Zoe Salmon reveals her unhealthy water addiction which saw her drink up to EIGHT LITRES A DAY

Former Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon has opened up about her unhealthy water addition which saw her drinking up to eight litres a day. 

The TV personality, 40, has spoken out about the dangers of drinking too much water in a bid to help those who might not realise. 

Zoe initially started upping her intake of water as she believed it was healthy but it soon spiralled out of control. 

She would start every day with a litre of water to help her metabolism, and would have had another two litres before lunch – taking her above the recommended daily intake of just two litres. 

The Northern Irish star visited her GP six months ago and was told that in severe cases, drinking too much water can lead to brain swelling that causes seizures, brain damage, coma and even death.

She told The Mirror: ‘I feel like I’d trained my body to crave water all the time, I thought it was a brilliant thing to do.’ 

It wasn’t until she confided in her masseuse that she was urged to see a doctor and agreed to go along to an appointment. 

Zoe, who is married to butcher William Corrie, said: ‘I felt quite silly when I sat down, taking an appointment to say I might be drinking too much water. But when I said how much I was drinking, the doctor told me to act straight away.’ 

She was instructed to gradually reduce her intake by 200mls and gently work her way back to two litres a day. 

Drinking too much water can disturb the body’s electrolyte balance and increase levels of sodium and magnesium which lead to headaches and muscle cramps. 

It could also prevent the body from being able to properly absorb minerals from food.

Zoe’s addiction started when she was growing up with bad skin and heard that drinking ‘loads of water would help’. 

Her problem was then propelled by the old wives’ tale that the feeling of hunger is sometimes thirst.  

Zoe would start each day with a litre of water, then a coffee followed by another litre of water to balance out the caffeine. She would then have a smoothie followed by another glass of water. 

While at the gym she would drink another litre and then another for the drive home. 

She said that if she had three or four glasses of wine she would drink the same number of glasses of water.        z

Zoe has finally managed to get her intake back down to two litres a day and is insistent that she won’t go back to her old ways again, no matter how hard it might be.  

She said: ‘I trained my body to crave a lot of water, so when I’m thirsty now I’m very aware of that two litre limit.’