I Hate Water!
At work, I have always had to rely on the mutli-disciplinary approach to patient care. If this is executed in the correct way, the patient gets superior care and I get to offload work I'm not really interested in. For instance, a GI/Nutrition or Internist can deal with adjusting meds, checking labs, making sure blood pressure is ok, etc. A PA can do band adjustments and routine pre-ops. And a nutritionist can modify the diet, help overcome issues with intolerance and can be the early warning for potential problems.
But you'll see that if my "para-professionals" and I aren't on the same page, it can really wreak havoc in this setting.
A perfect example of this is the Nutritionists' insistence that patients drink at least 48 fluid ounces of water per day. There is a prevaling belief in American society in particular that everyone must drink 8, eight ounces glasses of water each day and that coffee, soda and alcohol don't count. WRONG.
No scientific studies were found in support of 8 x 8. Rather, surveys of food and fluid intake on thousands of adults of both genders, analyses of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals, strongly suggest that such large amounts are not needed because the surveyed persons were presumably healthy and certainly not overtly ill. This conclusion is supported by published studies showing that caffeinated drinks (and, to a lesser extent, mild alcoholic beverages like beer in moderation) may indeed be counted toward the daily total, as well as by the large body of published experiments that attest to the precision and effectiveness of the osmoregulatory system for maintaining water balance. It is to be emphasized that the conclusion is limited to healthy adults in a temper- ate climate leading a largely sedentary existence, precisely the popula- tion and conditions that the “at least” in 8 x 8 refers to.
Here's the full article in case you're interested:
So the take-home message is this: Drink what you want, when you want, as much or little as you want. If you are thirsty, drink more. If your pee is darker than a lemon, drink more. If you are trying to lose weight, drink nothing with calories - it's a waste of calories. And yes, your Diet Coke and black coffee count toward your daily water totals!
And just FYI, I haven't consumed anything but Diet Coke and Crystal Light for years, and I'm still alive! Just sayin'...
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