Why you shouldn't drink sea water

Most of the Earth is known to beoceans. And now the level of the world ocean is rising due to the melting of glaciers. This leads to the fact that coastal regions are subject to flooding. But, despite this, humanity suffers from a lack of drinking water, which is gradually becoming scarce. The reason is that a person can only drink fresh water, which on our planet is only 3.5% of the total volume. Sea water contains too much salt. But why is sea water not suitable for drinking? It is known that some animals and birds drink sea water and do not die from it. Penguins and seagulls often do not see fresh water at all for months. What happens if a person drinks salt water? Unfortunately, it will not work to quench your thirst in this way, and further we will tell you what this is connected with.

Man is not able to quench his thirst with sea water

What happens if you drink salt water

It is impossible to drink salt water, as it does notable to quench your thirst. Moreover, its excessive consumption can lead to death due to dehydration. That is, the more a person drinks sea water, the more he will want to drink. This is due to the large amount of salt that it contains. But why does this happen, because water is still water?

According to the information providedNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, seawater contains approximately 3.5% salt by weight. If you remove all the salt from the ocean water and distribute it evenly over land, the thickness of the salt layer will be over 166 meters.

After drinking water with salt, you need to drink plenty of fresh water.

In other words, sea water contains verya lot of salt. The cells of our body require clean water (relatively clean). If you drink salt water, it's like eating more undissolved salt. Each of us knows how thirsty after eating heavily salted food. Moreover, thirst often does not go away even after drinking a glass of water. But why is this happening?

The body removes impurities from the body with urine,produced by the kidneys, that is, the salt dissolves in excess water. However, according to some reports, the kidneys are not capable of producing urine that is saltier than our blood. Ocean water contains several times more salt than blood. This means that after drinking a glass of salt water, you will need to drink at least one more glass of fresh water so that the body can eliminate the salt.

Accordingly, the more a person drinks saltywater, the more he needs to drink fresh water. For this reason, salt water can only increase thirst, but not quench it. Therefore, the consumption of sea water leads to death from dehydration.

Penguins and some other birds are able to drink salt water.

Why do some animals drink salt water?

As we said above, some animals are capable ofdrink salt water, but then why can't people? The fact is that in such animals the body is adapted for the consumption of salt water. In particular, albatrosses, gulls and penguins have glands and grooves in their beaks that filter and remove excess salt from the water before it enters the stomach and begins to be absorbed.

Also adapted to the consumption of salt water andsome mammals, such as dolphins and whales. They also have special enzymes that ensure the removal of excess salt from the body. In addition, special cellular structures also help them remove salt. People don't have anything like that.

Thanks to the ability to drink fresh water, primates could live far from the coast.

How did the evolution of people

As you know, all living beings came out of the sea andhave evolved. But why is the body adapted to drink fresh water, because there is much more sea water? Obviously, it surrounded the first land creatures.

The reason is that when living beings becameto adapt to life on land, they began to move away from the coastal territory. As a result, new species began to spread across the mainland. This also applies to the ancestors of ancient people - primates. In their habitat there were many fresh lakes and rivers. As a result, they have adapted to fresh water. Obviously, if this did not happen, for a long time people would have to live only in the coastal zone. Fresh water would have to be artificially salted. In other words, being able to drink salt water instead of fresh water would do more harm than good.

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So natural selection has led tothat the human body can only process unsalted water. Moreover, physiology has adapted to it so much that the consumption of salt water has become dangerous and destructive. Finally, we note that, according to some experts, too purified water is also harmful to the body. Although there are disputes about this, as we talked about earlier.