- Drinking fluid is essential in order to keep hydrated and healthy.
- This fact sheet will provide advice to help you to improve your fluid consumption.
Key facts
- Fluids are very important to health and is a basic nutrient (along with carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, proteins and minerals),
- Your body needs water to work properly
- If we do not drink enough each day then we can become dehydrated which can cause serious health problems
- To stay healthy, it’s important to replace the fluid we lose when we breathe, sweat or urinate
- Water is the healthiest choice for quenching your thirst at any time It has no calories and contains no sugars that can damage teeth
- If you don’t like the taste of plain water, try sparkling water or add a slice of lemon or lime or a piece of fruit.
- Try to avoid fizzy drinks, squashes, juice drinks and energy drinks that contain lots of sugar. These can be high in calories and bad for the teeth
How much fluid should we be drinking per day?
- Women should drink about 1.6 litres of fluid a day
- Men should drink about 2.0 litres of fluid per day
- That’s about eight glasses of 200ml each for a woman and 10 glasses of 200ml each for a man.
- The amount you need to drink each day may vary depending on a range of factors such as how much you exercise, the temperature and how much you sweat. For example you may need to increase your water consumption if you have just been for a run or if it is a hot summers day.
