Does sugar free koolaid count for water?

Twasney

Becca you are correct - most doctors these days are refining their thoughts on intake of liquid to not just water. The idea is to flush the body, so fluids are fluids - keeping in mind that a coke is not very healthy because of the sugar content and a diet coke is just as bad due to chemicals. Make your choice.

I think they are changing this to suit the desires of the clients. The first time I tried all of this, I tried to tell myself everything else counted too.

Not this time, something clicked and now to me, water is water period. Clean and pure, Nature at it's best with nothign else to filter out.

I would have to disagree with this...because my team of doctors have little to do with my desires...they are really about kicking my *kitten* and making me do it slow and right!

Tuffjourney

Qarol....No Koolaid for your cat..only water...That is one big kitty :noway:

PJmetts

I do not like the plain taste of water so I add Crystal Light Pure Fitness. It gives the water a better taste but only adds a few calories. I also drink a lot of Coffee but do not count this in my daily water intake. Hope this answered your question.

I found Crystal Light Pure Fitness actually caused my BG (Sugar) to go up. I'm borderline Diabetic so I watch closely when I change something in my diet. I don't like the taste of water at work so I add lemon juice or sugar free flavor, but at home I go straight water.

anubis609

I usually log pancake batter as water intake. Kool-Aid is jailhouse seasoning to me. Put it on sticky buns and mix the red until it's pink. You get strawberry shortcake. Green if you want key-lime pie.

maidentl

water means water. period.

not kool aid, not tea, CERTAINLY NOT COFFEE or SODA (these have caffeine in them which actually causes dehydration)

water.

This is another myth. Any dehydrating effects of caffeine are more than counterbalanced by the liquid it's in. Is water the best fluid you can drink? Sure. Is it the only one you CAN drink and have it "count?" No.

HMonsterX

Your body needs on average 8 cups of FLUID. NOT neat water.

You can get this a number of ways. Water, tea, coffee, soda, fruit juice, fruit, veg, etc. Tea, coffee and soda all hydrate you. It may be only 75% of the hydration you'd get from pure water, but it still hydrates, and certainly does not dehydrate. There are thousands, maybe millions, of people who only drink tea or coffee throughout the day who get by just fine!

People who say they feel better for drinking lots more pure water are either having a placebo effect, or they weren't getting enough fluid from their daily diet beforehand.

HollyTsiaussis

Of course love. Actually, a lot of the foods you eat have water in them that counts. Even a diet coke counts. But I'd recommend drinking as much as you are willing.

Diet coke does not count as water, at all. Only plain water counts as water. End of story.

RNewton4269

I count my water as water. I also count my water with Crystal Light in it as water. But a Diet Coke, tea, milk, etc., is different and I count it accordingly.

anubis609

Your body needs on average 8 cups of FLUID. NOT neat water.

You can get this a number of ways. Water, tea, coffee, soda, fruit juice, fruit, veg, etc. Tea, coffee and soda all hydrate you. It may be only 75% of the hydration you'd get from pure water, but it still hydrates, and certainly does not dehydrate. There are thousands, maybe millions, of people who only drink tea or coffee throughout the day who get by just fine!

People who say they feel better for drinking lots more pure water are either having a placebo effect, or they weren't getting enough fluid from their daily diet beforehand.

Yeah, but I like my pee to be clear as the water it hits.

alyssamiller77

Oh boy here we go again with a lot of mis-information. The fact is simple, many of the things that you eat and drink contain water. The goal is to get a minimum of 8 cups of water into your system. That water can come from kool-aid, coffee, tea, soda, whatever. Now that said, you do have to account for the other items that may be in those drinks (i.e. sodium, caffeine, sugar, etc) and log those into your diary so that you get a solid view but there's no reason it has to be plain pure water. In fact, if you actually read the recommendations on this from the clinical studies, the suggestion is 8 cups of FLUID, not water specifically.

Look at it this way, if I take one of those single serving powder tubes and a 16oz bottle of water, I can consume them one of two ways. I could either drink the water straight and then eat the powder in the tube. If I did this no one would argue that I had just taken in 2 cups of water. Of course I'd have to log what I ate in the powder (calories, sugars, carbs, sodium, etc). The other way I can eat it is to dissolve the packet in the water and drink them together. Doing so does not somehow chemically change the composition of the water such that it ceases to be water. It's still water, it just has another substance dissolved in it. Dissolution is NOT a chemical reaction that would change the makeup of the water, it merely means that the molecules of the powder are now intermixed with the molecules of the water (yes I'm oversimplifying I know - to all the science teachers out there).

