Not sure why I am bringing this up now, but one of the things I noticed a while back is that I have a tendency to not drink enough water in the winter. In the summer, I’m always really careful to keep hydrated, but it just sort of lapses in the winter. At any rate, more often than not, in the winter, if I am feeling a little run down and sluggish, I drink a couple big glasses of water, and in short order I am feeling much better. I’m wondering how many people are walking around dehydrated all the time, and not even realizing it.
When I was in the gulf war, we had a buddy system. Every time you wanted to take a piss the first month we were in country, your buddy watched you. If your urine was even remotely yellow, it was his job to sit you down in the shade and make you drink two large things of water. Dehydration comes on so fast and hard in the desert that there really is no room for error. Not to mention, your NCO would be in a world of shit if one of his troops had to go get treatment from the medics. So we were really on it all the time. I made it a key behavior then to every morning when I woke up, even if it was 4 am, to chug a liter of water just to get my system going. I still do it today, before I even make my morning coffee or tea.
And no, coffee, beer, and soda or juices don’t count. Just drink some damned water.
Again, not sure why I am bringing this up, other than I was watching some tv and thought “I’d really like a nice tall glass of water.” And so it was.
*** Update ***
I’m watching Chopped, and it has four female chefs going head to head, and the appetizer protein was duck testicles, leading to interviews with women earnestly saying “I’ve never worked with testicles before.”
And I laughed, because I am secretly 12 years old.
jeff
Being a drinker, I think I’m always dehydrated. Cannot be good. Thanks for the reminder!
Egg Berry
So, what you’re saying is drink water?
chopper
two large things of water? that an army term?
Arclite
Frustratingly my wife does this. She never drinks anything, then she gets headaches, then she takes advil and is in a grumpy mood.
The Moar You Know
Landed in the hospital a few years back thinking I was having a heart attack. The dizziness was from dehydration. They got two liters in me before I had to pee. That’s not good.
Listen to Mr. Cole, kids.
Soonergrunt
We always carried far more weight in water than ammo. So much water that we’d actually get heat cramps from not getting enough salts with all the water we were drinking.
@chopper: the term he was forgetting was “canteen” or “bottle”.
MikeJ
@Soonergrunt: A pint’s a pound the whole world round. Unless you use imperial pints, in which case it isn’t. Also too, if you mean a pound sterling, I don’t think many pubs are only a pound for a pint any more.
But yes, water weighs a lot.
andy
Winter is sneakier for dehydration- every breath you take pulls moisture right out of your body- and I get the headaches too if I don’t drink enough. I’m finding I’m having to neti pot more to keep my sinuses moist.
Roger Moore
I think you need to look up the meaning of “secretly”. That you’re 12 years old inside is well known among your more discerning readers.
cathyx
Many times also you can mistake being hungry for actually being thirsty. If you want to eat something, drink a glass of water and see if that doesn’t solve the hunger issue.
psychobroad
The new Chopped is next, Cole! I’ve seen this episode before, though not being 12 it didn’t occur to me to laugh at the chef who hadn’t worked with testicles before. ;)
Schlemizel
I have been drinking a lot more water, even more than I used to because of the lack of saliva. If find I can cramp up unless I take vitamins too. But as far as having a piss-buddy monitoring your output you should try catherterizing after 12 hours. Takes a good 10 minutes.
cathyx
Headaches are a good sign of dehydration. I get intestinal distress if I don’t drink enough water. With the heater running in the winter, the air is dry and that causes you to get dehydrated also.
Ron
I love Chopped! And yes, new episode tonight at 10:00pm. (Our tuesday night TV schedule is 9:00 Maddow, 10:00 Chopped, 11:00 Daily Show, 11:30 Colbert Report)
Schlemizel
Anybody here ever eaten testicles? I have eaten just about every other part of a cow, pig or sheep but never had the chance for “prairie oysters”. What do they taste like>
WeeBey
It’s really not that big a secret.
