• Question: I have always wondered why parents and teachers encourage us to drink as much water as we can. Why is it so healthy and why it is better then juice or pure orange juice. Is it to do with the chemicals in it?

    Asked by to Clare, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Jess Smith

      Jess Smith answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      We need water for our body to function. It uses water in everything- making and repairing cells and tissue, brain function, in our blood – everything! Another important role it plays is in washing out the toxins in our body.

      The reason we can’t just have juice instead is because juice has too much sugar in it. So say we needed 8 glasses of water a day to help our bodies, if we had juice for all of them (which does have water in it too) then our teeth would be completely rotten!

      Hope this helps!

    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Water is really important for our body to function and, as Jess said, it is involved in many, many processes that go on inside us. Juice is delicious and having some is good to make sure we get our vitamins, but it does contain lots of sugar, so if we just drank juice *all* the time, we would have rotten teeth and get too much sugar in our diet.

      (Don’t let me put you off drinking juice, though, just everything in moderation!)

    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      It is possible to drink too much water though – our bodies contain a finely balanced mixture of of salts sugars and other chemicals, if you consume too much water it’s possible to dilute them to the point that your organs stop working. It sometimes happens to athletes who make themselves drink lots and lots of water before or during an event – three litres an hour or more.

      So it’s good to drink plenty of water but don’t make yourself drink.

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