The Ultimate Guide to Hydration From the Primal Perspective 🥛

Swansven

Part One: Changing Common Understanding

I'm sure we've all heard about how important hydration is for nutrition. Hydration is proper lubrication for the body. It regulates temperature, delivers nutrients, and has several other functions in the body. At the cellular level, it facilitates nearly all biochemical reactions, including the synthesis of ATP. Figure out how to get and stay hydrated, and you're one step closer to excellent health. Its importance is undebated. What can be debated about hydration is how to achieve it.
If you came from a cooked diet, you were probably told to simply drink a lot of water for hydration. In cooked diets, this may be beneficial, as when you cook your food, you obliterate a good portion of the water via evaporation. This may cause a cooked dieter to become water deficient, as in deficient in H2O itself. For them, it could be a good idea to add more H2O into their diet.

It works much differently in a raw diet. In order to explain this, we have to accurately describe what hydration is and is not.

Hydration is:

The proper absorption and retention of water.
This is caused by the proper mineral and water balance within the body.

Hydration is not:

Chugging plain water without a balance of minerals to retain it.
Urinating all of it out, along with over 68 minerals that you didn't gain by drinking the water.

Logically, you can see the issue. All you're doing when you drink an excess of water without the proper minerals to retain it, is either dilute the minerals in your body by adding a solvent, or deplete your body of minerals by peeing out the water that you didn't need in the first place.
Minerals are the prerequisite in order for water to be useful in the body.

In a raw diet:

There's significantly more water and minerals retained in the food. If you have proper insulin signaling which you can achieve through high portions of protein, your body will retain these electrolytes and you will get along just fine without having to shove a bunch of plain water down your neck.

Part Two: A Visit to Non-Industrialized Tribes.

Is this shown in natural tribes?

Yes, it is.
Despite living in the very hot and outright diabolical conditions of northern Tanzania, during activity they do not bring any water along with them and only occasionally sip from stagnant water.

How are they able to do this?

They derive most of their water from raw meat, tubers, and baobab fruit. These sources contain all of the minerals they need to retain the water. So the water within meat and some plant foods goes further.
Similar behaviors are exhibited by the Maasai tribe. They drink a mixture of blood and milk from their domesticated cows, which is incredibly hydrating.
In the modern polluted age, drinking water, especially from the tap, puts a massive toxic burden on your body. There are pharmaceuticals, fluoride, chlorine, and several other toxic chemicals in municipal water.
The point is, plain water pales in comparison to nearly any other drink in terms of toxicity, nutrition, and even hydration. Why fill yourself up with water when you could gain minerals and or fat soluble vitamins from other sources?
Remember, many of the substances that we consume are shockingly high in water. Milk is 80-90% water, raw meats are 70-75% water, and even soda is 90% water . So, in drinking just about anything else, you don't lose much water and you gain a lot more minerals.

Part Three: True Sources of Hydration

This is how I would rank the top sources of hydration based on what I know

A2/A2 Raw milk. Raw milk has profound benefits other than hydration, ('immune', bacterial, reduced allergies, anti-inflammatory) but seemingly, it's also one of the best sources of hydration, with a perfectly balanced mineral profile. In addition, it contains raw fat. I'll explain this later. Having a bit of sugar seems to be its only 'flaw'.
Bone broth. Bone broth has an excellent mineral balance, along with providing collagen that is important for supporting connective tissue. Other than that, doesn't have much nutritional value. Comes with no sugar and has a higher water percentage at about 95-99%
Raw animals/seafoods. Many of these (especially shellfish) provide you with a huge abundance of minerals that are crucial for many things, although these are somewhat low in water. Contains hydrating fats.
Coconut water. Not as versatile as the previous mentions but relatively low in carbs. I would only recommend drinking this if you live in a tropical environment where it would be available to you in nature. High in deuterium.
Watermelon/Melons. Fruits in general are usually very dense in water, but quite a bit of sugar. Melons, seem to be the best fruit for primal diets. The thick skin prevents a lot of harm from pesticides if you're forced to buy them non-organic. They serve as solid hydration, dense in water with a decent mineral profile. Melons are generally lower carb fruits. The sugar can function as an easy and simple insulin response that helps you retain minerals. High in deuterium. Similar issues to coconut water. You should only eat these if they are local to you.
Spring Water. More minerals than plain water and there's a bit of a distinction that I will go over below this list.

Confusing picks/honorable mentions + explanations

Blood. Everything I've heard about fresh blood mentions the word 'euphoric'. I can't help but believe that blood belongs here, even though I lack experience and knowledge to know where to put it. It's a liquid high in minerals and protein.
Vegetable juice. many people disagree with Aajonus' theories about juicing, so I left it out. I can't help but mention it since it's such a big part of the primal diet.
The lubrication formula. If you are struggling with dryness in your body or have concerns about hydration, I recommend you add one jar of Aajonus' lubrication formula into your diet. It has helped many people.
Raw fat. Food isn't exclusively sustenance, it's also a signal. According to Aajonus, raw fats act much differently in the body compared to cooked ones. Because of this, raw fat is an important staple of the diet. During the metabolism of fats, your mitochondria create metabolic water that is at the perfectly ideal deuterium level and is already structured. This is the highest quality water that you could consume. You can drink deuterium depleted water if you have identified that you could have a deuterium issue, but don't over-do it, as you need a certain level of deuterium to function.
Distinctions between plain water and structured water:
Structured water is essentially water in a gel/crystalline-like state. This water is denser, more alkaline, and greatly negatively charged. The water in your cells is composed of structured water. Minerals are used to structure it in your cell. There is structured water that exists outside of the cell, in nature. Most of the substances above contain structured water. Tap water is unstructured, meaning your body has to structure it. This leads experts to believe that structured water is far more hydrating, because it is easily assimilated. Highly recommend researching this, as it is quite interesting and I also left a few parts out. Look at Gerald Pollack's work
Because this water is divided into positive and negative charges, some people believe that this water inside of you can be used, like a battery, as an energy currency for bodily functions, similar to ATP. This is the 'battery' that gets charged when you ground.
Pretty cool, your body may be able to derive energy from hydration.

Part Four: What Dehydrates You?

Modern life in general dehydrates you but let's look at the components

Non-native EMFs. Non-native EMFs are things like non-ionizing radiation and artificial light. These have been proven to slow down mitochondrial activity and cause oxidative stress via slowing down the Electron Transport Chain. (Might make a post describing this in more detail in the future) This is bad because remember how I mentioned that metabolizing fats is hydrating? Well, this inhibits that. Less hydration as a result.
Salt water. Sort of a no brainer. Sorry Darko Velcek. I have yet to have this explained in a way that makes any sense to me, so for now it goes here.
Anything that reduces your structured water's charge.
Stress. Exhausted adrenal glands can inhibit the production of aldosterone, a hormone that regulates fluid and electrolyte levels.
Overly intense exercising. Sweating too much can deplete your body of hydration if you don't replace it.

That is all I have for you on hydration. Have a fun health journey, my friends.

love

You should add that being "dry" is a matter of fat, not water, the words are misleading, dry lips or dry skin for example dont come from poor water but from poor fat

Rabbi

I have not drinked water in 6 months lol. only drink raw milk. and once a week blood about, i want to increase blood.

rawmeat

very informative post, i knew water dehydrated you by flushing out minerals but i didnt know about the other information. thank you