There’s a research paper I’d really like to see but I don’t even know whether it exists.  It is supposed to be a seminal paper referring to the amount of liquid a human being needs to survive.  By all accounts it says that about 2 litres a day is required but, crucially, “half of that comes from food.”  In other words, yes, we need to consume 2 litres but only need to drink 1 litre, our food provides the rest.  I’ve been told about this research by a handful of different people and have spent a bit of time trawling through pubmed (www.pubmed.com) to see if I can find it.  I’ve had hints but to date have failed to find the original source.  Maybe someone out there can point me in the right direction.

Anyway, what has prompted this was my stumbling again on the research published last summer saying that tea is as good as water for rehydrating you.  It is also apparently better for you than water as it also contains some pretty effective anti-oxidants. The BBC report is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5281046.stm.  We don’t need to wander around constantly sipping from water bottles, a cup of tea will do just as well.  Bad news for the bottled water industry I suspect but I’m shedding no tears for them. The idea of selling water at astronomically over-inflated prices in non-biodegradable plastic bottles puts them near the bottom of my “like to be with” list.

But I digress.  Tea, like coffee, beer and many other drinks, are labelled as “dehydrating” by what I loosely call the detox set; individuals who believe in the totally unscientific notion of “detoxification”.  Once again I have tried to find evidence of what these toxins are that so desperately need to be eliminated.  I’ve never had a clear answer.  Any doctors and scientists I’ve talked to dismiss the concept out of hand. Our livers and kidneys and sweat glands do a very good job day in and day out dealing with any potential toxins in our bodies and the idea that we have stockpiled nasties that need a diet of avocado and wheat grass juice to get rid of has no basis I can find in any reputable scientific research.

But it sticks.  Detoxing is everywhere.  I saw a “daily detox drink” in the supermarket yesterday.  Try typing “detox diet” into Google, or Amazon for that matter, and you’ll be inundated.  What I’m not sure about it is whether it’s a bad thing.  The “detox” diets tend to be better than say, umpteen burgers and fries. It certainly offends my scientific pedantry and in some cases selling food as “detoxifying” probably comes dangerously close to fraud.  But if it is a concept that has emerged from science and now has mutated from its strict scientific meaning into a different, populist, notion that encourages healthy eating, is it harmful?

I’m really not sure.  Anything that promotes a better diet is to be praised, but what level of myth, fraud or disingenuousness is OK to do this?  Any thoughts?

PS. Sorry for the gap over the last month, I’ll be blogging more from now on, that is if anyone is bothered.