So anyway, water is water however you get it, just be sure to account for the calories and other properties of anything you add to it.

maidentl

Doing so does not somehow chemically change the composition of the water such that it ceases to be water. It's still water, it just has another substance dissolved in it.

THANK YOU!

Twasney

Here is an awesome article my nutritionist sent to me when we talked about this..

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=605

Hope that helps

dannylives

It's water according to my nutritionist. No Carbonation, No Cafeine and No Sugar = water.

Best of Luck!!!

This sounds like a good answer. I didn't read all of them.

runningmom1977

An awesome alternative to plain water without the chemicals is to add some cucumber slices and cantaloupe chunks to a pitcher of water. Gives it a nice fresh flavor!

auntie_missy

Doing so does not somehow chemically change the composition of the water such that it ceases to be water. It's still water, it just has another substance dissolved in it.

It seems like there are two main sides to this argument. There's what's quoted above, and then there is the side that believes that if the substance you dissolve in the water is junk, then the water becomes junk. I tend to agree with the latter; I don't red food dye or aspartame, but I do need water.


Now - let me ask a question for those who say carbonation is bad - why? If someone is drinking Perrier or Pelligrino, why is that bad?

d2footballJRC

Doing so does not somehow chemically change the composition of the water such that it ceases to be water. It's still water, it just has another substance dissolved in it.

It seems like there are two main sides to this argument. There's what's quoted above, and then there is the side that believes that if the substance you dissolve in the water is junk, then the water becomes junk. I tend to agree with the latter; I don't red food dye or aspartame, but I do need water.


Now - let me ask a question for those who say carbonation is bad - why? If someone is drinking Perrier or Pelligrino, why is that bad?

My trainer told me to not count carbonated beverages, I have no idea why. I've dropped a lot of weight so I'm having a tendancy not to question it too much. I was curious though. I was guessing it had to do with the carbon dioxide or something.

Kikilicious84

Oh boy here we go again with a lot of mis-information. The fact is simple, many of the things that you eat and drink contain water. The goal is to get a minimum of 8 cups of water into your system. That water can come from kool-aid, coffee, tea, soda, whatever. Now that said, you do have to account for the other items that may be in those drinks (i.e. sodium, caffeine, sugar, etc) and log those into your diary so that you get a solid view but there's no reason it has to be plain pure water. In fact, if you actually read the recommendations on this from the clinical studies, the suggestion is 8 cups of FLUID, not water specifically.

Look at it this way, if I take one of those single serving powder tubes and a 16oz bottle of water, I can consume them one of two ways. I could either drink the water straight and then eat the powder in the tube. If I did this no one would argue that I had just taken in 2 cups of water. Of course I'd have to log what I ate in the powder (calories, sugars, carbs, sodium, etc). The other way I can eat it is to dissolve the packet in the water and drink them together. Doing so does not somehow chemically change the composition of the water such that it ceases to be water. It's still water, it just has another substance dissolved in it. Dissolution is NOT a chemical reaction that would change the makeup of the water, it merely means that the molecules of the powder are now intermixed with the molecules of the water (yes I'm oversimplifying I know - to all the science teachers out there).

So anyway, water is water however you get it, just be sure to account for the calories and other properties of anything you add to it.

:laugh: @ "Eat the tube of powder" :laugh:

I've been having a pretty crummy day but that made me smile and was also informative.

:drinker:

alyssamiller77

Doing so does not somehow chemically change the composition of the water such that it ceases to be water. It's still water, it just has another substance dissolved in it.

It seems like there are two main sides to this argument. There's what's quoted above, and then there is the side that believes that if the substance you dissolve in the water is junk, then the water becomes junk. I tend to agree with the latter; I don't red food dye or aspartame, but I do need water.


Now - let me ask a question for those who say carbonation is bad - why? If someone is drinking Perrier or Pelligrino, why is that bad?

OK and that's fine, but the fact that the drink contains items you may not want to consume, doesn't address the original question. The original question is would such a drink count toward the daily amount of fluid one is supposed to consume. The answer simply is yes. Regardless of what else you put in there, it's still water. Now again, as stated before, the other elements added (sodium, coloring, sweeteners, etc) may have other impacts on your diet that you need to account for, but the question wasn't whether or not it was the same as water just whether or not it counts toward your fluid intake. The answer is, it does, and as I said before you do need to account for the things you've added to the water in your diet plan too.

Timkerbelle

I would most definitely not count anything with artificial sweeteners as water. For me "water" is about cleansing the body from junk, not adding it.

musica814

Of course love. Actually, a lot of the foods you eat have water in them that counts. Even a diet coke counts. But I'd recommend drinking as much as you are willing.

Oh my god... sorry, but diet coke does not count as water,