A whopping 70 per cent of our body is made up of water, and to keep our bodies functioning at their best we have to replenish it. The foods we eat and drink usually provide our body with some of the water we need, but nothing beats drinking the real deal.

Sure it doesn’t taste as good as coffee, soda, or beer, but here are seven reasons you should include more water in your diet.

1. Helps with Weight Loss

One of the easiest ways to lose weight is to replace all the sugary sweet drinks we love with water, at meal-time. Just one serving of soda can carry as much as 150 calories. One serving of juice can have as much as 136.

And let’s be honest:

Not many of us actually pay attention to how many servings are in one container when we buy them.

So we could be racking up hundreds of calories in soda per day. If you’re looking to cut calories, here’s where you can start.

Along with being calorie-free, water also helps you burn calories; and can suppress your appetite if you drink enough before a meal.

2. Clearer Skin

Another great benefit of drinking water is clearer skin. This is as true for acne as it is for wrinkles. According to this website, one study showed that women who drank more water reduced the appearance of wrinkles over time.

Water also helps to keep pimples from popping up on your face by flushing your body of toxins. This helps to clear your skin of dirt and bacteria.

3. Cures Headaches

We often distrust the pharmaceutical companies as just providing us with more and more reasons to become legal druggies. So when a pain reliever brand recommends water for headaches, we pay attention.

Self-proclaimed headache expert, Excedrin, asserts that water can help to cure and manage migraines. The company cited a recent study showing that headaches are often closely linked to dehydration.

In the study, participants who gulped down an extra four cups of water per day suffered from a whopping 21 hours less of headaches than the control group, during the period of the study.

4. Improves Brain Function

Naturally, with headaches out of the way, the brain functions a hell of a lot better. Even when we’re lucky enough to miss the headache symptoms, without the right amount of water, our brain health suffers in other ways.

Some negative effects of dehydration related to brain function include:

• Poor memory
• Fatigue
• Inability to focus
• Insomnia
• Depression

These are definitely not problems any student wants to deal with in college. In fact, no one wants these problems, so reduce the likelihood of them popping up by drinking more water.

5. Great for Kidney Health

As we mentioned earlier, water helps to detox the body. Most of you also know that the kidney’s main function is to remove waste. The more water you drink, the easier it is for kidneys to do their jobs.

Drinking more water has also been shown to help with kidney stones. The water reportedly dilutes minerals that would otherwise crystallize into stones that are extremely painful to pass.

Scientists are still conducting studies to provide more information on the relationship between drinking water and the formation of kidney stones. But we think the science sounds legit, so far. And better safe than sorry!

6. Helps Prevent Hangovers

Who doesn’t drink the occasional booze in college? – especially during the holidays when there are no classes to be up for. But for many people, the downside of drinking is the hangover in the morning.

This happens because alcohol leads to increased loss of water. This often causes dehydration. Take a look at the symptoms of a hangover and being dehydrated; you’ll notice an eerie similarity.

To reduce the likelihood of that hangover, drink responsibly and space your liquor with water. Experts recommend a glass of water between drinks, and a big glass before bed.

7. Gives you a Happy Heart

The experts say that drinking water boosts your mood, but that’s not the kind of “happy heart” we’re referring to this time. We mean the literal one: the powerhouse we often take for granted, that’s sitting in our chest.

The American Heart Association confirms that drinking more water helps to ease the work of our powerhouse. When we are thirsty or not properly hydrated, the blood thickens, making it harder for the heart to do its job. So do your heart a favor. Drink more water.

In college, heart health is often not something we care too much about. We save those concerns for our 40s upwards. However, with an increase in young students and athletes dying from heart-related conditions, this is really not something we should ignore.

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Drinking more water is about the easiest and cheapest change towards a healthy diet that we can make for 2017. You might not make it to the gym, or compete in that 5KM run, but it won’t hurt to fill up on a little more water throughout the year.

About the Author

Alexis Chateau is the Founder of College Mate and Managing Director at Alexis Chateau PR. She is an activist, writer, and explorer. Follow her stories of trial and triumph at www.alexischateau.com.