I read about it on a blog.
Benjamin Franklin
Water requires no processing before you bathe your cells in the elixir of life.
Flushing out all the other crap your body ingests or absorbs, is critical for
organ health. You can drink too much, but that is rarely a danger.
geg6
I love, love, love Chopped. What a challenge those baskets are!
I am catching up on The Voice at the moment. I love this curly haired blonde kid.
Svensker
Duck testicles? Do they carry them around inside, or something? I’ve seen a lot of mallards and none of ’em had anything hanging down low that I recall.
ETA: OK, I googled and they do carry them around inside, two small little almond sized thingies. Still like the idea of the duckies with the danglies.
ArchTeryx
@Svensker: Exactly so – they carry them internally, under the kidneys. Birds also have the neat trick of making ’em disappear when it isn’t breeding season (any excess weight is too much) so they have to be harvested at just the right time.
And that is your TMI ornithology lesson for tonight!
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
I never thought much about water and hydration when I lived back east, even in the steam bath gulf coast of Ms. And I’ve always been physically active, when not too ill for that.
Until I moved out west, especially the desert SW. You don’t sweat much here, or the sweat gets immediately evaporated in the bone dry air. And it has a tendency to fool you about your hydration levels.
The years I packed around the west wildernesses doing research for the forest service, I learned all about dehydration and what it could do to you. You either carried a lot of water, or risked girardia drinking out of mountain streams. Never got that, but seen folks who did, not fun.
gnomedad
Immaturity keeps you young; that’s how I see it.
debit
@geg6: The one that sang the Johnny Cash song? I loved him too.
I have to say this season has been really kind of uneven. Why are they showing us bad singers (and some have been quite bad) and then not showing some of the winners? It just makes no sense.
Schlemizel
@Svensker:
Yes, they are better designed then humans – the most delicate bits are hidden at the base of the wing. No kicking them in the family jewels!
Angela
@Roger Moore: Worst kept secret ever.
trollhattan
Cold weather suppresses thirst because being somewhat dehydrated helps preserve body heat by lowering insensible sweat.
So you have to force yourself to drink water.
Since chez Cole is where “it’s a dry heat” doesn’t apply, I have no comment on drinking water in summer. Our summer humidity is in the teens or twenties, so we guzzle it by the gallon.
Cheers!
The Pale Scot
Well, just as a historical note; I remember reading (way back in the day when boys still pretended to be fighting nazis etc) that the SAS “Rat Patrol” types were driving around Tunisia on less than a quart a day, at one point the Afrika Corp ration was one cup. But those guys all weighed less than 150 lbs and looked liked dried jerky. Even the guys in Afghanistan on foot patrols look beefy, as opposed the Viet guys. They are, I guess, carrying more stuff.
It’s nice to have a modern supply line behind you.
jrg
Will you be speaking at CPAC next year?
LongHairedWeirdo
If you need to rehydrate, yes, drink water.
But – if you drink coffee, tea, most American beers (not microbrews – I’ve had a pint microbrew that was stronger than two shots of whiskey – mind you, yeah, 16 oz versus 3, but still – *beer*), juice, or caffeinated soda, while you’re not rehydrating *as fast*, you are getting more liquid in your system, and that’s a good thing.
It’s just, a quart of tea – how much is that worth, once the tannins and the caffeine make you pee a bit? I dunno.
How much is a quart of water worth? One quart of water. What’s easier to track, then? Water.
And, how much coffee or tea will you drink if you’re dehydrated? Lots and lots. What will the caffeine do to you? Or, if you use juice, or soda, what will the sugar do to you?
For people who aren’t at risk of their health, you should notice that you have to pee a few times a day, and it shouldn’t be worse than pale yellow.
