Belgium will suffocate for two days. Temperatures might approach 40 degrees in places tomorrow. To avoid problems related to this heat, it is better to focus on hydration.
But this is not always well applied. 3 out of 4 Belgians do not drink enough water. For the elderly, this rises to 8 out of 10 people. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but I forget”, confirms one of them to our microphone. Glasses of water, however, are our best allies in these difficult times. “Ideally, you should drink 8”, announces Nicolas Guggenbûhl, Dietitian, who advises consuming 1.5 to 2 liters of water per day.
But it’s not just by drinking that you can stay hydrated. “We have almost 1 liter of water that can come from the food we eat, if we eat enough vegetables, fruits or raw vegetables a day”, says the dietitian. If there is a lack of water, the body will react immediately. “Dehydration, even slight, is already associated with a decrease in performance, both physical and mental. If we continue in dehydration, we will be in a state of confusion which can go as far as a coma”, confirms Nicolas Guggenbuhl.
It is also better to reach these quantities by consuming in small doses so as not to consume everything at once.