Water and Proper Hydration Concerns?

Do you really have to make sure that your care recipient drinks eight full glasses of water every day?

The simple answer? Probably not unless their doctor says that you do. And even then, it might be less water than you expect.

An average sized drinking glass out of my kitchen cabinet holds 1 2/3 cups of water, with one cup being 8 ounces. So a standard glass of water is almost two servings out of the 8 servings recommended to keep properly hydrated.

Drink 5 water glasses full of water in a day, or 5 bottles of water, and you most likely have drank your recommended allotment of water for the day. But it is not even that simple, since the water does not all have to come from clear water. That tea your mother had with breakfast can count towards water intake. Yes, the tea and lemon and sugar all change it a bit, but there is still water needed for remaining hydrated in the cup of tea.

Water intake needs vary based on many factors, and on how much water is in the things we eat or drink. If you are concerned about keeping your care recipient properly hydrated then you should consult their primary care physician to find out how their hydration levels are doing and to advise you on the proper plan for dietary and water intake. Something that not many people consider is that too much water can also be a danger under the wrong circumstances, so if you have concerns about hydration in your loved one ask about it the next time you accompany them to the doctor's office.

McDonald's gambling on diabetic getting sugar in their coffee

I went down to Wal Mart with my mom yesterday, and as I was leaving I stopped to get us each a cup of coffee at the McDonalds in there. They had to make a fresh pot, so I asked if I should take the stuff I had bought out to the car and come back. Yes, so I did. When I got back they were having some trouble with the creamer dispenser so I told them I would grab a few things I had forgot from inside the store and be back after the coffee in a few minutes.

I got back to get the coffee and there is a kit that seemed to be very new to the concept of fast food at the counter in place of the person I had initially had serving me. He found the coffee's all ready prepared on the back counter by the coffee maker and slapped two lids on them and sat them on the counter. I turned the things around and could not find any marks for what was in which cup, so I asked him which one was the one with sugar in it. By this time the other gal had come back. The kid stared for a moment and said "I dunno... the one on the left?" His companion seemed almost as unimpressed with that response as I was, however, I can hardly let her off the hook since she is the one that prepared them and sat them out unmarked.

After a bit of debate and suggestions that it was the one on the left (big help there), I informed them that it was important I know because the person the coffee was for was a diabetic. So, the gal decided that they could just dump one out and make it extra cream only. I stopped that right quick with a reminder that they needed a new cup, since there would still be sugar in the one they were dumping if it was indeed the one with the sugar in it. By this time we had the manager's attention as well, and there was also a poor store employee trying to get something for having during his break. Poor Wal Mart employee spent half his break trying to get one of them to hand him an ice cream.

They finally settled on giving me two new coffees and still were not certain which one had the cream in it and which the extra sugar. URRGH!!!! Then I had to remind them I had ordered a soda and needed to have it and the receipt - which the kid had just crumpled.

Dang place scares me. They should take any order for an item without sugar or salt *VERY* seriously, because there are a lot of diabetics out there that it really does matter and you can not just guess "The one on the left?" What really got me though? I had not even got a sincere sounding "Sorry for the mix up, Ma'am," out of any of them - not even the manager.

In my opinion, in-store McDonald's are not the place to train new employees. They should be made up of workers that have been trained at other McDonald's restaurants and transfered into the in-store branches - possibly with a small increase in pay for the trouble of being shuffled. The kid-in-training was very obviously over his head and I'm not sure the other employee was all that coordinated given how much fluttering she did between helping me and helping the other man that was there on break and talking to the trainee and manager and just standing looking off into the nothingness of who knows where.

Milk cancels out tea's heart-healthy benefits

I was reading through my June issue of Shape magazine and found an entry in the Eat Right News section where they say that adding milk to English Breakfast tea can cancel out the tea's heart-healthy benefits. This is according to a study by Verena Stangl, MD.

Shape magazine quoted the European Heart Journal as the source of their information, so I went on a search and located the article online to check what it says myself.

The article, which appeared in the European Heart Journal, was first received by the Journal in September of 2006 and Published in January 2007.

The study is credited to: Mario Lorenz, Nicoline Jochmann, Amélie von Krosigk, Peter Martus, Gert Baumann, Karl Stangl and Verena Stangl. With Stangel listed as the corresponding author.

The study included 16 women who drank either freshly brewed black tea, black tea with 10% skimmed milk, or boiled water as control.

The flow-mediated dilation* was found to be significantly improved when black tea was consumed as compared to plain boiled water, however the "addition of milk completely blunted the effects of tea".

Additional tests supported the findings, leaving the conclusion that milk counteracts tea's health effects on vascular function.

The study determined the cause was the caseins in the milk, which they determined likely formed complexes with the catechins in the tea.


Source:
Mario Lorenz , Nicoline Jochmann , Amélie von Krosigk , Peter Martus , Gert Baumann , Karl Stangl , and Verena Stangl
Addition of milk prevents vascular protective effects of tea
European Heart Journal Advance Access published on January 2, 2007, DOI 10.1093/eurheartj/ehl442.
Eur Heart J 28: 219-223.
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*I assume that meaning the flow of blood through the blood vessels??? I'm not a doctor, so not sure.