(One other point that can be important: if you eat a high fiber diet, you need more water. If you don’t understand why, look at a dried bean. Pretty hard, isn’t it? Look at a cooked (or canned) bean. Pretty soft, isn’t it? The difference is water. ’nuff said, without having to get gross? I hope so.)
kdaug
@Roger Moore: Beat me to it.
suzanne
There’s a GOP debate in my town tomorrow night and I wasn’t invited. I’m trying really hard not to take it personally.
I kinda wanna go heckle.
Schlemizel
@geg6:
I enjoy watching them work with weird ingredients but hate the “human interest” bits and trash talking.
Its also strange that the judges know the cooks have oddball crap in the basket, often stuff they have never seem before, no time to prepare & very little time to cook but speak to them as if they screwed up a scrambled egg and toast.
I think luck has as much to do with winning as cooking ability. I bet the winner is not always the person whos restaurant you would insist on eating at. But it is fun
Tom S
Ah yes, the delightful purified, or recycled, or something…water on US bases in Iraq. Not bad when ice cold, but almost undrinkable when warm. When it was 120+ degrees, you drank a bottle every time you went outsdie.
kindness
Duck testicles…..how big are they? They gotta be tiny. Somehow in birds because it’s all up the cloaca I never gave testicles a second thought, but yea, they gotta have ’em too.
SamR
This post, the update, and the comments, are everything I love about this blog (well, it would be if there was a picture of Tunch or Lily). That is all.
Schlemizel
@LongHairedWeirdo:
I was just reading about sugar cane workers who are forced to work in very high heat without water breaks & no access to water. They are dieing very young from kidney failure.
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/12/7578/thousands-sugar-cane-workers-die-wealthy-nations-stall-solutions
Probably gonna switch to honey, this is depressing as hell
WaterGirl
@Schlemizel: I read that and think “ouch”. I don’t think I caught whether that is a permanent thing for you, or just temporary. Hoping for the latter, of course. I can only imagine that it gets even less fun each time you have to do it.
Last week when you talked about how discerning your taste buds are (my recollection, not your words) I was even more bummed for you that you can’t taste anything. I am hoping you get to see some movement in the right direction very soon.
Not sure if you ever saw my comment (months ago) about my mom having radiation for mouth cancer and losing her saliva. I think that was the worst part of things for her, and she had a lot of crappy things to contend with. I can imagine it might not sound like that big a deal to some people, but having seen her go through that, I may have some sense of how hard that is.
Sending good thoughts your way. (Pretty much every day when I read balloon juice.)
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar puppies. Here’s an armload for ya.
MikeJ
@jeffreyw: That’s not what I pictured when I heard the punchline, “hey lady, if you’re going to drown those puppies can I have the one with the pink nose?”
debit
@jeffreyw: PUPPIES!
waratah
@Schlemizel: I have only had them breaded and fried and looked like fried oysters. I guess kind of like an oyster?
Friend’s hubby bought some home and asked her to cook them. She called me over and I looked at them and since the had a membrane I told her to try and simmer them to get the membrane off. We could not stand the smell so we threw them away. He could smell it and did not say a word. Do not know what we did wrong.
Mary Jane Leach
My chiropractor started me drinking two glasses of water in the morning before eating anything – it flushes out the histamines that accumulate in your system over night. I’ve hardly had to take any anti-histamines since then. Also, winter dry heat dries out your respiratory system, so it’s really important to drink water, since you tend to breathe recycled air in the winter as well.
Cat Hair Everywhere
Glad to have the reminder! I usually drink tons of water, but just haven’t been in the mood lately. I’ve also noticed how tired I’ve been the past week or so. Hmmmm….. should probably go get the big cup out now. Also had some fried okra with my Shrove Tuesday pancakes, so maybe water will help me feel less slug-like.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: Oh my gosh, they are so cute! Are they little baby labs?
