Raise Your Water Glasses in the Air: Hydration in College
By A.R. Cabral
November 20, 2020
Image Credit: Daniel Brunsteiner for Unsplash
College is all about drinking that precious beverage that has fuelled so many great times with friends and leaves everyone who consumes it in high spirits. I am, of course, talking about water.
Yes, water. According to the California-Great Basin Bureau of Reclamation, that simple combination of hydrogen and oxygen makes up 75% of our body weight and 71% of the Earth’s surface.
In addition to making existence possible, water has the ability to improve sleep, mood and physical health, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. With this in mind, it is a surprise that more college students are not enthusiastic about hydrating.
“I forget to drink water throughout the day,” Jaelyn Watson, a senior broadcast journalism major said. “I don’t really think about drinking water unless it’s first thing in the morning or at night before I go to bed.”
The Harvard School of Public Health recommends that women drink 11 cups of water a day and men drink 16 cups of water a day. That’s 88 fluid ounces of water for a woman a day and 128 fluids ounces a day for men.
“I usually try to drink at least four 32-ounce deer park sports bottles a day,” said Watson. She works hard to drink more than enough water.
Water consumption can help with weight loss in addition to alleviating hangovers and improving physical performance, according to St. Luke’s Health.
When asked how much water she consumes in a day, Sarah Cohen, a junior journalism major, replied, “Not a lot at all I have always had a problem with this and do not really drink a lot of water. On average, I probably drink about 2 glasses a day.”
Whether it be bottled, from the tap or provided by a restaurant, there are so many different ways you can get your water intake for the day. Regardless of how you drink it, make sure you drink enough.
“I usually drink either bottled water or filtered,” Cohen said, when asked how she normally drinks water. “I already have a difficult time drinking water so this helps as I believe it tastes better.”
During a time in many people’s lives when they are looking for simple ways to be healthy, stay positive and sleep easier, water provides a simple solution to many of those problems. Next time, you might want to think twice before passing up the free water cup at Chipotle.
John Mulaney said it best when an audience member expressed the importance of hydrating during his visit to the University of Maryland last Fall for the SEE’s Comedy Show, “Hydrate or ‘die’-drate.”