Every weight loss diet puts some additional stress on your body. The Dukan Diet is not any different at this point. It is said that the reduced carbohydrates intake during the dukan diet may have a diuretic effect (excessive water elimination by increased urine flow).

It is important to hydrate your body properly. There are many ways to do so, all include drinking. And the best drink of all is pure water. But what kind of water will serve the weight lost the best? Let’s see.

All kinds of pure (i.e. not flavored, sweetened, colored) drinkable water is allowed and recommended. If you don’t like still water, choose sparkling. If you don’t like spring water, choose mineral or tap water. It can be filtered, low / medium / high-mineralized.

As long as you drink a minimum of 1.5 L of water a day, the diet will go like clockwork.

Tap Water

In many countries (including US, UK, Australia) the tap water is under stricter control than the bottled products. If you happen to live in a place where tap water is drinkable then there’s no reason not to use it.

In fact, it often happens that tap water has similar mineral content to what you can find in bottled mineral water. On the other hand, if you live in an old building with lead, copper or metal plumbing system, your tap water, even when carefully controlled at the source, can be impured with some amounts of metal contaminants.

Don’t drink your tap water when it looks, smells or tastes the way it should not. At least, boil your water prior to drinking if not sure of its quality.

Bottled Water

Nowadays, manufacturers package a number of sorts of water in plastic or glass bottles. The most common type of bottled water we use everyday is mineral water. There are thousands of brands of mineral water worldwide characterized by different levels of purity, minerals content or type of a package (PET, glass, Tetra Brik etc.).

Mineral water is collected after it flowed over rocks and thus it contains some amount of minerals (depending on its origin). By definition mineral water can’t be treated, the only thing the manufacturers (usually) do is processing to remove grit or dirt (in some countries, water, bottled or tap, is treated with fluoride but that’s just another story). That’s theory.

In practice, not all ‘mineral’ waters are mineral. In fact, some can be source or artesian well water. Depending on the country there may, or may not, be some regulations concerning the ‘mineral water’ name usage.

Whatever the case, decent quality and purity is what you can expect of most of the bottled waters. What about mineralization then?

Low vs. High-Mineralized

Is drinking high-mineralized water better than low-mineralized while following the Dukan Diet?

One may assume that water with high minerals content should do better as it shall replenish the body with calcium, magnesium, and other microelements.

This is only half true. The thing is, there are no scientific studies that would support the thesis of any superior beneficial effect that drinking mineral water could have on our health.

Human body’s ability to absorb the essential minerals listed on a bottled water label is very low. In my opinion, the only parameter you should pay attention to is the contents of sodium in your bottled water. It should be as low as possible, preferably under 10 mg / L.

The optimal drinking water

Some suggest that there’s a key to choosing perfect drinking water:

An optimal water would have at least 90 mg/L magnesium to make up the shortfall between the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) and actual average intake. For adult males, the RDI is 420 mg/day, but their actual average intake is only 327 mg/day. This deficiency causes up to 40% of heart disease in the U.S., and causes a lot of asthma, migraine, and cramps.

An optimal water would also have a ratio of Ca/Mg of not more than 2:1, because as total dietary intakes of Ca/Mg exceed 2:1, the rate of heart disease rises.

And an optimal water would have less than 10 mg/L sodium because perhaps 10% of the population is sodium-sensitive, and can get hypertension if too much sodium is consumed.
Source: www.mgwater.com

Sparkling water

Dukan’s official position on sparkling water is that it is as beneficial to your health as still water.

However, some say that carbonated water puts additional pressure on liver and kidneys. There is some evidence proving a (negligible) effect of chemical dissolution of tooth structure caused by drinking sparkling water.

Dissolution levels with all of the mineral waters were very low and for several still waters were undetectable. Sparkling mineral waters showed slightly greater dissolution than still waters (…)
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

On the other hand, carbonated water can relieve indigestion and constipation syndromes.

Whatever the kind of water you choose to drink on dukan diet remember that the minimal recommended daily fluid intake is 1.5 L.