Schlemizel
@WaterGirl:
Agreed the lost of saliva is more a problem than the lost of taste. Dr. said to not expect the saliva to get better but the taste might – its been 5 months now & am am losing hope on that front. They did not properly prepare me for this situation. Now I wish I had taken a couple of weeks & gotten more information & opinions. Given I caught it so early I probably was a good candidate for surgery instead of radiation.
Yeah, the other thing is twice a day & after 2 weeks it is not really getting any easier. It has some odd components but I’ll spare you the details. Supposed to be forever.
geg6
Hey, is anyone else intigued by the promos for the new NBC show “Awake”? Anyone heard any scuttlebutt on it?
Veritas
Wow, gas prices are rising even faster than expected.
How high will they go? How is this going to impact Obambi’s election prospects? Not good for Obambi–he can go ask Mr. Carter about what happens to Presidents who run for reelection in a time of expensive gasoline.
LT
A related public service announcement: I went to Colorado some years ago (been tons of times, but it was only this time that this happened), and I started getting bad headaches. My sis lived at 7,000 feet or so, and I thought it was altitude. Then a friend said: drink a bunch of water. I drank a bunch of water. Headaches gone. Higher altitudes – at least in climes like CO – are very DRY, and they will fuck you up.
El Tiburon
Question on drinking water: if I have two or three cups of coffee in the morning, does that count as having two or three cups of water as well?
What about tea? If I have a big glass of tea for lunch, does that count as a big glass of water?
Or does the coffee/tea somehow cancel the water out? I don’t drink much water, but I drink the coffee in the morning and a fair amount of tea (decaf in the evening).
Soonergrunt
@geg6: It looks like a fascinating premise. The actor, who hasn’t been named in any of the promos yet to my knowledge, is Jason Isaacs.
Soonergrunt
@El Tiburon: Caffeine is a diuretic. Therefore coffee and tea are NOT substitutes for water, especially when one is dehydrated. In fact, you need to drink more water after consuming coffee or tea to keep your hydration level up.
Schlemizel
@waratah:
So, pretty mild & a little salty?
Heart is great, it taste like rich meat from the animal it came from – no mud/barnyard taste at all
Kidney tastes like barnyard, not manure but decaying vegetation. I have had it different ways and some are better than others but none of them taste ‘clean’
Liver – for those of you have not eaten it – sort of mineral-y, like licking a clean stone. Done right I like it but overcooked it is awful
sweetbreads – they are smooth & the one time I had them they reminded me of properly done liver (no grittyness) but tasted sort of like bacon.
Marrow – nice fatty feel but I have not ever had it when I thought it was a wonderful taste. pretty mild.
Intestines – had them grilled, I’ll put this mildly, they tasted like shit. You would have to be very poor to eat this
PurpleGirl
A friend was visiting me from L.A. He usually drinks a lot of soda and doesn’t like water. But while he was her in NYC, he was drinking a lot more water — our water tastes better than the L.A. water does.
jeffreyw
@WaterGirl: They are a basset mix. The owner of the momma dog saw they were mutts and left them outside at the curb. A neighbor rescued them and brought them in to the shelter where they were cleaned up and fed. Some folks are just mean bastards. More here.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@jeffreyw:
Now that pic just made my day, jeffrey!
PTirebiter
@Schlemizel: Very bland as I recall. I can’t think of anything comparable off hand but the texture and mental imagery should keep demand at a minimum. Maybe with some special seasoning or with the right side (salted dick) but in this economy I’d pass.
magurakurin
@Veritas:
suck on this
This is your lunch.
This is your lunch being eaten by Obambi.
fuckwit.
suzanne
Y’all need to come hang out with me in Phoenix in the summer. We can talk about dehydration as we scorch from the inside out.
geg6
debit @22:
Yeah, that’s the guy. I loved that.
