8 Best hydrating foods

Why Is It Important To Keep Your Body Hydrated? 

When you hydrate yourself, you are ensuring that your body will be working at its optimum level. When you are hydrated, your body can better flush out toxins, your joints will be healthier and will be able to move better. Hydration is crucial for optimal brain function and it also helps keep your skin looking youthful. 

The human body is composed of anywhere from 60-70% water, which means that our bodies need water to survive and needs to be replaced as it is lost. Dehydration can have many consequences, from feelings of tiredness to aching joints, headaches and dehydration can make you fat as well. In addition, staying dehydrated can lessen athletic performance and lead to an increased risk of injury.

Keeping your body hydrated is important for overall health. When you drink water, it helps with several bodily activities including:

• "Flushing out toxins" – Often when we are dehydrated our kidneys do not work as efficiently as they should and instead of flushing out toxins they allow them to stay in the body.

• "Regulating your body temperature" – Water helps regulate your body temperature and cool you down when you are overheating. If you do not drink enough water you can end up with a headache and feel more tired than you should.

The human body has an enormous capacity to survive under harsh conditions. However, the human body is also very susceptible to dehydration. It is important to keep your body hydrated to stay healthy and fit. 

Experts recommend drinking eight glasses of water per day, but it is difficult to estimate how much water you are drinking. An easy way to get an idea of how much water you are drinking is to track how often you need to urinate over the course of a day. 

The colour of your urine will indicate how hydrated you are. If your urine is dark yellow or similar to lemonade, then you should definitely drink more water.

8 Water-Rich Foods to Keep You Hydrated

Hydration is very important to us. Without water, we can't live for more than a week. Since our body is composed of 70% of water, it's essential that we make sure to regularly replenish the water levels in our body. 

Fitness lovers, listen up. Drinking water-rich foods could be a great way to increase your daily intake of water. And what’s even better is that you’ll also get a number of vitamins and minerals in the bargain! Don’t know which foods are water-rich? 

We’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular hydrating foods:

1) Watermelon: The first food on our list is watermelon. One of the most hydrating fruits out there, watermelon is rich in electrolytes which are crucial to support optimum hydration levels. The water content in watermelons is more than 92% which helps to hydrate the body without making you bulk up. Next on our list of hydrating foods is pineapples. 

2) Apples: They say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well, it also keeps dehydration at bay. With 86% water content, apples are excellent sources of H20, as well as vitamin C, which acts as an antioxidant for your body. 

3) Cucumbers: The 95% water content in cucumbers makes it a great hydrating food. In addition to their hydrating properties, cucumbers are also rich in silica, which helps to strengthen your bones and skin.

4) Pineapples: Pineapples are the best way to hydrate your body during times of stress. Not only do they provide natural sweetness and some serious hydration perks, but they also contain 87% water with additional sizable health benefits.

5) Avocados: Foods that are less easily categorized as fruits or vegetables, like avocados and tomatoes, also contain high amounts of water, more than 80%. So if you’ve been eyeing all those articles about avocado toast but weren’t sure where to start due to its simple ingredient list, consider adding it to your cart next time you visit the grocery store.

6) Zucchini: The water content in zucchini is nearly 94% and it is a highly nutritious vegetable that can provide numerous health benefits. Zucchini is low in calories and its rich source of nutrients can help you get a strong immune system and may protect against several diseases.

7) Cauliflower: This cruciferous vegetable contains 92% water, which contributes to its low number of calories with only 25 calories per cup. It is an excellent hydrating and nutritious vegetable and contains 3 grams of appetite-reducing fiber in more than one-fourth cup. Additionally, cauliflower consists of more than 15 different vitamins and minerals, including choline, which is an essential nutrient for supporting brain functioning and metabolism.

8) Cabbage: Cabbage has 92% water content and is one of the most impressively healthy cruciferous vegetables as it is low in calories and high in fiber. It is also a great source of vitamin C, vitamin K, folate and several trace minerals with health-promoting properties. Vitamin C in cabbage is popular for its role in reducing inflammation and has been linked to lower the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart diseases. In addition to these benefits, cabbage provides glucosinolates, which are antioxidants that can protect against certain types of cancer.

Take Away

There is no shortage of water-rich foods, as the Earth naturally provides a bounty of food containing abundant amounts of this essential nutrient.

Water helps our bodies with many different things, from cleaning cells to dissolving food. It also gets rid of waste and helps regulate our body temperature. But this does not imply that you should drink more water than required. Putting extra and unnecessary pressure on kidneys can be dangerous.

Analysis shows that drinking too much water can lead to hyponatremia. How? Drinking too much water reduces the level of sodium in your body which means it will reduce the concentration of sodium in your blood forcing the body to try and retain its electrolytes by pulling water back into your cells.