Eight glasses of water? 10,000 steps? How valid are all the 'health' rules?

Eight glasses of water? 10,000 steps? How valid are all the 'health' rules?

[Published on www.1news.co.nz 26th May 2025]

Can we ignore all the rules and still be 'healthy'?

It's easy for wellbeing to feel like it's an all or nothing game. You need to avoid all processed food, hit your daily protein target, get your 10,000 steps and have eight glasses of water a day, right?

While guidelines and goals are helpful, one thing I see time and time again in my work is that when people don’t reach these kinds of targets, they feel like nothing they have done is worthwhile. This, however, is far from the truth.

How healthy is healthy enough? Let's analyse some of the commonly espoused wellbeing rules and targets.

Do you really need to...

1. Avoid all processed food?

There's no doubt that we were designed to eat very different types of foods to many of those that exist in our modern environment. Whole foods that are as close to nature as possible, often require plenty of chewing, and don’t have a long list of ingredients are definitely the preference.

Processing however is not as straightforward as it sounds. Some processed foods are minimally processed like rolled oats or a can of chopped tomatoes, whereas others are a mixture of all sorts of ingredients that are puffed, shaped and loaded with preservatives to make them shelf-stable for far longer than feels right.

My suggestion is aiming for 80 to 90% of what you eat to be either whole or minimally processed foods, but you can still be a healthy person overall and eat a small amount of the more processed foods and even the occasional bag of chippies, you're all good.

2. Hit a protein target?

This, along with taking creatine supplements is definitely ‘on trend’ at the moment. Sure, it is super helpful to ensure you're getting protein in each of your meals and some of your snacks.

Protein helps you feel full for longer, and for us ladies in our perimenopausal/menopausal phase as well as older people, it is essential to help maintain muscle mass as it starts to decline. But, counting every gram every day and feeling like you need highly processed protein bars to hit whatever number you are aiming you? Too far.

Be aware, sure. Track your protein intake for a while, sure. But protein alone does not make you healthy. I have noticed with this current focus, people are now forgetting about fibre and spending more money on supplements rather than fruit and veg. Check out my protein and fibre guides to help get the balance right.

3. Drink eight glasses of water every day?

Eight glasses of water each day is a good place to start but the reality is the amount we need to drink varies from person to person depending on your weight, size, level of activity, how much you sweat, whether you work inside, outside... and so the list goes on.

The official recommendation from the Ministry of Health is around 2.8 litres a day for women aged 19-70+ and more if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. For guys of the same age, it is 3.4 litres. This is actually more than eight glasses (which is about 1.9 litres) but includes water from all fluids – and yes, that means tea and coffee as well as water in food, so that's mostly your high-water fruits and veg like oranges and lettuce.

It's a rough measure, because obviously if you're drinking two or three litres of coffee each day (a diuretic), but no actual water, you're not going to feel healthy at all.

Overall, when it comes to making sure you're hydrating enough, your pee colour is your best guide. It needs to be pale straw coloured throughout the day. If it's yellow or brown, you are not drinking enough! If you take a B vitamin supplements however, this colour test doesn’t count, as that will darken the colour of your pee.

4. Walk 10, 000 steps?

You might be surprised to learn that this frequently referenced number actually came from a Japanese company that was marketing a pedometer, so there's no need to live and breathe by it, as many do!

Genuine science on this is limited, although a recent UK study of 85,000 people suggested that walking daily lowers our risk of cancer, and that benefits began at 5000 steps.

The New Zealand guidelines around exercise advocate at least five hours of moderate physical activity a week, or two and a half hours of vigorous activity a week. And here's the important part – to also do some muscle-strength training activities on at least two days each week.

I'm not against the 10,000 steps by any means, I think it's a helpful starting point and if you like tracking, it can be a good guide, but it is not the full picture as it doesn’t include the strength training part which is also vital for your wellbeing and healthy ageing.

Overall, though, it is important to remember that all activity is good. Even if right now you can’t get the recommended amount, every additional flight of stairs, extra steps around the office, time in the garden contributes to your overall well being. And a 10-minute weight work-out is better than none.

So, are you healthy enough?

Any changes that you can make to improve the way you eat and how much you move are going to be helpful, but please don’t feel that if you haven’t reached some daily target you have somehow failed and that might as well give up. Something is always better than nothing. And small things add up.

As the late African-American tennis great Arthur Ashe famously said: “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can”.

Here’s a link to this article on 1news.co.nz: Eight glasses of water? 10,000 steps? How valid are all the 'health' rules?

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