A Curious Phenomenon: Why We Crave More Water in the Summer
It’s a strange thing: in the summer, when it’s hot and people are drinking plenty of water, they often find themselves wanting to drink even more. What’s going on?
The answer lies in the relationship between the amounts of water and table salt in our bodies. The water we typically use to quench our thirst contains very little salt. When we drink a large quantity of water, it gets expelled from our bodies as sweat.
Have you ever tasted your sweat? It’s salty. This means that along with the water, salt is also being washed out of the body. It’s as if the salt is being flushed away.
But salt has a unique property: it “attracts” water. So, when the amount of salt in our tissues decreases, they hold onto less water. Each time water passes through the intestines, kidneys, or through the pores of the skin, it carries away more and more salt.
This is why drinking a lot of water alone won’t satisfy your thirst. However, you can alleviate it by eating something like a pickled cucumber or swallowing a pinch of salt.