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Drink eight cups of water a day! It’s like being sure to eat five servings of fruits and veggies a day, or get eight hours of sleep — it’s a statistic so central to leading a healthy life that we don’t question it any more. But here’s the thing: It’s not actually backed by science. And what’s more — forcing yourself to drink up, even when you’re not thirsty, could do more harm than good. In a New York Times article published today (Aug. 24), Aaron Carroll, MD, urges readers to forget about aiming for 64 ounces and instead listen to their bodies. He’s debunked the eight-cups-a-day myth over and over, to no avail. Others have spoken out against it as well — the recommendation is “thoroughly debunked nonsense,” one doctor wrote in the British Medical Journal in 2011. Why are we so convinced that eight cups of water a day is necessary? It’s partly due to misinformed doctors and experts, Carroll suggests, and partly due to how much we want to believe that drinking more water is a...