Eating and drinking in 'cure for all ails' shocker

More recent health revelations in the news that both confirm and reject commonly accepted knowledge about what is good for you. Firstly the shocking news that eating healthily can help with depression. 

I’m not sure that many people actually rejected that theory, but making yourself eat healthily can be hard to do when you’re depressive. Often just getting out of bed is a battle, so preparing a healthy meal requiring thought, effort and creativity is akin to parting the red sea. Far easier to grab the nearest pastry, or munch a bag of crisps. Depressed people are often self-destructive, and find motivation extremely difficult, so simply knowing that eating healthily, and, gasp, exercising isn’t the same as actually managing to do these things. Perhaps the NHS would be better off providing a personal trainer/chef for everyone diagnosed with depression, thus saving a small fortune in SSRIs, and massively increasing recovery rates overnight.

The other shocker I stumbled on recently -  apparently drinking the recommended buckets of water every day won’t help you that much and may even kill you.

Glasgow-based GP Margaret McCartney says the benefits of drinking water are often exaggerated by organisations with a vested interest, such as bottled water brands. Writing in the British Medical Journal she also claims that drinking when not thirsty can impair concentration and consumption of excessive amounts of water can in fact lead to loss of sleep and even cause kidney damage instead of preventing it.

Apparently the human body is designed with a clever gauge that can inform you when you need to drink. It’s called thirst. Chances are you’ll be just dandy if you just have a drink when you get thirsty. The human body is pretty well designed, and the kidneys do a decent job of conserving fluid levels by reducing the amount of fluid in urine when needed. Obviously if you have a condition that impairs the thirst function you’ll need to figure something else out. An alarm clock or something.

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a kidney expert at the University of Pennsylvania says that the standard advice of drinking eight glasses each day has no clear scientific backing. Dr Goldfarb also states that drinking large amounts of water tends to reduce the kidney's ability to function as a filter. He also recommends the old fashioned thirst thing.

So, there you have it, eat mostly healthy stuff and drink water occasionally, and you’ll be fine. How have we humans not even got those basics sorted yet?