The Human Body Has Evolved, It Takes Only A Little Drinking Water To Live A Life

KOMPAS.com – Humans have evolved to have large brains which require the consumption of more calories from animals primates. However, the opposite is true for the amount of water that humans have to consume.

A surprising new study finds that human body require far less fluid per day than primates.

If the average person processes three liters or about 12 glasses of water a day; chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas living in zoos need twice as much.

In fact, as quoted from Science Alert, Friday (12/3/2021) humans have 10 times more sweat glands than chimpanzees, and are overall much more active than ball.

Also read: Drinking Water to Lose Weight, Here are the Rules

Instead of losing more water, humans lose less.

Even after taking into account outside temperature, body size and activity levels, the researchers found that humans need less water to maintain a healthy balance.

“Compared to other apes, the humans in this study had a much lower water cycle and consumed less water per unit of processed food energy,” write the researchers in the study.

The study involved 72 monkeys who live in zoos and sanctuaries. The researchers then tracked the daily water cycle using double-labeled water containing deuterium and oxygen-18.

Using this water, researchers can find out how much water is obtained through food and drink and lost through sweat, urine and the digestive tract.

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The results were then compared with 309 modern humans who drank the same double label water. Human volunteers come from a variety of lifestyle backgrounds, including farmers, hunter-gatherers, and sedentary office workers.

From the analysis, the researchers found that the ratio of water to energy was roughly 1.5 millimeters for every calorie consumed.

These results are even similar to that of a small sample of adults in rural Ecuador drinking water in large quantities for cultural reasons (more than 9 liters a day for men and nearly 5 liters a day for women).

The findings suggest that the human body’s thirst response has somehow “reset” over time to conserve body fluids.

This means that humans want less water per calorie than other apes.

Also read: Drinking Cold Water During Hot Weather Turns Out Good, But …

The researchers also said that this was likely due to natural selection where humans could eventually travel longer distances without water.

This allowed the early hominins to develop into a drier environment and find more food.

“Being able to live a little longer without water would be a huge advantage as early humans began to forage in dry savanna landscapes,” explained Herman Pontzer, lead author of the study and evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University.

In addition, according to the researchers, features of the human body have also evolved to conserve water.

Also read: Environmental Pollution, The Dangers Of Microplastics Starting To Contaminate The Human Body

Unlike apes, humans have an external nose which is thought to reduce water loss during breathing. The protruding nose first appeared in the fossil record about 1.6 million years ago at the same time as appearance Standing man.

Since then, the protruding nose has steadily diverged from the ape’s flatter snout.

“There are still mysteries to solve, but clearly humans are conserving water. Finding out how we do that would be very exciting,” said Pontzer.

Study published in Current Biology.

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