What counts as water?

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  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
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    everything
    YES EVERYTHING
    except alcohol
    cafeine does not dehydrates it's a myth

    Caffeine is a diuretic. It will cause you to urinate more often as it does pull water from your body and form urine. This is a known fact about biochemistry. Alcohol is also a diuretic. Same effect. I wouldn't suggest counting tea towards since teas usually contain caffeine. Also, carbonated drinks should not be considered water since it contains carbonated water not plain water.

    As for me, I only count water towards my daily totals.
    Apparently you've ignored the information in this thread, I don't know why it surprises me...clearly many of the posters haven't read the factual information and like to use anecdotes or 'what they think'.

    I wasn't using anecdotal evidence. I do have a degree in biology. This particular signal cascade was covered in biochemistry. Caffeine and alcohol are diuretics. However, will you become dehydrated because you counted two cups of coffee as part of your water intake? No. Are you going to suffer long-term health issues because you count the diet coke as part of your water intake? No. However, the caffeine and alcohol will cause an increase in urine production which does take more water out of your system than if you didn't have the caffeine or alcohol.

    To answer the original poster's questions, honestly, in the big picture... it doesn't matter if you count the tea or Crystal Light in you daily water. It's not going to make that big of a difference. Personally, I only count water.

    But the water it takes out is far, far outweighed by the water in the tea/coffee, thats the point.
  • funkycamper
    funkycamper Posts: 998 Member
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    Actually yes, chiropractors are real doctors.

    You don't need a PhD to be a chiropractor. Some may have them, those would be Doctors, even if it's not medical. But for the most part, chiropractors are not doctors.

    you dont need a PhD to be a medical doctor either

    But you DO need a doctorate degree. An MD is a doctoral level degree in medicine, just as a PharmD is a doctoral degree in pharmacy. You don't need a doctoral degree in anything to be a chiropractor. Chiropractic is pseudoscience. BTW, I live in the birthplace of chiropractic--it was invented here. We have more chiropractors per capita than anywhere else in the world. Chiropractors get virtually no hands-on training in school, and DO get "marketing" training. No medical school in the US teaches "marketing."

    Oh, MY! I kinda hate to side-track this discussion but I have met three other people with virtually the same back injury I had several years back. And, in fact, mine was worse because more discs were effected. They all went to doctors and orthopedic surgeons for treatment. They all had surgery. They are all in constant pain, live on painkillers, and one has had to have another surgery and another is having another surgery soon. All of them have restricted movement and are prohibited from doing many activities either by prescription or because of the pain those activities cause.

    I chose to have my injury treated with chiropractic care, massage, a few cranial-sacral treatments, and by doing exercises prescribed by my chiropractor. I have zero pain, zero loss of movement, and zero restrictions on what I can do.

    I realize this is only anecdotal but I can assure you chiropractors aren't quacks and it's not pseudoscience.
  • funkycamper
    funkycamper Posts: 998 Member
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    Basically all liquids (besides alcohol) count. So, water, tea, juice, milk, etc, etc, etc

    Seriously? I don't know where you got that from, but pretty sure juice and milk definitely don't count as water...

    Tea and coffee, maybe. Adding Crystal Light is fine, if you want all that unnatural stuff in your body, and it would still count as water, but for the most part, I think water is the only thing that counts as water.

    Tea is water with leaves soaked in it. How is that "unnatural?"

    Milk, juice, coffee and tea are all just water with a TINY amount of "something else" in them. The water itself is unadulterated as these are not even solutions, just colloidal suspensions--particles floating in the water. It is unscientific nonsense to suggest that mixing the "stuff" in the water BEFORE you drink it is any different than mixing it up in your belly AFTER you drink it. If mixing something in meant it wasn't still water, the only water that would count would be water you drank when you stomach was COMPLETELY empty. If yo've eaten, the food will mix with the water and it won't count anymore.