I’m not sure that it’s all that different from the first season. I remember some bad acts (still better than most on American Idol) getting face time last year, too. I have to admit to a prejudice in favor of a particular contestant this year. Her name is Jordis and she was one of the best on another show a few years ago, “Rock Star: INXS.”. She was terrific on that. She sang a version of The Man Who Sold the World that just kicked fucking ass. She rocked Heart Shaped Box, too.
waratah
@Schlemizel: I am not too keen on kidneys but I do love fresh liver not overdone and with grilled onions.
PurpleGirl
@Schlemizel: I’ve had sweetbreads and liked it. What do you think of tripe? I have a friend who loves tripe — one weekend I let him cook a pot full if he didn’t try to make me try them. (Tripe has an awful odor when cooking.
Cap'n Swag
This white guy on “Chopped” is too aware that he’s on TV. I’m afraid these kind of shows are allowing people to think it’s dandy to display an arrogant persona.
uptown
Humidifiers help in the winter if you have to heat the house. Forced air systems are miserable if can’t add some moisture to the air.
Allen
Speaking of dehydration, I had been taught for a long time that if your pee was darker than lemonade you were dehydrated.
As a further aside, my oldest cat, Kitzel (not the spawn of Satan) has decided to help me with this post and, at the same time, show off her butt to me.
joes527
I try to drink 1.5 gallons of water every day. That probably isn’t much for hiking through the desert, but it is quite a lot for sitting at a desk. An added advantage is that it gets me to step away from my desk every hour or so… like a cigarette break without the cancer stick.
Schlemizel
@Cap’n Swag:
Yeah, that & the guy whining about his mom’s cancer. Yeah, thats horrible & I hope she gets a lot better very fast but so what? It has nothing to do with the game.
I think the producers make them do these things because the assume nobody will watch without the “drama”. They may be right but gad I hate it.
Narcissus
There’s a difference between consuming testicles and eating them if you know what I mean wink wink nudge nudge say no more bob’s your uncle and I think you do.
WaterGirl
@Schlemizel:
Okay, reading that makes my blood boil. If only we could go back in time. Tough stuff. You seem to be handling all of this really well.
I suppose you have tried taking zinc to help with the no taste issue?
Schlemizel
@PurpleGirl:
The only times I have had tripe it has been in minuto which has a lot of guts in it so it loses its personality. There is a French preparation I always wanted to try but never got around to asking the butcher for it.
Jimbo316
@Schlemizel: Chicken, of course! Actually, a cross between frog and chicken.
muddy
@jrg:
In a tube top.
Schlemizel
@WaterGirl:
I lie a lot, not taking it as well as I pretend. But what am I going to do? I have a deal with my wife that nothing happens to me as long as she is alive & I’m sticking to it.
No, I have not yet. The Dr was pretty definite that it won’t help. Still probably should as I have nothing to lose.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: Those puppies are adorable, but it’s heartbreaking to think that someone would do that to the pups. And what about the mom dog?? I have no words.
I wouldn’t have guessed there was any basset in those pups, but I guess I couldn’t see their little bodies. My 7-month old pup is a lab/brittany mix, but everyone things he’s a little golden retriever.
muddy
I just raised the humidity in here from 28 to 41% in only 2 hours by hanging wrung out rags on the wooden rack. Well 2 wooden racks, the big ones make great forts for kids and animals as well. The cloths that really work great are the microfiber ones, because they hold so much more water without dripping.
Cap'n Swag
@Schlemizel:
Right. There’s enough drama with four chefs trying to cook a dish out of thin air with 30 minutes. Leave the other stuff out.
I think the way these competition shows rub off of people is comparable to the way Limbaugh and Hannity rub off on rural yokels writing rambling editorials in their local newspaper. I don’t know why people try to emulate the worst qualities of entertainment.
Annamal
Camelbaks (those weird water pouches with the tubes that people wear as backpacks) are awesome for hydration. It’s pretty hard to get dehydrated when you’ve got a water source bobbling in front of your nose.
jeffreyw
@WaterGirl: Pics of your puppy?
Lojasmo
I only drink coffee (with half and half) and ale.
