Does iced tea = water?

mouth5667

I drink quite a bit of iced tea and want to know if I should be counting it towards my daily water total or is the water in addition to the tea? Also, what about diet soda? Can it be counted towards your water?

Tuffjourney

I count my iced tea as water. Since it is free of sugar.

voluptuous_veggie

Water is water. If diet soda or tea counted as water, they'd be called "water". The caffeine in those things actually DEHYDRATE you, so for each time you drink one of those, it takes about double that amount in water to rehydrate yourself.

timeforme23

I wish. Only water is water.

Qarol

The main ingredient in Coke is water...someone wise told me so

auntied

I get at least 5 16.9 bottles of water a day no problem then I drink diet soda at nite with my JACK! and Ice Tea in between!

moushtie

Personally I would count tea as water. Us brits drink tea like it *is* water, and I don't fancy telling my parents that their tea doesn't count as a drink...

BobbyDaniel

For me I only count actual water for my water intake; I'll log my coffee, tea and sodas separately...even though I drink my coffee black.

Jennilvmp

What if u drink water with a couple of drops of that new Mio liquid water enhancer????

KPaden1221

as long as you're drinking unsweet and decaffinated i say go for it...

Avalonis

As long as there isn't much caffeine, you are fine counting it.

Drinks with high caffeine like Coke and black tea and coffee cause you to pee more than you gain in water... so don't count those.

But green tea or herbal teas have negligible amounts of caffeine usually, so I count them.

Oh, don't count booze for the same reason.

teetee1281

If you are drinking caffeine free tea and very little sugar, I would count it, but I wouldn't give it full credit, so like 8oz, I'd only count as 4oz and still strive to get more water intake in. Over time, I only drink sodas to treat myself my main intake is hot or ice tea (brewed not store brought) and water.

kajones2009

as long as you're drinking unsweet and decaffinated i say go for it...

I agree... as long as it's decaf.. that's what gets ya, as for diet sodas, no, too much other stuff in them to count

UpEarly

The caffeine in tea may dehydrate you a little, but I think I would still count some of the tea in your daily water intake (maybe 50-75% of it).

A lot of people overestimate the dehydrating power of caffeine, and blow it way out of proportion. Caffeine is not that strong of a diuretic. If you drink 8 cups of water, on top of beverages like tea and coffee and the water content of the food you eat, you're probably getting more water than you actually NEED.

I know a lot of people will disagree, but extra water just gets filtered through your kidneys and urinated out without really benefiting you in any measurable way. I bet there are many who drink way more than they need. Just my opinion! :-)

rileysowner

If it is unsweetened I count it as water as the dehydrating effect of tea is minimal. If it is sweetened, I usually don't, even if the sweetener is non-caloric.

luppic8

I was recently at the doctor's office and while I was waiting in the waiting room I was watching this little health and wellness segment on the television. They were doing a piece on healthy eating and they reminded you to make sure you drink at least 8 cups of water a day. It also stated that things such as tea, coffee and soft drinks counted as water. The only thing that did not make the "count" was alcohol...big shocker huh? So I guess to answer your question...According to Kaiser Permanente, your tea does count as water!

amadapooky76

The only way I can get my water in is if I flavor it. I don't like lemon, so I use the drink mixes (sugar free).

I sure hope they count!!

HMonsterX

Water is water. If diet soda or tea counted as water, they'd be called "water". The caffeine in those things actually DEHYDRATE you, so for each time you drink one of those, it takes about double that amount in water to rehydrate yourself.

Lucky you don't actually need WATER then isn't it! It's fluid you need. I wish people would stop with this myth about caffeine dehydrating you...

It has long been thought that coffee and other caffeine-containing beverages are dehydrating and don’t count toward your daily fluid intake. In fact, some go as far as recommending one cup of water for every cup of Joe you consume. Most of us know that caffeine is a diuretic (it makes us have to go pee), but does it deplete our bodily fluids?

