You may know that you’re supposed to drink 8 glasses of water a day. You may know that this is important to be healthy, have good skin, prevent dehydration, and lose weight. But why does it make you healthy? Why does it improve your ability to lose weight? Do you really need 8 glasses a day?

Your body is mostly made of water, about 60-75%. This fact alone should drive home how important water is to your well being. Did you know you can last weeks without food, but only a scant 3 days without water (not even that if you’re unhealthy and dehydrated to begin with)?

What Water Can Do For You

Like most people, I am only interested in something if I believe it will enhance or benefit my life in some way. Humans are selfish, and this is an important trait for survival. So read on to learn about what water as a nutrient can do for you.

Water does for your body what it does for your house. Water flushes waste products away from your house, it cleans your house, and it cooks the food that nourishes you. While water doesn’t cook anything in your body, it is the highway that your food’s nutrients drive on to get to your cells.

Water helps you move. It cushions your joints, protects your brain and other organs, helps food move through all your tubes, and helps you swallow. If you’ve ever suffered from dry mouth, you know how difficult it is to chew, taste, and swallow food without enough moisture in your mouth.

Water is essential to digestion of proteins and carbohydrates. Without water, your body cannot perform the chemical process necessary to extract nutrients

Water keeps you at a healthy 98.6 degrees. If you’ve ever waited impatiently for a pot of water to boil, you know that water’s temperature changes very slowly. This action regulates your body’s temperature, releasing (sweating) or retaining heat at a healthy rate.

Water helps to keep you trim. It is the magic potion for weight loss, coming to you right out of your kitchen tap. Your liver converts fat to energy, but another of its jobs is to help the kidneys. Kidneys need a lot of water. If the kidneys don’t have enough water to do their job, your liver picks up the slack. This means your liver cannot quickly or efficiently metabolism fat, impeding weight loss. If you drink enough, your liver can go back to performing all it’s duties at maximum level.

Water makes you look young. It fills out your skin cells, plumping up saggy skin; it clears away impurities, giving you a youthful glow; it improves muscle tone because your muscles are mostly water.