Three or four times a week I drink 3 oz of water at night.
Serious.
PurpleGirl
@Schlemizel: This guy really liked tripe in large amounts — cooked in a soup. He’d go to Chinese restaurants where he could order off the menu and ask for tripe. (When he was growing up with his grandmother he learned to eat all the cheap organ meats Americans didn’t buy or eat.)
WaterGirl
@Schlemizel: If you are able to pretend, maybe that’s half the battle? I know it doesn’t help, but I really wish things could be better for you. I will continue to hope. Oh, and screw the doctors, unless they think the zinc could harm you. I think my dog knows more about supplements than most doctors.
CaseyL
Duck testicles?? A protein appetizer of duck testicles???
I…just don’t know what to say. What made them think of serving duckballs? Did they dress a duck, look meditatively at the entrails, and say to themselves, “I can do something with this.”
How many duckballs do you need for an appetizer? If they’re the size of almonds, I’d say you need at least six of ’em…
Which makes me think of the scene in “The Last Emperor,” where the court eunuchs are fleeing The Forbidden City during the Revolution, and each of them is carrying a little lacquer case containing their testicles. That scene floored me for any number of reasons, not least of which was thinking about what it must be like, to keep one’s vanished manparts in a little box. Assuming the custom was an ancient one, did the eunuchs ever think about those little boxes? Did they meditate about it? Ever open the box to gaze sadly upon their severed manparts?
At least the duck is dead when you take his balls for hors d’oeuvres. “You may take away my balls, but you will never take away my dignity!”
Haute cuisine is weird, baby.
Soonergrunt
@Annamal: Like everything that makes sense, it took the Army about 20 years to integrate Camelbaks into service.
For the longest time, they weren’t allowed under any circumstances. And then they were only by personal purchase and only by Soldiers who had been prior heat casualties and only in the field. And then they were only in the field, but by everyone (and still only personal purchase) and so on and so on and so on.
Now, they finally issue them, and allow them as part of the duty uniform.
Citizen_X
In any season, in any climate, the urine color is a reliable guide to the state of one’s hydration. It should be straw yellow. If it’s darker, you should be drinking more fluids. If it’s colorless or nearly so, you should drink less.
And notice that diuretics, such as coffee or beer, give you pale piss when you’re peeing a lot. Afterwards, when they’ve dehydrated you, your urine ends up a darker color.
Lojasmo
@PurpleGirl:
The healthiest meat is organ meat.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: I don’t have most of my recent photos synced with my computer yet, but I did find some early photos and put them up on imgur.
rikyrah
Dude,
a few weeks ago, my lips began to chip and crack like they’ve never done before. No lip balm would satisfy it, and it began to spread to above my lips.I was freaking out, thinking I had all sort of disease; went to the doctor, and she was like – you’re DEHYDRATED.
I was like – HUH?
Sure enough, began drinking three liters of water a day, and the cracked lips went away.
DRINK your water, folks!!
Lojasmo
@Citizen_X:
Interesting. I just did a napkin calculation. Every gram of alcohol drunk causes 10g of urine output. There 60g of alcohol in a 20 0z portion, which would add 600ml. Of urine output.
An IPA, at 6% ABV, is entirely volume neutral.
Annamal
@Soonergrunt: It’s good they’ve got access to them.
For me the huge convenience was not having to twist to grab a water bottle from my pack…I can only imagine how much less convenient it would be to try and hydrate in while in full kit.
gnomedad
@geg6:
asiangrrlMN posted about it over at ABL’s place along with the video of the pilot.
trollhattan
@Soonergrunt:
That used to be SOP but they’ve kinda debunked the amount of diuretic effect from caffeinated drinks. Not that they’re not somewhat diuretic, they are, just that there’s still water absorbed into the system, but not as much as from regular water or a decent sports drink.