The Straight Talk
In his review, “Caffeine, Body Fluid-Electrolyte Balance, and Exercise Performance,” Lawrence E. Armstrong, a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Connecticut disproves the notion that caffeinated beverages rob us of our precious fluids. By reviewing the scientific research on the subject, he concludes that although caffeine, like water, is a mild diuresis (it increases excretion of urine), moderate caffeine consumption does not produce a “fluid-electrolyte imbalance” that can affect health or exercise performance. Furthermore, we retain roughly the same amount of fluid after drinking a caffeinated beverage as we do after drinking water.

Even more encouraging for habitual coffee consumers is the finding that those with caffeine tolerance have reduced likelihood that a fluid electrolyte imbalance will occur. The more regular your caffeine habit, the more fluid your body is conditioned to retain.

Other findings support his conclusions. A small study done at the University of Nebraska tested the body weight, urine output, and blood of eighteen subjects after they consumed caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages. They determined that there was “no significant differences in the effect of various combinations of beverages on hydration status of healthy adult males.” The Institute of Medicine expert panel on water and electrolyte intake asserts that the diuretic effects of caffeine are transient, and that coffee, tea, and colas can contribute to total water intake.



Via http://www.divinecaroline.com/22178/46361-coffee-makes-dehydrated-say-what#ixzz1ZGBUXtKA

Dr. Valtin specifically investigated the research evidence behind the most popular myths about our fluid needs.

All fluids count. The popular papers left “little doubt” that most advocates of the 8 glasses of water a day mean to convey that people should drink water per se, and specifically exclude caffeinated or sweetened drinks from the daily count. But this is a misperception, he wrote. He found strong scientific evidence that all fluids count, including water, coffee, tea, soft drinks, milk, juices and beer.

Dehydrating caffeine myth. Similarly, he found that recent experiments have “cast serious doubt on the often asserted diuretic role of caffeinated drinks,” he said. Caffeine had no significant effects on any of the variables that measure dehydration in one such study conducted at the Center for Human Nutrition in Omaha, for example, and the investigators concluded that “advising people to disregard caffeinated beverages as part of the daily fluid intake is not substantiated.” The diuretic effect of caffeine in drinks and moderate alcohol is trivial compared to the amount of water they contain.

We need less than we think. Among most adults, he found, caffeinated and alcoholic beverages constitute half or slightly more of their daily fluid intake, meaning the average adult drinks a respectable 1,700 ml and this doesn’t include the water from foods and metabolism, which also count. Yet, the medical research indicates that even 1,700 ml may be as much as a full liter more than what sedentary adults actually need to maintain physiological homeostasis, he said.

He couldn’t find any article where 8x8 was recommended on the basis of scientific evidence. The idea seemed to appear out of nowhere. He did, however, find one possible source for a misinterpretation that may have been repeated, like urban legends often are. The 1945 Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences had written in its Recommended Dietary Allowances:

A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 liters daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 milliliter for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.
Dr. Valtin believes this last sentence may have been ignored, leaving the incorrect interpretation of these early dietary guidelines that eight glasses of water to be drunk each day.

Ragsdale7678

I do not believe that the caffine in diet soda or tea can dehydrate you more than the quantity of water in the drink. I drink about 12 diet sodas per day and have for years. I do not doubt that caffine dehydrates, but not to that level. If it did I would be mummified by now.

By the way, I know I drink way too much soda, but it is the only vice I have left once I finish losing weight and I don't intend to quit it too.

CMmrsfloyd

I do not count my 1 diet soda a day as being water b/c of the caffeine I guess. I only count water as water. But I really dislike plain water so I flavor it with a powdered flavoring that is sweetened with Truvia (one of my motivations for cutting back on the diet soda was to cut back on aspartame as well as the caffeine).

mouth5667

Thanks everyone!!! You have been very helpful. I think my answer is count the tea/diet soda, just don't consume too much of it! Soda is no problem, I will try to watch the tea. I like the flavor drops idea for the water.