    Love this.
  • picklegeuce
    picklegeuce Posts: 1
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    First of all there is no scientific proof of 8 glasses of water a day is a magic number to significantly effect health or weight loss. That is not to say that you shouldn't stay hydrated! If you feel thirsty, you should drink some water or an other beverage. Our bodies are amazing machine well equipped to maintain themselves if we learn to listen and trust in them. Secondly, ANY beverage (except maybe alcohol) counts towards your water intake, while some may be healthier choices than others. The information below was directly copied and pasted from mayoclinic.com

    Question
    Caffeine: Is it dehydrating or not?
    I've been seeing ads that say cola and coffee drinks hydrate you as well as water does. Is this true?
    Answer
    from Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.

    It is true. Researchers used to believe that caffeinated drinks had a diuretic effect. This means that you would urinate more after drinking them, which could increase your risk of becoming dehydrated. Recent research shows that this is not true and that caffeine has a diuretic effect only if you consume large amounts of it — more than 500 to 600 milligrams (the equivalent of 5 to 7 cups of coffee) a day.

    Still, caffeinated drinks can make you jittery, sleepless or anxious. Water is probably your best bet to stay hydrated. It's calorie-free, caffeine-free, inexpensive and readily available.
  • DrewMaxwell
    DrewMaxwell Posts: 269 Member
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    Enough said

    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283
  • Lorleee
    Lorleee Posts: 369 Member
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    Basically all liquids (besides alcohol) count. So, water, tea, juice, milk, etc, etc, etc

    This is correct.
  • DeeVanderbles
    DeeVanderbles Posts: 589 Member
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    Bump.
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
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    Bump.

    Why? There's tons of threads on this, and new ones every week...
  • DeeVanderbles
    DeeVanderbles Posts: 589 Member
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    Bump.

    Why? There's tons of threads on this, and new ones every week...
    Because I'm new, I haven't seen any recently, and this is the one that popped up when I searched for the topic. But at least I searched and found one instead of creating another.
  • Cyanid3
    Cyanid3 Posts: 112 Member
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    Pure hydrogen dioxide....h2o.... Refrigerator pee.
  • dreamsofsomeday
    dreamsofsomeday Posts: 62 Member
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    I count tea and water in my own measurements, even though there is some water in coffee, juice, etc. I just get worried that the actual water is a little hard to measure in other liquids, especially pulpy orange juice. I'm not sure if it makes a huge difference, but it's just how I measure. I also like drinking tea, because it is great for the metabolism without having to add milk to it to taste great. I try to drink as much plain water as possible.
    Oh, and also if I used a specific amount of water for the soup I make, I count that, too.
  • stormdancer
    stormdancer Posts: 32 Member
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    http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

    8 glasses a day myth is from 6 decades ago. Foods count toward the 8-glass intake. Take a cup of dry white rice, to cook it takes 2 cups of water. So you eat the resultant 2 cups of rice, of course that water enters your body. You don't eat rice dry.
  • dreamsofsomeday
    dreamsofsomeday Posts: 62 Member
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    Thanks for that article. It is very interesting.
  • Rocbola
    Rocbola Posts: 1,998 Member
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    Water counts as water, nothing else.

    If you want to flavor your water a bit, cut a lemon and squeeze half of it into a glass of water, but still have many, many glasses of pure water daily.
  • EnuffaMyButt
    EnuffaMyButt Posts: 111 Member
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    Hey guys! Quick question, couldn't find anything related easily when I searched. My coworker and I were discussing how much water we drink the other day and I was telling her it was hard for me to just drink regular water, so I use Crystal light and tea. She responded that these things don't count as going toward your 8 glasses daily and only strictly water does! What do you guys think??

    water is water - anything else added to it is no longer water.
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
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    Hey guys! Quick question, couldn't find anything related easily when I searched. My coworker and I were discussing how much water we drink the other day and I was telling her it was hard for me to just drink regular water, so I use Crystal light and tea. She responded that these things don't count as going toward your 8 glasses daily and only strictly water does! What do you guys think??

    water is water - anything else added to it is no longer water.

