Every year, North Americans each chug down more than 26 gallons of bottled water in a seemingly unquenchable attempt to satisfy our thirst, like Cheryl Ladd’s victims on a recent “NCIS.”

Some of the daily water intake can come from food, including fruits like watermelon. (Herald-Tribune archive)

That amounts to millions of plastic bottles clogging up landfills, and billions of dollars spent on what’s often no more than recycled municipal water. So we have a tip: Eat some of your daily dose of water in fruits and vegetables. You’ll not only quench your thirst, you’ll rev up your disease-fighting powers and make your RealAge younger.

What you do drink can include plain water and juice, nonfat milk, even coffee (the diuretic effect of caffeinated beverages goes away if we drink them regularly, and 1 cup of coffee gives you about 2/3 cup of water). And remember, drink when you want to; don’t wait until you get parched.

But you also can pull down 50 percent of your daily dose of H20 with fruits and vegetables. Broccoli is 92 percent water, a tomato is 94 percent and a pear 84 percent. That means one serving of broccoli (4 ounces) gives you 3 ounces of water!

Get your four to five cups of fruits and vegetables a day, and you’ll take in a third to a half of the recommended intake of fluids. You’ll know you’re getting enough water when your pee is pale (think light beer, maybe).

So set ‘em up, Jack. We’ll take a watermelon shot and a cucumber chaser; hold the ice.

– Drs. Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen