# Why are we supposed to drink 8 glasses of water?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-supposed-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water/123364>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 2002, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-supposed-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water/123364 "2002-08-11T04:42:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-supposed-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water/123364/1 "2002-08-11T04:42:53Z")

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[This article](http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20020809_497.html) says that we don’t need to drink 8 glasses a day. Which is good news to me since I top off at 7 even when I’m really trying.

Question is: what are the supposed benefits of drinking 8 glasses a day? And why 8 glasses instead of, say, 7 or 9?

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-supposed-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water/123364/2 "2002-08-11T04:48:51Z")

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[This has been discussed very recently](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=118397)

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-supposed-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water/123364/3 "2002-08-11T04:58:32Z")

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I don’t know about the OP one way or another, but I was always annoyed the way people always say “8 glasses of water” without specifying how big the glass is.

I mean, glasses are all different sizes. A glass can range from a little 4 ounce glass for grapefruit juice to a huge 20 ounce glass for iced tea. If you mean 8 ounces, would it hurt you so much to actually say 8 ounces? How do you expect me to know how much a “glass” is? Actually, there is a fluid measure of 8 ounces, but its name is “cup.”

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**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-supposed-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water/123364/4 "2002-08-11T10:46:30Z")

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Mental note: When searching, change date from “Yesterday” and newer. :smack: