Taking on Water

One would think that dancers know enough to drink plenty of fluids. Not so. According to Nancy Clark, director of nutrition services at SportsMedicine in Brookline, outside of Boston, "There are a lot of dancers who keep themselves dehydrated because they will then weigh ninety-nine pounds instead of one hundred two. I always quiz dancers about their fluid intake. Water is a major enhancer of performance. People who go around chronically dehydrated are always tired."

Too little fluid intake during heavy activity can cause everything from dance-hindering cramps to death.

Don't wait forest to guide you. By the time you feel thirsty, you're well beyond the point where you should have been rehydrating. Just quenching what you feel as thirst does not mean that you've replaced all fluid you need. Dancers at high altitudes and in dry climates should be specially wary. Climates can mask thirst, even though your body needs fluid. In the summer, be doubly vigilant about your intake.

Ideally you should drink a couple of hours before extensive activity so that the fluid will get into your system. Some dancers are able to drink again before a performance; some are not comfortable drinking prior to going onstage or drinking during a performance every fifteen or twenty minutes. The advantage of doing so is that the body would never lose more than 2 percent of weight (two pounds for a one-hundred-pound person) at one time. (It's an old wives' tale that drinking during activity will cause cramps; ice water, however, may cause cramps for some dancers.)

You can monitor your fluid level by checking your urine, says Clark. You should be urinating a significant volume every two to four hours and it should be light-colored, like lemonade, not dark like cider, which would indicate that the urine contains metabolic waste. Weigh yourself before and after heavy activity. For every one pound of weight loss, you should drink two cups of fluid.

Which fluids are best?

"Water is always appropriate," says Clark, "Zero calories, free, what the body wants, and convenient." She recommends taking a large bottle of water to class, rehearsal, and performance and drinking from it often. Dancers may require an extra boost of calcium. There's nothing better than milk or yogurt for that. Clark says that many dancers (who are not lactose intolerant) think that those fluids are fattening items and don't want to drink milk with a meal. They'd rather drink a diet soda. Clark insists that milk is a fundamental food. "Try drinking 1 or 2 percent milk," she says, "That small amount of fat should be in the diet. Nonfat milk will boost fluid and calcium levels."

Fruit juices provide an extra boost of vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates. Orange juice is the best with higher nutrients and lower calories. However, if weight is a legitimate issue, you might not want to make fruit juice your fluid of choice all the time.

Sports drinks are of questionable value. They're lower in calories than fruit juice, and higher in sodium, which may be needed if the dancer has perspired a great deal. Sports drinks are just sugar water without nutritional value. They are, however, a quick way to boost blood sugar after heavy exertion.

Unfortunately, many dancers choose to drink diet soda or coffee, both nutritionally useless and, in the case of coffee, with possible unwanted diuretic effects.

Clark checks to see why a dancer is a heavy diet soda or coffee drinker. "They may need fuel," she suggests. "So often the people who drink a great deal of coffee and diet soda aren't eating enough food, so that they're using fluids as a substitute because they are low on fuel." Water intoxication can become a form of eating disorder.

Other ways to replenish lost fluid include drinking herbal teas, lemonade, and regular soft drinks (not much different from sports drinks) and eating soups, fruits and vegetables with high water content, and smoothies (a fruit-and-milk combination drink, custom made of pureed fruit, ice, and yogurt or milk--see the boxed recipe). A smoothie can meet your diet needs--liquid, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. For a double dose of calcium, use milk or powdered milk, with instant pudding mix as a thickener. Add fruit. Mix in a blender until smooth. For the best nutritional mix, Clark recommends orange juice, yogurt, and banana.

Since the passage of the Safe Water Act, almost all tap water in the United States is drinkable. Some supermarkets carry as many as sixty different brands of bottled water. Basically, all bottled water falls into three categories: sparkling mineral water (carbonated water, often from an underground spring); seltzer (carbonated tap water); and club soda (carbonated tap water to which mineral salts have usually been added). Because of its sodium bicarbonate and sodium citrate content, club soda is a good drink to choose when your stomach feels queasy.

If you doubt the safety of local water while on tour, don't even brush your teeth with it, and avoid water-washed salads and fruits. by Jan Ellen Spiegel