common sense will save us.

recently i've become a compulsive water drinker.

at home, i'm a loyal diet coke customer. but i can't count the number of times i've been warned of the dangers of the posion that is ASPARTAME. hence the water kick. or maybe it's because the coke in india tastes weird. and water's free & i'm feeling poor. either way, i thought i was making a positive change for my health. until an innocent google search turned my world upside down.

i figured if i'm gonna do this water thing, i'm gonna do it right. so i asked google, "how much water should i drink each day?" (embarrassing how rusty i am at this h2o thing.) and the first link i clicked on taught me--

the perils of DRINKING WATER

here's what i learned:

1. the recommended water intake is eight 8oz. glasses a day. you all knew this.

2. apparently this 8x8 number was arbitrarily determined, & could actually be harmful to some.

3. we much all be extremely cautious when drinking water, because at any moment we may die from drinking TOO MUCH.

case in point:

a young woman died after drinking 2 gallons of water & holding her pee, in a "hold your wee for a wii" contest.

several ecstasy users have died after drinking copious amounts of water after raves.

the evidence seemed sufficient enough. i started thinking about all of my near death experiences. like 9th grade, when me & rach took a break from writing papers at 1am to have a water bottle chugging competition. or last summer, on the way home from hilton head with the brooks family, when i was so convinced i was going to compromise myself on the way to the gas station that i was researching (via iphone) & implementing strategies to hold one's pee. (spread the legs, elevate the pelvis, repeat aloud ,"i do not have to pee, i do not have to pee...")

and then i thought some more. and then i got mad.

first off, refuting the 8 glasses of water a day rule seems akin to changing the food guide pyramid or robbing the planetary system of pluto. i don't care about the science. it's wrong.

and hearing about a couple kids hopped up on E drinking themselves to death, or a lady desperate enough for a video game system that she was willing to drown her insides, isn't going to scare me away from going through a few bottles of water each day.

and i wish we could stop inventing new fears, like death by drinking water, that an ounce of common sense should guard against. drink when you're thirsty. don't when you're not. case closed. i have enough worries already, like what growths i'm going to have in 30 years after a childhood of standing in front of the microwave.