6.5-oz bottles (78-calories) and were a very occasional treat. Today the average soft drink serving is 21-ounces (up from 13.6 oz. in 1977), and clocks in at a whopping 252-calories. Not only that, but over the same time frame servings per day increased from 1.96 to 2.39.

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