We live in unsettling times. Old certainties crumble daily: Jeremy Corbyn leads the Labour party; colouring books for adults
are bestsellers; man-buns exist. And now, most disorienting of all,
it’s apparently not even true that you’re supposed to drink eight
glasses of water a day. This bombshell comes from Aaron Carroll, a US
paediatrician who’s researched hydration and who rounded up the
evidence
in the New York Times: the notion that most of us walk around
dehydrated, he showed, is a myth. The web, which loves a good debunking
only slightly less than a good shaming,
went wild. So I know I’m courting fury by revealing that I still follow
the eight-glass rule, and that I think you should, too. Come at me,
debunkers! Although on second thoughts, could you hold on a minute while
I run to the bathroom?
Here’s the argument for my radical stance: there is no suggestion
eight glasses is bad; you’ll probably drink fewer sugary drinks; and
those toilet trips will stop you sitting, unhealthily,
at your desk all day. Plus following any such rule makes you more
attentive to what you’re putting into your system. In other words: the
eight-glass rule is wrong, on its own terms, but still useful. And I’m convinced all sorts of “rules for living” work this way.
Diets are an obvious example: on the rare occasions they work, it’s
probably because you’re thinking carefully about food, rather than any
specifics. (All manner of eating regimes based on dodgy science –
wheat-free, GMO-free, paleo
– could thus prove healthy if they result in you consuming less crap.)
Or take relationships: “once a cheater, always a cheater” plainly isn’t
universally true – but in the early stages of dating, it could be an
excellent strategy for filtering out jerks. Barack Obama’s trick
for avoiding “decision fatigue” – he always picks from a blue or grey
suit – doesn’t derive its value from those specific colours, or
garments; the point is that, with the rule in place, he needn’t think
further about clothes. Drink eight glasses of water a day, and nothing
else, and you’ll never have to wonder if you’re dehydrated, or drinking
too much Coke: for as long as you follow the rule, those worries are off
your agenda.
And
scientific research is only so much help in deciding which rules to
follow. Christmas came early for debunkophiles in August, when a major effort to rerun 100 psychology studies found more than 60% couldn’t be replicated.
For researchers, this is worrying – but for those of us who enjoy
plundering psychology research for ideas on better living, it probably
isn’t. Even the very strongest studies are true only for the general
population, or some subset of it, whereas you’re uniquely you – so a
conclusive finding that running alleviates depression, for example,
isn’t much personal use if running always makes you feel worse.
Conversely, a debunked finding about, say, the benefits of rising early
could still prove transformational – for you. And you’d surely be rather
strange if you abandoned that fruitful habit solely to “stay
scientific”. Anyway, you can’t stay in bed: you’ve got a busy day of
water-drinking ahead.
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