Is There a Wrong Way to Drink Water?

If you're drinking a ton of water but still feel parched, two experts say they may know why.

It could be because you’re not consuming enough gel water, AKA structured water, which is H2O from sources such as vegetables, fruits, cacti, chia seeds, and collagen.

That’s according to Dana Cohen, MD, and health coach Gina Bria, co-authors of the forthcoming book Quench: Reclaim your Energy and Health with the New Science of Hydration, Including Your Five-Day Plan to Hydrate. The pair recently dropped that dehydration realness to Goop during an interview.

“For many years, we’ve operated with the assumption that the path to hydration was drinking eight glasses of water daily—the picture is actually much more complex.”

“Gel water, or living water, is a newly identified phase of water that’s not quite liquid, vapor, or ice. [It’s] identified by an extra hydrogen and oxygen atom, so the molecular structure is H302,” says the duo. Bioengineer Gerald Pollack discovered and published the first research on it in 2009. His hydration revelation basically blew everything science new about consuming the clear liquid out of the, ahem, water.

“For many years, we’ve operated with the assumption that the path to hydration was drinking eight glasses of water daily. Based on Dr. Pollack’s discoveries, we know the picture is actually much more complex,” say Cohen and Bria. “We have traditionally understood that water gets distributed via the bloodstream and lymphatic system, but the discovery of gel water suggests that fascia is also a critical system for water distribution.”

So while it’s not time to recycle your reusable bottle, eating an extra helping of chia seed pudding couldn’t hurt.