    So what's that liquid stuff in my glass when i add a touch of flavour to it? Is it bacon now?

    Here we go again!

    You need the equivalent of 8 cups of water a day on average, from any source. These sources can be pure water/tea/coffee/juice/soda/milk/fruit/veg etc. It does NOT have to be pure neat water!

    http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/13/myth-eight-glasses-water-day

    http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/wellness-water-8x8-myth.html

    http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/12/08/the-myth-behind-drinking-8-glasses-of-water-a-day/


    As for tea/coffee being a diuretic, so many people just spout that word as a reason, without actually understanding what "diuretic" means.

    di·u·ret·ic (d-rtk)
    adj.
    Tending to increase the discharge of urine.
    n.
    A substance or drug that tends to increase the discharge of urine.

    Neat water is also a diuretic. The diuretic effect of caffeine is far, far outweighed by the actual water in the tea/coffee. Also, regular consumers of caffeinated beverages will build up a tolerance to said effect, eventually reaching the point where caffeinated drinks provide practically the same amount of hydration as a cup of neat water will.


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

    http://worldofcaffeine.com/2011/06/14/caffeine-does-not-dehydrate/

    http://advance.uconn.edu/2002/020722/02072207.htm

    http://nomoredirtylooks.com/2011/04/surprise-caffeinated-tea-does-not-dehydrate-you/

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html

    http://www.sharecare.com/question/does-caffeine-dehydrate-not

    http://www.artofdrink.com/2009/12/caffeine-in-coffee-does-not-increase-dehydration-during-hangovers.php

    http://www.caring4cancer.com/go/cancer/nutrition/questions/do-caffeinated-beverages-cause-dehydration.htm

    http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5552790&page=1#.TrQWc0O5_oo
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
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    Nutr Rev. 2010 Aug;68(8):439-58.
    Water, hydration, and health.
    Popkin BM, D'Anci KE, Rosenberg IH.
    Source
    Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27516, USA. popkin@unc.edu
    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2010.00304.x/full

    "There is really no existing information to support an assumption that consumption of water alone or beverages containing water affects hydration differentially.3,105 Some epidemiological data suggest water might have different metabolic effects when consumed alone rather than as a component of caffeinated or flavored or sweetened beverages; however, these data are at best suggestive of an issue deserving further exploration.106,107 As shown below, the research of Ershow et al. indicates that beverages not consisting solely of water do contain less than 100% water."

    Even food counts as water:
    Data from the USDA national nutrient database for standard reference, release 21, as provided in Altman.126

    Percentage Food item
    100% Water
    90–99% Fat-free milk, cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon, lettuce, cabbage, celery, spinach, pickles, squash (cooked)
    80–89% Fruit juice, yogurt, apples, grapes, oranges, carrots, broccoli (cooked), pears, pineapple
    70–79% Bananas, avocados, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, potato (baked), corn (cooked), shrimp
    60–69% Pasta, legumes, salmon, ice cream, chicken breast
    50–59% Ground beef, hot dogs, feta cheese, tenderloin steak (cooked)
    40–49% Pizza
    30–39% Cheddar cheese, bagels, bread
    20–29% Pepperoni sausage, cake, biscuits
    10–19% Butter, margarine, raisins
    1–9% Walnuts, peanuts (dry roasted), chocolate chip cookies, crackers, cereals, pretzels, taco shells, peanut butter
    0% Oils, sugars

    I think my favorite forum post ever was (I apologize for not remembering the witty writer) "Did you ever hear about that guy that died from dehydration because he drank only coffee and diet coke? No... because it didn't happen"
  • shannashannabobana
    shannashannabobana Posts: 625 Member
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    "I think my favorite forum post ever was (I apologize for not remembering the witty writer) "Did you ever hear about that guy that died from dehydration because he drank only coffee and diet coke? No... because it didn't happen" "

    I love that!

    I fall out on the 'all liquids count as water' side. They all have water as a primary ingredient. If you are having water with lemon/tea grounds/coffee/crystal light/etc...just count it as Water+X.

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