Water IS Our Energy Medicine: Get It Without All That Guzzling + A Replacement Recipe

By Gina Bria

As an anthropologist, I have been trying to answer the question: How do people in the desert survive without 8 glasses of water a day?

This is a question for our times, where the recommended prescription for hydration is a one-size-fits-all recommendation. Is it true that 8 glasses a day is a medical must for everyone? How can that be? First we come in all sizes, conditions and environments, and secondly, research from my work, shows plenty of well-hydrated people (not to mention animals) using other approaches to hydrating without all that guzzling. Maybe, you say, we need more liquid since we now live in more dehydrating environments? That’s true, we are subject to more dehydrating circumstances each day, like living in heated and air conditioned buildings with artificial lighting, dehydrating foods and medications, not to mention high use of cell phones and screens (yes, dehydrating). Each of those instances per day conspire to reduce our hydration levels.

And hydration IS our energy medicine. Water not only keeps us moist, it is our fuel. Surely everyone knows water conducts electricity, and hydration runs our entire bioelectrical system. But still, hydrating solely with liquid water is not solving our fatigue, loss of focus, joint aches, insomnia, or wide-spread chronic conditions.

To solve that, we need to absorb water well, and the desert communities I studied used brilliant solutions to hydrating by using the water found in plants, such as cactus, aloe, underground tubers, and plant materials like chia seeds. These plants release their more concentrated waters slowly in our digestive system, like a time-released irrigation. Eating plants works much better than the flash flood, guzzle-all-day advice we are currently taught. And good news, it’s not only eating desert plants that can hydrate us this way. All fruits and veggies, including herbs and leafy greens, contain more concentrated water and absorptive fibers that outperform that glass of water.

From my studies I’d like to offer a recipe for you and some additional resources to help you to better hydrate so you can experience the energy medicine of water without all that guzzling: It’s my favorite recipe and I used it to gently hydrate my 92 year old mother, suffering, as so many of our vulnerable elderly, from chronic dehydration. It helps hold hydration inside you up to 2 to 3 times longer than liquid water alone.

Chia Pudding:

1 can coconut milk (I like Native Forest Brand)
5 Tablespoons of Whole Chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
Mix together well in a bowl
Stir again after 10 minutes to avoid clumping
Let sit 20 minutes then add any sweeteners you might like, such as 1 to 2 Tablespoons raspberry jam, honey or maple syrup.
Makes 2-3 servings you will gobble up, hydrate more and pee less. Nature’s better plan for us.

You can find more recipes on our website or our book.

Bonus Course: Doctor’s Prescription to Hydrate Now!
Better hydrate with this course. It takes just 16 minutes to read and watch this free course that is packed full of better hydration insights from leading doctors. Enjoy your new tips for hydration and please help us spread better hydration without all that drinking for all.

Gina Bria is an anthropologist and founder of the Hydration Foundation, recognized as a leading resource for hydration science and education. Named a Real World Scholar, she produced the first International Hydration Solution Summit and the TEDx Talk: How to Grow Water: It’s Not Only Blue; It’s Green. Bria is the co-author of QUENCH: Your Five-Day Plan to Optimal Hydration, with Dr. Dana Cohen, MD, now in seven languages and recommended by the New York Times, Oprah’s O Magazine, NPR and many other media sources who acknowledge how she is changing the conversation on hydration for us and our planet. Her Rehydrate Our Thirsty Mother Earth Project was selected for the Buckminster Fuller Design Science Ten-Year Award to spread better water solutions. With her colleagues, she’s at work on a traveling Water Museum called A Movement in Water, an immersive science and art exhibit to raise reverence and understanding of our most precious material, and what all life is made from: water.