Ya, and you know I really respect and follow a lot of what you've written about. After reading the scientific literature, I think the downsides of over-hydration should be recognized. For you a gallon of clear water might be perfect, but for me less so. For someone like Mike, who is smaller than me and 1/2 your size, it may very well be too much.

I think the whole 'drink to thirst' thing makes a lot of sense with water. Where we can get into trouble is when we're drinking things that are not 'normal'. Drink to thirst with Coke can easily make you pull in an extra 1000+ calories of HFCS a day and contribute to fatty liver disease. Drinking alcohol to thirst can cause other liver issues. We have to be smart on what we put into our bodies and a lot of times that's easier said than done.

I think food is very similar. Eat to satiety is easy to say, but if you're eating a lot of grain products, then it's very easy to over eat because these things are quite high in energy density. If you start with your 1g of protein/ lb body weight premise, avoid grains, and just eat real food (i.e. no liquid food), then it's very easy to eat to satiety and not really take in all that many calories through the day.

Interestingly enough whether the issue is HFCS, alcohol or bread, the thing fooling your body is all grain-based. Like cows, I really don't think we were meant to be eating the stuff.