Why It Is Important To Stay Hydrated in the Winter

Drinking enough water is incredibly important for your health all year round, but often, people do not drink as much during the winter. When it is hot and your body sweats, we naturally tend to hydrate because we thirst. However, here is why staying hydrated in the winter is worth putting in extra effort to sip your water all day.

Prevent Dehydration

Dehydration is easy to experience in artificially heated house all bundled up in warm clothes, but it is not easy to recognize. We might not feel dizzy or develop a headache; instead your body’s skin might start flaking and your lips might crack and bleed. Just because you are not thirsty does not mean you are hydrated.

Healthy Anatomy

Water’s benefits to your body are plentiful. According to waterlogic.com, keeping hydrated will regulate your body temperature, allowing your blood to carry important nutrients and oxygen around your body and remove toxins from your body.

Fight Fatigue & Winter Weight

Midday fatigue is often a characteristic of dehydration. Water replenishes our bodies and keeps us energized. Skip the 2:30 cup of coffee and reach for a water bottle instead. In the same way, drinking water can keep your body working to its full potential and help you lose weight. We need water to properly digest food, so sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger. Next time you are reaching for a snack, drink a glass of water and see if it satisfies you.

Easy Ways to Stay Hydrated

A couple ways you can consume more water is to eat fruit. Many fruits are incredibly hydrating and healthy for you! Another idea is to buy a fancy water bottle. When you are using a water bottle you like, you tend to drink more water throughout the day. Bring it with you to work and especially to the gym. Another tip from health.com is to drink room-temperature water. The regulate your internal temperature better than water at cold or hot extremes.

These concerns should have you convinced that staying hydrated in the winter is very important! Find easy ways to drink water and appreciate the benefits that comes with it this cold weather season.

Foods To Keep You Hydrated This Summer

While drinking water is still the best way to stay hydrated, there are some foods that can help you because they consist mostly of water. During the hot summer days, consider munching on some of these hydrating foods!

Watermelon

Is it any surprise this is the first on the list? Consisting of 92 percent water, this melon lives up to its name. Even at room temperature, watermelon is refreshing like a cool glass of water. Even though watermelon is mostly made of water, the rest is low in calories and dense in nutrients and antioxidants. Read about the powerful benefits of water in this article on healthline.com.

Cucumber

Consisting of 95 percent water, cucumbers are a great hydrating food! shape.com claims cucumbers sooth skin irritations with vitamin C and caffeic acid. Cucumbers can also help you lose weight being low in calories while still making you feel full! This vegetables is a watery winner!

Zucchini

Similar to cucumbers, zucchini consists of about 95 percent water! This food is great to add to salads, main dishes, sides, and to eat plain with dip - even made into noodles! Zucchini is an excellent source of vitamins and nutrients. It is healthy for you and hydrating for your body.

Strawberries

These deliciously nutritious berries are 91 percent water. Plus, strawberries love the hot summer months, getting sweeter the hotter it is when they ripen. Their dark red color hints at their densely packed nutrients. Strawberries are high in fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

Lettuce

At 96 percent water, lettuce is the wettest food on our list of hydrating foods! Lettuce provides a lot of water, but also folate and fiber. These nutrients are specifically important for pregnant women. Plus lettuce is high in vitamins A and K. Choose a salad for lunch and your body will thank you!

While many fruits and vegetables are incredibly hydrating, these five foods top the list! Keep your body hydrated, healthy, and happy by choosing to eat watermelon, strawberries, cucumber, zucchini, and lettuce more often this summer!

Are You Drinking Enough Water?

At least 60 percent of your body is made up of water. It’s important to drink as much as water as you can to help replenish your body every day. Sadly, water is only the second-most popular beverage in the United States–after soft drinks. That’s a scary realization, since overindulging on sugary soda drinks is an enormous health hazard.

When you’re not drinking enough water, your body will give you warning signs that something isn’t right. Here are a few other warning signs:

You Can Feel it in Your Bones

Just as a car needs oil to run properly, your body needs water to do well. If you don’t have enough water in your body, your joints will begin to break down and you could injure yourself while doing normal activities. According to an article by Lifehack.org, the cartilage that protects our joints is made up of 80% water. This means if you’re not getting enough water, you can risk injury while running or jumping or even when performing daily activities or making sudden movements.

You Don’t Recover Well From Illness

Your grandmother always told you to drink more fluids to help you recover from an illness; she was right. Your body requires a minimum amount of water each day to function at a normal level and get the toxins out of your system. These amounts vary depending on your body type, activity levels, and several other factors, but illnesses will dehydrate you faster than normal - especially if you are vomiting, have diarrhea, or have a fever. When you get sick, increase your water intake even more. Even things like soup, fruit juices, and gelatin help with your fluid intake.

You Feel Sleepy

Fatigue is one of the first signs you’ll encounter from being dehydrated. If a lack of fluids turns into full-blown dehydration, it can cause an imbalance in your sodium, potassium and electrolytes, therefore, making you sleepy and lethargic.

You Get Hungry Out Of Nowhere

When you don’t drink enough water, your body receives mixed signals on hunger. According to an article on Spright.com, “Your hypothalamus, the portion of your brain responsible for controlling feelings of hunger and thirst, responds similarly whether you’re thirsty or you haven’t had enough to eat.” Dehydration causes you to believe you need to eat when you actually need more liquid in your system.

You Don’t Age Well

Water acts as a natural (and much cheaper) facelift as it flushes out the toxins in your body. Hydrating yourself on the inside will result in a dewy and fresh-looking skin on the outside. If you’re dehydrated, things will start to look dry, cracked and unhealthy.


Water is very important to your overall health. Becoming dehydrated too often can do plenty of damage to your body, and as you’ve probably heard, if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables that are high in water content is also a good way to stay hydrated. Staying full for the entire day is just as important as staying hydrated.

For more information on hydration, visit the Minnesota Chapter of the American Water Works Association.

The Truth About Winter Dehydration

When people think of dehydration, they think about working out or standing in the blistering heat. If you’re not sweaty, you’re probably not dehydrated, right? Actually, dehydration isn’t just a summer thing. Winter dehydration can often be more dangerous, mainly because not many people know about it or think about it.

It’s pretty simple when you think about it; winter activities also give you a workout and increase your heart rate, but people also tend to drink less water, making the risk of dehydration even higher.  Who wants to carry water when out in the cold? The following are five things you should look out for during the colder months to prevent dehydration:

1. Lowered thirst quench. Cold weather means that your blood vessels constrict, sending blood to the core of your body. This tricks your body into thinking that you are hydrated, when in reality, you may not be.

2. Cold water slows your body’s communication to the kidneys which then tell your body that it does not need to conserve water. This means that your urine production is increased which lowers the water retained in your body.

3. Sweat evaporates faster in cold weather. Because of this, many people don’t think about hydration lost through sweat in the winter.

4. Wearing too much clothing can be a negative. When you wear too much clothing, you are carrying more weight which will make your body work harder, in turn causing you to sweat.

5. The dry air in the winter time can cause dehydration. When you can “see your breath” in the winter you are also losing water vapor. Your skin usually feels over-dry in the winter; this is a telltale sign of dehydration.

Knowing that winter dehydration is a problem is the first step in counteracting its effects. Making sure that you are drinking an adequate amount of water is essential in maintaining a normal water level in your body. If you have other questions about winter dehydration and the benefits of drinking plenty of water, visit our website at mnawwa.org.