I have been a consistent “eight glasses of water a day” girl since college, so I was a bit disturbed to learn that I may be drinking too much water and flushing out nutrients and minerals in my body not to mention beneficial bacteria!

According to Dr. Murad and his new book, The Water Secret: The Cellular Breakthrough to Look and Feel 10 Years Younger, getting water from raw fruits and vegetables in addition to water is the key to true hydration and overall health. Foods like cucumbers, pomegranates, avocadoes, mangoes, and spinach are also fat-flushers! To test this theory, I cut back to four glasses of water a day for the past week and increased my raw fruits and vegetable intake. I found myself two pounds lighter (even though I ate normally instead of doing Dr. Murad’s ten-day “water secret” diet) and feeling less bloated.

Just to be sure, I also consulted Dr. Kendrick Ng from Los Angeles. He says drinking a lot of water will not drain out essential vitamins; water only flushes out excess water-soluble vitamins that can be harmful to the body. He also notes water cannot flush out fat-soluble vitamins, like E. Dr. Ng also advises against relying solely on fruits and veggies for our water intake and that the minimum requirement should still be met.

Now I’m committed to four (12 oz.) glasses of water a day, with 5-6 servings of vegetables and four servings of fruits. To be honest I sometimes drank so much water it’d give me a headache for some reason.

I learned so much from Dr. Murad’s book ($12.71 on Amazon). For example, visceral fat holds less water than lean muscle, which explains why most women are affected by alcohol more than men. We don’t have enough water to dilute the alcohol. No wonder the more I work out, the leaner I am and the less affected I am by alcohol. I’ve definitely drank the Dr. Murad “Kool-Aid,” and I am following his “Pitcher of Health” religiously (except for my occasional glass of bubbly and martini – I can’t give those up).

A totally enlightening read, it explains in detail why Americans are overfed and undernourished (processed foods – which are also a cause of kidney stones in kids!) and what we can do to live healthier, more youthful lives. A must-read for all beauty snobs!