Christmas is the highlight of the year for many people and that certainly includes the chance to indulge in all of your festive favourites. While cracking out the bubbly and tucking into the chocolates, however, be mindful that drinking water can help to prevent hangovers, dehydration and weight gain.
Water is a gift from nature that is essential in keeping the body healthy, which is why it is so important to make sure that you drink enough water. At Christmas keeping one eye on your health while enjoying festive treats will help to keep you feeling at your best letting you make the most of the time with family and friends.
Can drinking water help hangovers?
Enjoying a glass of wine, beer, or a gin and tonic, is part and parcel of the festive season for many people yet, as anyone who has ever had one too many knows, the morning after can be far less enjoyable.
Drinking water is a good way to help fend off the symptoms of a hangover and to speed up your recovery. That thumping headache that greets you as you wake up the morning after overdoing it is most likely a result of dehydration.
As alcohol is a diuretic [1] it makes you go to the toilet more often, which can leave your body dehydrated. Clearly, the more you drink the more pronounced this effect can be. As such dehydration is recognised as a major cause of hangover symptoms, which means drinking water when out makes sense. Alternating between drinking water and alcohol is a good choice to maintain hydration, but even just sipping water throughout the night will help. Certainly, at the very least, make sure you have a glass of water before going to bed.
If you throw caution to the wind and wake up feeling every drink from the night before, drinking water will be your friend in the recovery process by helping to rehydrate your body.
Can drinking water help you avoid putting on weight?
It's not just the booze though that can be a cause of overindulgence at Christmas. With tables filled with delicious food, meals out with work and friends and a house stuffed with treats, overeating is par for the course.
Gaining a few pounds at Christmas [2] is not uncommon but drinking water can help you to avoid overeating. Drinking water before a meal has been linked to consuming fewer calories by making people feel fuller [3] before beginning to eat and, as a result, helping to cut down the chance of overeating.
It is also easy to mistake thirst for hunger so drinking water is an excellent way to help control your appetite.
And, of course, being free from calories and fat, drinking water makes a better choice of drink than alcohol or fizzy drinks if you want to lose weight or avoid adding extra calories when indulging in rich food.
Enjoy filtered drinking water
To enjoy tasty, quality water to complement your festive celebrations and to keep your body hydrated filtered water is an excellent choice.
Doulton Water Filters makes a range of water filters from compact under-counter filters to portable filter bottles.
