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Nature of Urine

Urine is usually yellow or clear, depending upon a person's health and diet. It usually has an ammonia-like odor due to the nitrogenous wastes that make up about 5% of the fluid (the remaining 95% is water). Certain foods can affect the odor, however. For example, asparagus breaks down into several sulfur-containing compounds that imparts a putrid odor upon excretion.

Urine is a slightly acidic fluid which carries waste from the kidneys to the outside world. The kidneys have millions of nephrons which filter toxins, waste, ingested water and mineral salts out of the bloodstream. The kidneys regulate blood acidity by excreting excessive alkaline salts when necessary. The chief constituent of the nitrogenous wastes in urine is urea, a product of protein decomposition. Urea is, among other things, a diuretic. Average adult urine production is from one to two quarts a day. The bladder, where urine is stored for discharge, holds on average about 16-20 ounces of fluid, though the average discharge is about half that amount. In addition to uric acid, ammonia, and creatine, urine consists of many other waste products in minute quantities.

Being a waste product does not mean that a substance is toxic or harmful. It means that the body cannot absorb the substance at the present time. We might think of many of urine's constituents as if they were leftovers from a meal. We could throw the excess food away or we could eat it later after diluting it substantially with water and putting it in the blender. With urine, unfortunately, we cannot ingest waste products in the form they had when first ingested.

For most people most of the time, one's own urine is not likely to be harmful. However, it is not likely to be healthful or useful except for those rare occasions when one is buried beneath a building or lost at sea for a week or two. In such situations drinking one's own urine might be the difference between life and death. As a daily tonic, there are much tastier ways to introduce healthful products into one's blood stream.