Do tea/coffee count towards water intake?

MegJo

If you've ever asked this - here is the answer.

Clean Eating magazine has a blurb on this in their most current issue. The answer is provided by Susan Kleiner, PhD, RD, an international columnist and speaker on the subjects o fnutrition, sports and fitness.

"A synopsis of research studies conducted worldwide has shown that people who drink five to six cups of water every day, compared to two or fewer, have a remarkably reduced risk of a number of chronic diseases. In those studies, both still and sparkling water were counted as "water", but tea, coffee and other water-based beverages were not. So, you may include sparkling water consumption toward your total daily need for water, although you will certainly need more fluids to be fully hydrated each day. The only concern is that some brands of sparkling water are high in sodium, so you may be unexpectedly adding a great deal of hidden sodium to your diet."

Cheers!

VixFit2011

The water in them does but the caffeine acts as a diuretic so it removes water from your system.

cobracars

If its a beverage and its made using water, I count it.
But then again I'm not a coffee drinker and I gave up soda 2-3 weeks ago.
So I do water, Crystal Lite Raspberry diet Tea, and orange juice.
About every 3-4 days I'll treat myself to a 12 oz glass bottle of Original Coke, imported from Mexico and made with real sugar instead of the American made stuff made with corn syrup.

hofdog

I only count it if its decaf.

luv2ash

Nope! Not for me. I fill up my 64 ounce jug full of water and no matter how much coffee, tea, sports waters, etc, I drink, that 64 ounce jug of water will be empty before I go to bed.

MsCracker

What about diet green tea? Or is just because it's not straight "water" does it not count?

Wraiythe

I count my water. If i put one of those crystal light packets in it or something I'll count it cuz they aren't calories or anything. But other than that only water is counted.

Coyla

Coffee, no, but tea, maybe. I thought they (they being the predominate authorities on what is and isn't healthy) have revised this. Now coffee and tea and even soda pop actually DO work to hydrate the body.

The rules change from year to year. Wine was bad for you, now it's good for you. Coffee was bad for you, now it's good for you. Fat was bad bad bad. Now it's good. Carbs were GREAT, then they were bad, then they were good again as long as they were complex.

I try not to rely on these fads too much, including the idea that drinking gobs of water is somehow a magical formula to massive weight loss.

I think following the guidelines a bit is always good. High fiber, high protein, lean meats, vegetables, and--yes--drink water. But if you want to count tea as water, and you're sick to death of plain H20, go for it.

Still_Sossy

That is like counting soup...you add water to that when you make it too. I would only count pure water. IMHO.

vicki9168

I dotn count coffee in my water intake, but I do tea if I have it black but I dont drink tea much anyway. I normally drink one glass of diet cordial per day and I do count this as water.

MegJo

That is like counting soup...you add water to that when you make it too. I would only count pure water. IMHO.

Love this!!! I never thought of it that way!

cobracars

I don't think of soup as water because the water in the soup takes on all the properties of whatever you're adding to the soup. Although milk is mostly water I don't count it either because of all the other stuff that makes it milk.

ace175

I don't count it, and it hasn't hurt me so far, but I don't drink it every day, and if I drink coffee I like it black, so I don't add any extra calories

3ur3ka

I have an article saved some where that says tea hydrates just as well as straight water so I count it.

mamagooskie

Some people count it as water but i personally dont.

koosdel

I only counts drinks that are wet.