Can we get enough water from fruits alone?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the question of whether humans could obtain sufficient water solely from fruits, considering historical contexts and methods of water consumption before modern conveniences. Participants explore the efficiency and practicality of various methods of drinking water, particularly in relation to early human lifestyles.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that early humans relied on fruits and other natural sources for hydration, questioning the efficiency of bending over to drink from streams.
  • Others argue that despite potential inefficiencies, early humans must have consumed enough water to survive, implying that methods of obtaining water were sufficient.
  • Several participants mention alternative methods for drinking water, such as using leaves, shells, or other natural containers, to highlight the resourcefulness of early humans.
  • Concerns are raised about the risks associated with drinking directly from streams, referencing modern issues like giardia contamination.
  • Some participants express skepticism about the practicality of drinking water in a primitive context, questioning the efficiency of various methods and the physical challenges faced by taller individuals.
  • There is a discussion about the workload of hunter-gatherer societies, with some suggesting that their survival strategies were adapted to their environment despite seeming inefficient by modern standards.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the efficiency of drinking methods or the adequacy of hydration from fruits alone. Multiple competing views remain regarding early human practices and the practicality of various water consumption methods.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include assumptions about early human behavior, the definitions of efficiency in drinking methods, and the historical context of water sources available to primitive humans.

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Humans have been around for 5 million years. Before fire and refrigartors were invented. We used to eat fruits and yes insects. This is our natural diet. Then someone came along and integrated fire and spears into our society.

Fruits,insects, and and snails were easy to comeby and catch. My question is, how did we drink water? Yes you can bend over in a creek or pond and get it, but this is a very ineffecient way being that you bend over. That and you lose a lot of water in your hands. So then this idea comes up. Is there enough water in fruits for us to drink to get our daily intake of water? In other words could we get 8 glasses of water just by eating fruits?
 
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Im assuming that you would get sick of those fruits or maybe run out. How is it inefficient though? The water lands back in the infinite pool of water (the stream). That, or you can use a leaf or something to drink it...

I don't understand your question/problem...
 
Even if something is inefficient, it can still be sufficient.Anyway, our hands aren't all that inefficient at cupping water. Works for me.
Obviously, enough water was consumed...otherwise humans would have gone extinct.

Anyway, the 8-glasses a day recommendation was meant to include water obtained from food. http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

And FWIW, some people still eat fruits, insects, and snails.
...only fruits for me :)
 
moose said:
Im assuming that you would get sick of those fruits or maybe run out. How is it inefficient though? The water lands back in the infinite pool of water (the stream). That, or you can use a leaf or something to drink it...

I don't understand your question/problem...


I want to know how people got water millions of years ago.
 
Don't forget that there were plenty of objects that could readily hold water, leaves were mentioned, shells, skins, skulls, hollowed out gourds, just to stay extremely basic.
 
Who needs your hands, sometimes when I'm hiking I'll just lean down over the creek and take a drink.
 
Ba said:
Who needs your hands, sometimes when I'm hiking I'll just lean down over the creek and take a drink.
That is not without its risks. Here in Maine, many people get sick each year from giardia (beaver fever), by drinking from cold free-running streams, and it's not that pleasant.
 
Evo said:
Don't forget that there were plenty of objects that could readily hold water, leaves were mentioned, shells, skins, skulls, hollowed out gourds, just to stay extremely basic.


This before knowledge, there are no tools. We are basically just like the rest of the animal kingdom.

And like I said, it's to hard bending over. If you're short and small that's not so much of a proble. But if you're 6'2" and heavy like me that's not such a good option. Sure dogs and deer can do it but there not as high up off the ground. That and they've got their forelegs to support them. Besides if I'm already bent over I wouldn't want to use my arms to get water. Then you're got the losing the water betwenn your fingers problem.
 
Umm, if you kneel down, you can then bend over and get a quick drink in. Also, I am sure if you give an ancient human a coconut shell, they will sooner or later figure out to use it to get water (actually maybe)...

Also, people weren't as tell back then, at all, and lived short lives.

EDIT: You lose water between your fingers? Howcome this doesn't happen to me?
 
  • #10
This before knowledge, there are no tools. We are basically just like the rest of the animal kingdom.
Other animals use tools. Why not humans 5 million years ago?
 
  • #11
Tools are a man made way that 's technology. How would we do it naturally?
 
  • #12
I still don't know what the problem is with just kneeling down by the water and drinking? Or crouching. Why would you only try bending at the waist if you have knees that bend too? Even 4-legged animals will kneel on their front legs to reach water in a stream if they can't reach it just by bending their head down. Inefficiency isn't really much of an issue. If all you're doing is eating and drinking, it's not like you can't take an extra couple seconds to bend down. How much more efficient is it for dogs to lap up their water with their tongues? They aren't dehydrating left and right because of it.

Evo also already gave you other options, such as drinking water collected in leaves or shells.

And, no, turbo, it's not without risks, but sanitation is a relatively modern thing.
 
  • #13
If I were a primitive man I would want to be very cautious around water as that is a gathering point for predators of all sorts. I would tend to keep low to the ground creeping and crawling to minimize exposure. Once at the water, if it were deep enough I would, like as not shove my whole head in (assuming on alligators!) . I do not believe that primitive man was concerned with cleanliness or manners, any way they could get water into their mouth would do the job.

As a teenager I spend a lot of time in the Oregon Cascade mountains hiking and camping. We never hesitated to drink directly from the mountain steams, sometimes just a few hundred feet from the glacier which started it all. Now it is my understanding that the Giardia (sp) mentioned by Turbo-1 has infested all of the streams and it is no longer safe to drink unfiltered stream water. :mad:
 
  • #14
Moonbear said:
I still don't know what the problem is with just kneeling down by the water and drinking? Or crouching. Why would you only try bending at the waist if you have knees that bend too? Even 4-legged animals will kneel on their front legs to reach water in a stream if they can't reach it just by bending their head down. Inefficiency isn't really much of an issue. If all you're doing is eating and drinking, it's not like you can't take an extra couple seconds to bend down. How much more efficient is it for dogs to lap up their water with their tongues? They aren't dehydrating left and right because of it.

Evo also already gave you other options, such as drinking water collected in leaves or shells.

And, no, turbo, it's not without risks, but sanitation is a relatively modern thing.


It's easier for 4 legged animals cause the can lean on their forelegs. And they're generally shorter.
 
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  • #15
we have it easy compared to giraffes :)
 
  • #16
Phobos said:
we have it easy compared to giraffes :)
I was just going to mention that.. how does a giraffe drink water according to Line, with a straw? And what's so wrong with primitive humans drinking from a creek, you expect them to have had a trunk like elephants?
 
  • #17
Line:
Do you think chimps drink water?
 
  • #18
Yes, how did early humans survive if the things they had to do to survive were so inefficient that they had to spend all day doing them? Oh, wait - that's exactly how they survived!
 
  • #19
russ_watters said:
Yes, how did early humans survive if the things they had to do to survive were so inefficient that they had to spend all day doing them? Oh, wait - that's exactly how they survived!
Actually, adults in hunter/gatherer societies had a workload of about 20-25 hours a week on the average.
 
  • #20
arildno said:
Actually, adults in hunter/gatherer societies had a workload of about 20-25 hours a week on the average.
Really?10chars
 
  • #21
That's what I read somewhere long ago; possibly it was in Scientific American, but I cannot vouch for that. Those most likely to know that answer are the social anthropologists that have actually lived in such societies.
 
  • #22
It seems like you are exapecting that we should be well adapted to doing something as common as drinking water.

There are two fundamental survival paradigms.
Specialists find a niche, adapt to it and make a great living that way since they can beat out any competitors in that niche. Which is great, as long as the niche they are in doesn't change. Koalas are specialists - they eat only one food. If that food or that environment changes, they're doomed.
Generalists adapt, eking out a living from a broader palette of techniques. Raccoons are omnivores. They can make do with whatever food source is avaiable and do well in times of great change.

Humans are generalists. We don't do much very well, but we can do almost anything "well enough". Our bodies reflect this generalization.
 
  • #23
The "you" refers to OP, I presume?
Because I certainly agree to your description of humans as generalists.
 
  • #24
arildno said:
The "you" refers to OP, I presume?
Because I certainly agree to your description of humans as generalists.
Yes. Sorry. Two independent threads there.
 
  • #25
arildno said:
Actually, adults in hunter/gatherer societies had a workload of about 20-25 hours a week on the average.


See, I knew that we're overworked.

As for giraffes,they have really long necks. They hardly have to bend.
 
  • #26
what do you mean by how did they drink water? they drank it through their hands it dosn't matter if the water fell through their hands theyll just keep drinking till they are quenched, its not like ppl actually know that you had to drink a certin amount of water

is this a question from you personally or did a teacher ask you this or something?
 
  • #27
It just one of a very many thoughts that run through my head.
 
  • #28
Line said:
It just one of a very many thoughts that run through my head.
That IS the source of creativity and intelligent thinking!
But you should also learn to be able to discard anyone particular thought (as this one of yours) when you are shown that the argument behind it is too weak. Don't make pets out of your thoughts, if one of them doesn't measure up, throw it in the dust bin.
 
  • #29
Line said:
As for giraffes,they have really long necks. They hardly have to bend.
Giraffes have to bend into a very awkward position, spreading their legs apart in order to lower themselves.

Here's a snapshot I took off the Kruger Park camera of one drinking.
 

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  • #30
It's still a major cutie, though, even if it has to bend its legs.
 

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