Are you drinking enough water? ⏲️ 6 Minute English — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:07Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.
2. 0:11I'm Phil, and I'm Beth.
3. 0:13Nowadays, I often see people carrying water bottles with them
4. 0:17to make sure they drink enough.
5. 0:19How much water do you drink a day, Phil?
6. 0:22Oh, I don't know. Um, maybe about a litre.
7. 0:26OK. And do you know how much water you should drink a day?
8. 0:31I think it's probably about two litres.
9. 0:34Ah, well, the number many people have heard is two litres a day.
10. 0:39Of course, everyone needs to drink some water.
11. 0:42Over half the human body is made up of it.
12. 0:45But exactly how much water do we need to stay healthy?
13. 0:49That's what we'll be discussing in this programme,
14. 0:52along with some useful new vocabulary as well.
15. 0:55And speaking of vocabulary, remember you can download all the new words
16. 0:59and phrases from this programme, plus worksheet exercises
17. 1:02to help you learn them on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
18. 1:06Great! but first I have a question for you, Phil.
19. 1:11I mentioned that over half the human body consists of water,
20. 1:15but there's an even higher percentage of water in our blood,
21. 1:19but how much? Is our blood
22. 1:22a) around 80% water?
23. 1:25b) around 90% water? Or c) 100% water?
24. 1:31I think it's around 80% water.
25. 1:34OK, I will reveal the correct answer later in the programme.
26. 1:38Our blood needs water so it can carry nutrients
27. 1:41to the body's cells and organs.
28. 1:44The amount recommended is often given as two litres a day.
29. 1:47But why? Here to discuss this with BBC World Service programme
30. 1:52'The Food Chain' is biologist, Professor John Speakman.
31. 1:56So, I'm not sure how it was arrived at,
32. 1:58but it seems to be a number that has taken grip
33. 2:01on a very large number of countries.
34. 2:03So, if you look at government recommendations around the world,
35. 2:06they're pretty much all the same,
36. 2:08they pretty much all say everybody's got to be drinking two litres of water.
37. 2:13Professor Speakman doesn't know how the number
38. 2:16of two litres a day was arrived at - how it was decided or calculated.
39. 2:21Nevertheless, the idea of drinking two litres a day has taken grip
40. 2:26on many governments around the world.
41. 2:29When you say an idea has 'taken grip' on something,
42. 2:32you mean it's taken control of it.
43. 2:34Yes, Professor Speakman says that pretty much all governments
44. 2:39are giving pretty much the same recommendation.
45. 2:42He uses the phrase 'pretty much' to mean 'almost'.
46. 2:46For example, 'pretty much all governments advise drinking two litres a day'
47. 2:51means, 'almost all governments advise it'.
48. 2:54What Professor Speakman doesn't have, however, is any scientific evidence
49. 2:58for this advice.
50. 2:59The number of exactly two litres isn't based on scientific fact.
51. 3:04It's more of a ballpark
52. 3:06figure - a number, which is a guess,
53. 3:09but which you still believe is approximately correct.
54. 3:12Actually, the amount of water in our bodies is changing all the time.
55. 3:16Like your bank balance, which goes down when you spend money,
56. 3:20your body loses water all the time when you breathe, sweat,
57. 3:24or go to the toilet.
58. 3:26Exactly how much you need to drink depends
59. 3:28on how much water your body needs to replace,
60. 3:31and that mainly depends on your size.
61. 3:34But what happens when we drink less than we should?
62. 3:37Here's hydration expert, Dr Nidia Rodriguez-Sanchez,
63. 3:41describing the effects of dehydration to BBC World Service's, 'The Food Chain'.
64. 3:47And also, many times we start getting dehydrated and
65. 3:50we don't realise we are dehydrated.
66. 3:52So it's very common that we feel tired or we feel, like, with a bit of a headache
67. 3:59or even we think we are hungry and we go and get some food.
68. 4:02And actually what is happening is that we are thirsty,
69. 4:05that we are dehydrated.
70. 4:06We're starting to show some signs, or some symptoms of dehydration.
71. 4:11Dr Sanchez describes the effect of dehydration, the condition
72. 4:15of not having enough water in your body so that you feel ill or weak.
73. 4:20She mentions feeling tired, having a headache,
74. 4:23or a dry mouth as symptoms of dehydration.
75. 4:27Symptoms are signs or feelings in the body showing the presence
76. 4:31of some illness or condition.
77. 4:34So, whether you drink a little more or a little less, it seems that
78. 4:38around two litres of water a day is a good way to keep your blood
79. 4:43and body healthy.
80. 4:44Speaking of which, Phil. It's time to reveal the answer to my question,
81. 4:49what percentage of our blood is water?
82. 4:52You said 80%, and the answer is 90%. Our blood consists of around 90% water.
83. 5:02OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've used,
84. 5:05starting with the phrase 'to arrive at a number',
85. 5:08meaning to decide it by doing calculations.
86. 5:12If an idea takes grip on something, it takes control of it.
87. 5:17The phrase 'pretty much' means 'almost'.
88. 5:20For example, pretty much everyone likes chocolates,
89. 5:24which means, 'almost everyone likes chocolate'.
90. 5:27A ballpark figure is a phrase meaning 'a number, which is
91. 5:31an acceptably accurate approximation'.
92. 5:34Dehydration is the condition of not having enough water in your body
93. 5:39so that you feel ill or weak.
94. 5:41And finally, a symptom is a sign
95. 5:44or feeling in the body showing the presence of an illness or condition.
96. 5:49Once again, our six minutes are up, why not join me now,
97. 5:53and head over to our website bbclearningenglish.com,
98. 5:58download the worksheet for this programme,
99. 6:00and test yourself to see how much you remember.
100. 6:03See you there soon. Bye.