Whatever, I guess I'm dropping it. My intent was not to discourage people from drinking water. My only intent was to get people to realize that a lot of "common knowledge" is based on misinformation. There are a lot of claims about what does and doesn't help, and if you are accepting things based on "common knowledge" instead of actually looking into the facts, I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

GD, do you have links to back what you are saying?

Here's a start. There's a mention in there of the study I linked to earlier.

I have more, but like I said, I'm dropping it.

Thanks. I'm curious to see the other side.

I'm thirsty and don't know what to do....

Oh gawd!! Then I probably did not need to eat that fried egg and toast...damn it!!!

I need to put that into my head....drink a glass of water whenever I have some slight hunger pains....usually just cravings.

Whoa horise, I sense an angry GD. That wasnt my intnet.
I just thought I'd contribute.

I wonder if we can find something not snopes related. I'll look around after lunch.

Like I said, I have more.

How about this one:

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/131/117956.htm

It cites a 2002 study in the American Journal of Physiology and the current recommendation of the Institute of Medicine that for a normal healthy adult it is ok to use thirst as an indicator for when to drink, that 64 ounces is a recommendation without foundation, and that caffeinated drinks work just fine for hydration.

It does note that a normal person will consumer about 60-70 ounces of liquid (and other 30-40 in food) per day but that people drinking when they're thirsty accomplish that.

It also references studies indicating that drinking water does little to directly suppress appetite and caloric intake

I'm a sugar addict and an emotional eater.

I start by keeping a bag of candy in my drawer at work so I can have something sweet once or twice and the next thing I know I'm driving to the grocery store at lunch because the bag isn't going to last me until the end of the day. I find myself grabbing for the candy every time something annoying happens.

I reward myself with food. I had a bad day so I should have dinner out even though there's makings for a salad at home.

I eat out of habit. While making my healthy salad for dinner I eat handfuls of Trader Joe's Cats Cookies (they're small so that's okay, right?).

Well, two weeks ago I finally got completely disgusted with myself. I put the candy in my drawer at work and it's still there, untouched. I stopped eating between meals at home. It's been two weeks and I heard somewhere that it takes two weeks to establish a new habit and I hope that's what I'm doing.

I haven't overhauled all my eating habits. I'll get completely discouraged if I try do everything all at once. So my goal right now is to keep my resolve on the matter of sweets between meals and eating when I'm not hungry. I actually have this unfamiliar empty feeling in between meals that I realize is hunger.

The weekend I made this decision there were Girl Scouts everywhere I went trying to sell me cookies. I donated money instead of taking a box of cookies. The next weekend I bought a box (curse you, Lemon Chalet Cremes!) but I didn't eat them all in a couple of days like I normally would. The next challenge will be at work. I work in a department that loves its food and loves it in large quantities. If there's a birthday we don't just have cake. We have cake and bagels and chips and dip and more cake. And we celebrate everything. St. Patrick's Day is Monday so there will be food.

I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far. I hope I can keep it up.:)