A lot of doctors and health professionals will say that this is bad advice and that it encourages people to obsessively flush electrolytes and minerals out of their bodies.
You have to drink a LOT of water to reach that state or over flushing out electrolytes. Whereas, a dramatically large popular doesn’t drink enough water. So, in general, the above advice is still very valid.
Clear is not necessary. Here's a reference for you: a professor of urology in the NHS who says "If it’s yellow it’s quite concentrated, if it’s white or just white or pale then it’s fine." So, pale is fine, yellow is not. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b036v9hq
> Drinking water is vital for your health, so make sure you drink enough fluids. But don't overdo it. Thirst and the color of your urine are usually the best indications of how much water you need. If you're not thirsty and your urine is pale yellow, you are likely getting enough water.
You see it all the time - young people drinking eight litres of water over an hour or something stupid like that during arduous physical activity because they think they should 'drink until their pee is clear', then wondering they their legs don't work anymore.
Increasing flow and decreasing concentration through most filtration assemblies generally increase their effectiveness. There are some exceptions in certain active transport systems that I can think of and the kidneys certainly do some of that, but even then the system has to be operating above a certain optimal flow.
Healthy skepticism that this makes a difference in day to day human health may be warranted, but skepticism that the claim is even meaningful in the first place is not. Your body does routinely contain a lot of toxins, and it has mechanisms to clean them out. “Polluted” is not a binary yes/no attribute anywhere else in the world and it hits not binary in your body either; it gets more or less polluted as it excretes less or more waste.
Sure, if you’re dehydrated, your liver and kidneys will probably have a hard time doing their job. But drinking more water than you need, drinking magic teas or vitamins, etc does nothing more than what your liver and kidney normally do in a healthy body.
Metabolic byproducts are literally toxic, and your liver and kidneys remove them constantly. "Detox" is probably overused but your comment is wrong too.
A lot of doctors and health professionals will say that this is bad advice and that it encourages people to obsessively flush electrolytes and minerals out of their bodies.