The daily water consumption of adults

Extract

The consumption of water and milk in the form of beverages, fluid foods and foods to which water or milk was added in cooking was determined over a period of a week in early spring in two Public Assistance Institutions containing 166 adults and 3 children aged 9–13 years. The results obtained are summarized in Table II. The consumption of water in the form of solid foods could not be estimated directly, but was calculated from the results obtained from quantitative dietary studies of ten working-class families whose diet was adequate. The intake of water in solid food was calculated as 0·97 pint for males and 0·80 pint for females per head daily. Water formed in oxidation was assumed to be 300 c.c. per head daily for men and 250 c.c. for women. The total water consumed and formed in the body was therefore probably in the region of Men 4·93 pints (2799 c.c.) per head daily, Women 5·08 pints (2885 c.c.) per head daily.

The amounts of water lost by the kidneys, bowel, skin and lungs are tentatively suggested and tables of water balance are put forward as approximations to the water requirements and exchanges of normal people. The water supplies of the institutions are soft and the amounts of calcium consumed in water were very small and are probably not of much nutritional significance. Hard waters are, however, probably of some importance as sources of calcium, especially when the diet otherwise is poor in this mineral.

The amounts of milk consumed per head daily were in excess of 0·5 pint and the amount of calcium consumed in the form of milk amounted to more than half the standard requirement for adults. The calcium intake in both institutions was probably adequate.