When hyponatremia deaths started popping up they looked at this stuff anew. But I can remember when coaches told players to never drink water and handed out salt. When I worked in a steel mill there were salt tablet dispensers all over the joint. The whole science seems to swing from one extreme to another.
jeffreyw
@WaterGirl: A beautiful dog! And you! You are so young in that photo, it must have been a really early photo.
eemom
There is nothing like breastfeeding to kick start the hydration instinct.
Granted it’s been 13 years since my last stint as a moo cow, but I’ll never forget how I instantly got thirsty every time the baby latched on. We had a five gallon jug with a little plastic faucet perpetually perched on the kitchen counter and I used to go through at least one a day. Husband said he didn’t know it was possible for a human to drink that much water.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Dispatch from our stranger than fiction files
Finally, we will git sheriff Joe’s yeoman efforts to ferret out the Kenyan Usurpers birth cert. Apparently, the twoof required an electron microscoped mapping of sekrit goings on only found in the seedy jungle that is Orly Taint’s navel. Our long national nightmare is near over. Or it has just begun.
And now Rick Santorum has been bweifed, I reckon.
Sit Ubu sit. Good dog!
Soonergrunt
@Annamal: I was used to doing it, but yes, drinking from a tube is a LOT easier than trying to pull a canteen bottle from its pouch on my hip, opening it, drinking, and returning it to the pouch while on the move. It was every bit the pain in the ass you might think it was.
They’re also more tactical. Hard plastic canteens make a splashing noise that can heard for several meters, especially at night, so Soldiers were taught to always empty the canteen, especially on patrol. Camelbaks collapse as they are emptied, negating the splashing effect, and the vacuum also keeps them cooler longer.
Gin & Tonic
I’ve had two “things” of rye whiskey this evening. Probably not following the right prescription.
trollhattan
@Lojasmo:
Uh, kinda depends on the organ’s environment. Liver=filter, nomsayn’?
Soonergrunt
@trollhattan: We never took salt in any way other than sprinkled on our food.
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL:
Offal (innards and such) tends to be the food of the poor. Even if, after time, it gentrifies, it is based off the the needs of poor people to feed themselves either off of what the wealthy left behind or to make sure that the use every damn bit of the the animal that was possibly edible.
trollhattan
@Soonergrunt:
Seems like the way to go. My understanding is sodium salt is so ubiquitous in food there’s seldom a reason to add it and more commonly, reasons to lower it. I try to steer clear of the Gatorade type drinks with a lot of the stuff, look for potassium instead.
Mind, I’ve never humped an 80-pound pack across a summertime desert, which must put unusual demands on the body. Backpacking in the mountains and summertime cycling are the only times I push the envelope. Don’t miss the steel mill one bit.
Violet
Easy test for dehydration–put your hand out flat, palm down. Pinch the skin on the top of your hand, just below the first knuckle. If the skin goes back to normal quickly, within a second or two, you are hydrated enough. If it goes back slowly, you’re dehydrated.
PurpleGirl
@Lojasmo: In the 1950s many Americans had stopped eating the organ meats except for liver and maybe kidneys or tongue; and in ethnic dishes. Meat for Americans meat beef muscle and other animal muscle. I guess this was in reaction to now being able to afford the more expensive cuts of beef. But my friend was being raised in Florida by his Grandmother and they didn’t have much money. She was a little old Italian immigrant and she could afford the organ meats. So he got used to them and liked them. I was raised (in NYC) thinking they were icky with a father who wanted mostly steak.
Bruce S
Nice Andy Rooney parody, John.
freelancer
@gnomedad:
Yeah the pilot is awesome. I even wrote NBC and told them so.
Soonergrunt
@trollhattan: The heaviest load I ever carried in the desert was 123 pounds when I was a PFC Machine Gunner, carrying the M-60 machine gun.
It sucked donkey balls.
