Kidneys, water and macrobiotics

[Waco]

Hello all!

I have just been thinking about the use of water in a macrobiotic diet. In all other diets i have read about and also in the herbal medicine course i am studying at the moment a good supply of pure water is recommended (8 glasses a day kinda thing!). This is ment to generally help the body function better, and also is said to benifit the kidneys, helping to flush toxins out of the body.

From what i have read about macrobiotics this amount of fluid (water) is not recommended, and it actually says about minimising water intake in some places. I understand that water is yin, thou am not sure why that is a problem if the body will just be flushing it out again (maintaining balance) and taking some of the toxins with it.

Any thoughts on this would be appreiciated

Thankyou all

Mark

We often hear of the general 'drink 8 glasses of water a day'. Yet, we are all different - differing sizes, differing activity levels, and differing diets - and therefore in need of differing quantities of water. The macrobiotic approach would be tailored to each individual - we all have different conditions. On this basis, it is often suggested that you 'drink when you are thirsty'. This also allows us and teaches us to get more in touch with our bodies, as opposed to having the standard 2 litre bottle of water on our desk that we MUST finish. Obviously, if you are eating more steamed or blanched vegetables, as opposed to baked flour products, you would require less water.
Drinking excess water also places additional burdon on the kidneys. Yes, the kidneys will flush out the excess, but they do 'work' to do this. This could result, in time, in overworked and weakened kidneys.