Getty Tom Brady
As Patriots’ QB Tom Brady heads to yet another Super Bowl, every detail of his life is coming under scrutiny, as people look for clues to explain his athletic excellence. That includes his water consumption, which he has written about and is the subject of some controversy.
How much water does Brady drink? Why do people care about his water intake? They care because the amount of water that he reportedly drinks is so unusual. According to The Daily Meal, “Brady reportedly drinks over 37 glasses of water per day, enough water to hydrate a healthy person for five days.” It’s a bad idea, though, to try to emulate Brady-like diet peculiarities based on what you read on the Internet. The Daily Meal reports that drinking that much water per day could be dangerous.
The site quotes nutritionists who say drinking that much water is both dangerous and not needed. It can trigger a condition called hyponatremia, which occurs “when you’ve flushed so much water through your system that there’s not enough sodium left. Your cells absorb too much fluid and swell, causing swelling of the brain and the potential of a stroke.”
Brady wrote about his “hydration method” in his book “The TB 12 Method.” According to Fox News, he claims “that drinking more than 35 glasses of water per day will help you flush out the toxins in your body and even help you prevent sunburns.”
GettyTom Brady.
“Drink at least one-half of your body weight in ounces of water every day,” he says in the book. “That’s the minimum. Ideally, you’ll drink more than that, and with added electrolytes, too.” It’s not just water, of course. Brady’s extreme diet is the stuff of legend. “He eats a largely vegetarian diet, but avoids or limits foods with sugar, white flour, MSG, and so-called ‘nightshades’ — including tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, or eggplants — because they have no anti-inflammatory properties,” reports Newsmax.
According to The New York Daily News, Brady argues that you “can flush out toxins and increase your chances of what he calls ‘pliability,’ his term for leaner, softer musculature.” The newspaper notes that some of Brady’s claims about the benefits of water are not backed up with anything but anecdote.
As MetroWestDailyNews reported, “Brady’s also selling a lifestyle, TB12. If you eat and drink your vegetables, down gallons of water, and stretch your muscles you too can be an athlete at age 40-plus.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Hyponatremia is a condition that occurs when the level of sodium in your blood is abnormally low. Sodium is an electrolyte, and it helps regulate the amount of water that’s in and around your cells.”
The site notes that the condition can be dangerous. “In hyponatremia, one or more factors — ranging from an underlying medical condition to drinking too much water during endurance sports — causes the sodium in your body to become diluted. When this happens, your body’s water levels rise, and your cells begin to swell. This swelling can cause many health problems, from mild to life-threatening.”
