Are you drinking enough water? ⏲️ 6 Minute English
Hello, this is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Phil, and I'm Beth.
Nowadays, I often see people carrying
water bottles with them
to make sure they drink enough.
How much water
do you drink a day, Phil?
Oh, I don't know.
Um, maybe about a litre.
OK. And do you know how much water
you should drink a day?
I think it's probably
about two litres.
Ah, well, the number many people
have heard is two litres a day.
Of course, everyone needs to drink some water.
Over half the human body
is made up of it.
But exactly how much water
do we need to stay healthy?
That's what we'll be discussing
in this programme,
along with
some useful new vocabulary as well.
And speaking of vocabulary, remember
you can download all the new words
and phrases from this programme,
plus worksheet exercises
to help you learn them
on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
Great! but first I have
a question for you, Phil.
I mentioned that over half
the human body consists of water,
but there's an even higher percentage
of water in our blood,
but how much? Is our blood
a) around 80% water?
b) around 90% water?
Or c) 100% water?
I think it's around 80% water.
OK, I will reveal the correct
answer later in the programme.
Our blood needs water
so it can carry nutrients
to the body's cells and organs.
The amount recommended is often given
as two litres a day.
But why? Here to discuss this
with BBC World Service programme
'The Food Chain' is
biologist, Professor John Speakman.
So, I'm not sure
how it was arrived at,
but it seems to be a number
that has taken grip
on a very large number of countries.
So, if you look at government
recommendations around the world,
they're pretty much all the same,
they pretty much all say everybody's got
to be drinking two litres of water.
Professor Speakman doesn't know
how the number
of two litres a day was arrived at -
how it was decided or calculated.
Nevertheless, the idea of drinking
two litres a day has taken grip
on many governments around the world.
When you say an idea has 'taken grip
on something,
you mean it's taken control of it.
Yes, Professor Speakman says that
pretty much all governments
are giving
pretty much the same recommendation.
He uses the phrase 'pretty much' to mean 'almost'.
For example, 'pretty much all governments
advise drinking two litres a day
means, 'almost all governments advise it.
What Professor Speakman doesn't have,
however, is any scientific evidence
for this advice.
The number of exactly two litres
isn't based on scientific fact.
It's more of a ballpark
figure - a number, which is a guess,
but which you still believe is
approximately correct.
Actually, the amount of water in
our bodies is changing all the time.
Like your bank balance,
which goes down when you spend money,
your body loses water
all the time when you breathe, sweat,
or go to the toilet.
Exactly how much
you need to drink depends
on how much water
your body needs to replace,
and that mainly depends on your size.
But what happens when we drink less
than we should?
Here's hydration expert, Dr
Nidia Rodriguez-Sanchez,
describing the effects of dehydration
to BBC World Service's, 'The Food Chain.
And also, many times
we start getting dehydrated and
we don't realise we are dehydrated.
So it's very common that we feel tired
or we feel, like, with a bit of a headache
or even we think we are hungry
and we go and get some food.
And actually what is happening is
that we are thirsty,
that we are dehydrated.
We're starting to show some signs,
or some symptoms of dehydration.
Dr Sanchez describes the effect
of dehydration, the condition
of not having enough water in your
body so that you feel ill or weak.
She mentions feeling tired,
having a headache,
or a dry mouth as symptoms
of dehydration.
Symptoms are signs or feelings
in the body showing the presence
of some illness or condition.
So, whether you drink a little more
or a little less, it seems that
around two litres of water a day is
a good way to keep your blood
and body healthy.
Speaking of which, Phil. It's time
to reveal the answer to my question,
what percentage
of our blood is water?
You said 80%, and the answer is 90%.
Our blood consists of around 90% water.
OK, let's recap the vocabulary
we've used,
starting with the phrase 'to arrive
at a number,
meaning to decide it
by doing calculations.
If an idea takes grip on something,
it takes control of it.
The phrase 'pretty much' means 'almost'.
For example, pretty much everyone likes chocolates,
which means, 'almost everyone likes chocolate'.
A ballpark figure is
a phrase meaning ‘a number, which is
an acceptably accurate approximation.
Dehydration is the condition of
not having enough water in your
body so that you feel ill or weak.
And finally,
a symptom is a sign
or feeling in the body showing the
presence of an illness or condition.
Once again, our six minutes are up,
why not join me now,
and head over to
our website bbclearningenglish.com,
download the worksheet
for this programme,
and test yourself to see
how much you remember.
See you there soon.
Bye.
An Image That Describes The Word
You don't think the image is right? Add here the right image and we will fix our mistake
