About Those Ubiquitous Water Bottles

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/03/nhealth103.xml

The headline says, "No benefit in drinking eight glasses of water a day, scientists say."

As some of you know, my 87-year-old dad was a farmer in eastern Washington for about 50 years. He spent most of every day out in the sun and wind. And, unlike the suburban girls and women we see walking around the mall with their water bottle handy, he never carried water with him. He had to have been in a constant state of dehydration. He normally worked from 8 till noon, and 1 till 6, without a water break. Occasionally he would drop by the house for a drink of water around 10 am and 3 pm. And I recall seeing canvas water bags during wheat threshing or hay barning operations when everyone was working hard. And he never carried water when backpacking until the mid-1980s (he drank from the streams). And since he is still fit enough to go backpacking and often outhiking guys 20 years his junior, I have to conclude that the headline is right!