The challenge: Have at least 6-8 unsweetened drinks every day – water is a great choice.
Why is it important to drink plenty?
- On average, water makes up more than half of our body weight and we need fluid for our body to work properly.
- Water is constantly lost through sweating, breathing and using the toilet, so it is important to drink throughout the day to keep hydrated.
- Being dehydrated can make it difficult to concentrate and may cause headaches and tiredness.
How much should we drink?
In the UK, it is recommended that we have 6-8 drinks every day, as well as any water provided by food. Younger children usually need smaller drink servings (around 150-200ml) than older children, young people and adults (around 250-300ml). The exact amount of fluid we need will depend on many factors, including age, activity levels and the weather.
Healthier drink options:
- water (this is the best option for a regular drink);
- lower fat milks or calcium-fortified, unsweetened dairy alternatives;
- unsweetened tea/coffee (but limit for young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women);
- vegetable/fruit juices and smoothies*.
*100% vegetable/fruit juices and smoothies should be limited to no more than a combined maximum of 150ml a day as they contain free sugars.
Drinks that contain sugars, such as juices, smoothies, soft drinks, milk shakes, and energy and sports drinks, can contribute to energy (kJ/kcal) intake and increase the risk of tooth decay, if consumed regularly.
Stay hydrated tips
- Have a drink with meals.
- Keep a reusable water bottle on hand to sip throughout the day.
- If you like sweet drinks, choose sugar-free versions.
- Have plenty to drink before, during and after physical activity.
- Have regular drinks – don’t wait until you feel thirsty!
Support for you
Healthy hydration
- Healthy hydration guides for children and adults – print them out and have them in your kitchen!
- A healthy hydration guide for children aged 1-4 years
- A healthy hydration guide for children 5-11 years
- A healthy hydration guide for adults and teenagers
- A healthy hydration guide for older adults with poor appetites
- Should children be drinking energy drinks? - read through and learn about how energy drinks affect children.
- FAQs: Diet drinks and bodyweight - see how much you know about diet drinks and weight and look through the answers to common questions on diet drinks and weight.
Alcohol
- FAQs alcohol - Learn more about how the health effects of alcohol.
- Calories in alcohol – take a guess of how many calories are in different drinks and read through to see how close you were
Planners
- A family hydration tracker – stick on your fridge!
- Drink plenty - behaviours to help
- Try, swap & change planner – Make a change in lockdown by planning healthier life swaps and opting for changes you can stick too
Go the extra mile
- Keeping well in lockdown online course – learn some tips and ideas of how you can keep well in lockdown with this free online course
Have kids at home? Here’s some activities!
- Activity 1. Drink plenty! Create a poster, presentation or video explaining why it’s important to keep well hydrated when being active. Here’s some support!
- Activity 2. Health and wellbeing: Make sure to drink plenty with your favourite Disney friends! Play Dory’s coral and seaweed game to help find Dory and save her from being lost at sea.
- Activity 3. Use the Frozen Drink Plenty worksheet to work out why Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Sven think drinking plenty is important. Remember – we all need 6-8 drinks a day!
- Activity 4. Literacy and Health and wellbeing: Are you drinking enough during lockdown? Keep a drink diary over a day – listing everything you drink. You should be aiming for 6-8 drinks every day! Explain how you could make healthier drink choices in the future.
- Drink plenty HEW activities – help teach children about the importance of healthy hydration with our information, challenges and games from HEW 2019.
- Remote learning – we’ve hundreds of activity ideas and further support on our education website.
- Keep the learning going – check out our education website, developed for schools, but useful for home learning too!
Get cooking – a few recipes for you at home …
- BNF staff are cooking each day this week – find out what’s cooking!
- Made with love, shared with love – cook together at home and share the love.
- Our education website has hundreds of recipes, which can be searched in different ways – search for soups, stews and drinks
- Let’s get ready to cook poster – prepare your children for cooking hygienically, why not print out and stick on your wall or get children to create their own poster?
Attachments:
| File | File size |
|---|---|
 Drink plenty - behaviours to help.pdf | 390 kB |
| Drink plenty tracker.pdf | 314 kB |
| HEW at home - Thursday - Drink plenty.pdf | 280 kB |