The gun that replaced the M-60, called the M-240, weighs 5 pounds more, and Soldiers always wear body armor now that weighs between 36 and 44 pounds depending on the size of the Soldier and the corresponding size of the body armor. Nothing else changed for the Machine Gunner’s load.
khead
Winner! By 25.
I am thinking we should challenge BJ’s own Dr.J – er, DougJ to a game.
Forget meeting up at bars….. pick a gym.
trollhattan
@Soonergrunt:
Yeesh. I’m picturing my ankles grenading just thinking about it. They worry about NFL linemen? How many of our vets can still walk like normal folk?
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: Time travel. I invented it. Have I not mentioned that before?
Dave
This post was another reminder of why balloon-juice has become one favorite places to visit every day.
dead existentialist
I’ve only skimmed the comments, John, so somebody may have beat me to this. BUT, precious bodily fluids, man.
Keep yours from being sapped.
Mike E
What does your average Rooskie drink, Mandrake?
Mike E
Dang it! Missed the Ripper quote by two minutes…I owe dead a non-flouridated soda.
Montarvillois
Love Chopped. My recurring fantasy is to rent their kitchen, invite over friends with capable cooking skills, and let them go at it in a Chopped-formatted competition. Have the Fire Department on standby then let ‘er rip. What a party!
peggy
Schlemizel balloon-juice2/21/2012
Thanks for the cane cutter kidney failure link. The cause is unknown- dehydration, pesticides, something else? The companies are discouraging the docs from BU and the CDC doesn’t care. The only positive outcome is that they blood test the workers so that the poor guys are fired before they get terminally ill.
One thing I would like to know is whether the kidney is an organ that can heal itself or if damage is irreversible.
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/12/7578/thousands-sugar-cane-workers-die-wealthy-nations-stall-solutions
Schlemizel
@CaseyL:
You can’t be sure the duck was dead. A capon is a rooster that has been castrated. They grow large & fat. Among the other things I wonder about is, how did they learn that this would happen? You know, somebody somewhere had to be the first to try it & it can’t be easy. Why would they do that?
Schlemizel
@Lojasmo:
I’d disagree about how healthy organ meat is. Kidney & liver can have a lot of heavy metals & ofter stuff. Some are high in cholesterol. & if you are prone to gout they are high in purine. But they generally are low in fat so in moderation won’t kill you,
Schlemizel
@peggy:
That was the wrong link, the one I wanted, and now have to find blamed it on severe dehydration over the course of years. This one suggests it could be pesticides so thats not really better but not germane to the discussion of water.
Amir Khalid
Late to this thread — despite appearances, I’m not at my laptop 24/7. But after I was diagnosed with heart failure back in ’06 the doctors told me to keep my water consumption down to a liter or so a day. This I faithfully observed until Ramadan the next year, when I was hospitalized with dehydration and anemia. So now, I drink rather more than 1 liter/day.
IrishGirl
Winter can be as dry, if not drier than Summer. Here in AZ (It’s a dry heat), it’s not uncommon to have humidity as low as 4%. I sit at my desk at work and drink water all day long, year round. When I first moved to Phoenix from Florida about 13 years ago no one told me to drink lots of water. So I got here after sitting on a plane drinking soda after soda, then went out and partied the night I landed drinking tons of booze, and then got the flu. I would have been fine if I was back in FL. But in AZ I was in the hospital within 48 hours so dehydrated and weak that I could not raise my head above heart level without fainting. That’s effed up. The thing about the desert (as John said) is that you sweat and it’s so dry it evaporates before you can even feel it on your skin! So you don’t know you’re sweating….that’s what’s so deadly about it.
Julia Grey
I had trouble having enough milk for my first, who was kind of a mealy-mouthed nurser (unlike my son, who latched on like a lamprey). I didn’t realize that the other, perhaps more important part of my problem was not drinking enough fluids.
If I had it to do over again, I’d put that 5-gallon jug on MY kitchen table and FORCE myself to drink until I sloshed.