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Although it is not very common, yes, you can drink too much! It actually happens more with (endurance) athletes who drink a large quantity of water at one time. Too much water can dilute the sodium levels in the blood, which can result in something called hyponatremia.

Although drinking during the day in general is a good habit, there are moments that are more important. The first moment is when you wake up. Your body loses moisture during the night, so replenishing in the morning is important. The second moment is half an hour before a meal. This will actually help the digestive system process the food. And another important moment is after exercise. Drinking after exercise will replenish the fluids lost by sweating, and it also helps prevent muscle soreness.

This may seem unexpected, but there are moments during the day when it is not advisable to drink water. During a meal, you want to limit your fluid intake. Drinking during a meal will dilute the natural fluids in your digestive system that help digest the food.

Although the question is formulated a bit funny, it is actually important to consider the importance of how much to drink each time. It is generally considered a best practice to regularly drink small sips of water, rather than gulping down a glass in one go. This way you make sure the water intake has the most positive effect on your body and is not simply flushed out by the kidneys.

First of all, make sure to not drink anything with sugar. When it comes to mineral water, there is a lot of environmental impact on making mineral water available. For tap water, this does not generally apply, and it is more convenient and less expensive.

A second aspect to consider when choosing between tap and mineral water is the quality of the water and your safety. For both types of water there are quality standards, but not in all regions of the water can you rely on drinking tap water safely. So, make sure you are informed of the local quality of the tap water!

For plastic bottles, you need to be aware that they may contain microplastics that can enter your body when drinking mineral water from plastic bottles.

If you are concerned with the quality of your tap water, using a water filter may be the better option compared to using mineral water.

The question should maybe be to absorb, rather than digest. Water is absorbed in the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. So, throughout your digestive system. How fast it is absorbed depends on how full your digestive system is. On an empty stomach, water can be absorbed in just minutes. After a meal, absorbing water can take hours.

To help the body retain water, eat more food that is high in fiber. It helps maximize the absorption of the water in your digestive system because it moves slower. Salt also causes the body to retain water. But salt is something that can also contribute to a lot of negative health aspects. So, eating salt should be limited to the daily recommendation (less than 6 g). Only when you sweat excessively and lose salt that way, should additional salt intake be considered.

Keep in mind that you actually want to make sure that water gets absorbed in the body to fulfill the proper functions. Excessive water retention is actually not advisable.

Water helps the kidneys remove waste from the blood and flush it out. Water also hydrates the cells in your body for day-to-day functioning. And water helps your body regulate the body temperature.

But there are many more functions of water in your body: moistening tissues, dissolving nutrients for access in the body, enabling muscles to function properly, lubricating the joints, helping with skin elasticity, regulating blood flow, and more. In short, water is important!