Students’ Health & Wellness Matters
Whether you set goals on a regular basis or just once per year, now is the time to envision your healthy lifestyle in 2015. This month on the Learner Blog we highlight the negative consequences that unhealthy habits can have on academic performance and social relationships. And we offer tips for making a healthy lifestyle easy, fun, and rewarding.
Drink Well: Your Brain Needs Water Not Soda
Most of the bottled drinks sold today–even those marketed as healthy–have little to no nutritional value and are in many cases even harmful to your health. That includes soda, juices, teas, and sports drinks. We won’t go into all the reasons why sugary drinks are bad for you. Instead, let’s look at why water is so important.
HealthyBrainForLife.com explains that “Dehydration can lead to fatigue, dizziness, poor concentration and reduced cognitive abilities” and says that “even mild levels of dehydration can impact school performance.”
Are you ready to hydrate? Here’s an experiment that will get you drinking more water in no time.
What you’ll need:
- an envelope
- an empty bottle
- a good cause
How it works:
- For one month, every time you are about to buy a soda, juice, or sports drink, take the money you would have spent on that drink and put it in the envelope.
- Then fill up your empty bottle with water (it’s free!) and drink that instead.
- At the end of the month, donate the money you’ve collected to the good cause. It could be a charity you believe in, but it doesn’t have to be. Your good cause could be something personal like taking your mom out to lunch or stocking your pantry with healthy snacks!
Need more reasons to drink water? Read athlete and personal trainer Adam Pegg’s “Ten reasons why water is the ultimate health booster.”