Jennilvmp

I live on the flavor drops, but I only put a drop to barely flavor it. It feels like a treat to me and I drink more water that way!!!

iAMaPhoenix

I drink diet soda therefore I drink water. Diet soda is 95+% water, but I don't log it as such. I don't really care. If I am thirsty, I drink. As long as I get my 64 of water, I am fine. Which reminds me. "Nurse, I am ready for my proctoclysis now" Look it up and you will get the joke.

teagin2002

The main ingredient in Coke is water...someone wise told me so

Funny!

AlsDonkBoxSquat

I drink quite a bit of iced tea and want to know if I should be counting it towards my daily water total or is the water in addition to the tea? Also, what about diet soda? Can it be counted towards your water?

I do not count anything that has caffeine in it because caffeine is a diuretic (A diuretic provides a means of forced diuresis which elevates the rate of urination. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics increase the excretion of water from bodies, although each class does so in a distinct way) which causes the body to flush fluids instead of using it for hydration.

If your pee stinks and has real color (not just a tinge of yellow) you are not hydrated and need to rethink your definition of water. If it's fine, whatever you're doing is working or you.

teagin2002

As long as there isn't much caffeine, you are fine counting it.

Drinks with high caffeine like Coke and black tea and coffee cause you to pee more than you gain in water... so don't count those.

But green tea or herbal teas have negligible amounts of caffeine usually, so I count them.

Oh, don't count booze for the same reason.

Very good answer, and I follow this too.

BrewerGeorge

I can't believe this keeps coming up and keeps being misrepresented. Several people continue to post actual research and it is routinely ignored for conventional wisdom and semantics ("If tea was water it would be called water...").

Do what you want for yourselves, People, but why continue to give advice to others that has been proven wrong?

missyouhoo

I'm going to have a uneducated no on this one its like diet soda it may make you fatter

ATT949

If it's calorie free, count it as water. I haven't seen a medical study on this but my source is Lindora (lindora.com).

Lindora has a medically-supervised weight loss plan that has helped hundreds of thousands of people lose weight over the past 40 years. My GF runs their largest clinic so I got lots of pointers when I was losing weight.

When I was losing weight I drank mostly coffee and iced tea. I'm just not that into water, even if it's been purified with scotch or bourbon. :-)

Many folks claim that you shouldn't count iced tea as water because caffeine is a diuretic. That's true. It's also true that water is poisonous. Yes, water will kill you…and not just from drowning.

What's missing from the statements "caffeine is a diuretic" is that they don't disclose the conditions under which caffeine is a diuretic nor have I ever seen anyone cite the impact on different individuals nor has the dosage been addressed. Other than that, the statements were completely valid!

I can't cite the source but, since I try to avoid drinking plain water, I looked into the diuretic effect. I found a few articles (not blog postings or posts here on MFP) that said that the diuretic effect was low and was minimal for anyone who used caffeine on a regular basis.

I realize that I've been vague so a few seconds on Google and…

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661
To me, Mayo is a trusted source but the page doesn't give any info on how much of a diuretic effect.



http://www.medicinenet.com/caffeine/page3.htm

Like the Mayo article, no mention of how much of a diuretic nor was it controlled - the participants were told to not use caffeine which does not mean that the subjects did not consume caffeine.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/537881-diuretic-effect-of-caffeine-in-soft-drinks/?utm_source=popslideshow&utm_medium=a1
Again, minimal metrics.


http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/handouts/caffeine.html
Addresses the issue but no metrics. "There is no conclusive evidence that caffeine in beverage form is dehydrating. Its diuretic effects are usually compensated for by the beverage's fluid content. "

From the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html
They cite sources.


From the Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine

And it has citations (which I haven't checked)
The money shot - "Caffeine has diuretic properties when administered to people who are not used to it, but regular users develop a strong tolerance to this effect, and studies have generally failed to support the common notion that ordinary consumption of caffeinated beverages contributes significantly to dehydration."

ASPhantom

Water = Water

zingeber

I work in a hospital where tracking fluid intake and output is a daily requirement, so I'm going with the slightly personal but very observable answer that we use as a rough guideline - if your pee is light-yellow, you're fine. If it's dark, then you need to drink more fluid. Iced tea is probably fine if you're drinking enough of it... and a little diuresis never hurts if you're trying to lose (water) weight ;-)