Are we counting cups of tea under water intake?

Picturesque2u

I'm just curious to know if many of you are counting cups of tea under water. Now that I've been able to drink down hot green tea and fennel seed tea without any additives, I think it's acceptable under water..... I know it's not that serious! So it doesn't hust to ask for your thoughts.

Please also share any other beverages that you may log under water.

Cheval13

Yes! I think that since tea is basically flavored water, it is water. Hence, I count coffee and SoBe etc. as well. One could also count soda, but since that has so many other things, I usually don't.

megsmom2

I usually figure if it has caffeine in it, I don't count it. So coffee or black tea, no, but herbal teas or things like sugar free lemonade, yes.

slmarshall14

No no no! Tea is a dehydrator. Yeah it is "flavored water" but it will also dyhydrate you. If anything you would need to drink more water if you are drink tea. I do not count cups of tea in my water count, and most of the time I make sure my water is room temperature so that is it easier to drink. When you have a meal, I find it easier to tell myself I have to drink at least two cups of water with it. It keeps you full and you'll reach 8 cups much easier.

yarwell

Tea is water as are other drinks, correct. www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661

neverstray

No no no! Tea is a dehydrator. Yeah it is "flavored water" but it will also dyhydrate you. If anything you would need to drink more water if you are drink tea. I do not count cups of tea in my water count, and most of the time I make sure my water is room temperature so that is it easier to drink. When you have a meal, I find it easier to tell myself I have to drink at least two cups of water with it. It keeps you full and you'll reach 8 cups much easier.

\

Coffee and tea actually dehydrate you. So, you actually are supposed to drink more water if you drink coffee or tea. At least that's my understanding.

jenj1313

If it's not caffeinated, I count it. If it has caffeine, I don't.

Also, if it's got sugar already added (Sobe, Vitamin Water), I tend not to count it. But I do count herbal tea if I've added a packet of "raw" sugar.

Not sure it makes much sense when you look at it, but it's just what I do. I'm trying to watch my intake of processed sugars, so it makes sense for me.

plushkitten

Yeah, I count my tea. As I drink it plain.

mhotch

The old wives' tale of caffeine is a dehydrater has been debunked. Technically, yes, caffeine does dehydrate, but only in a large quantity. The amount you need to drink is a huge amount, plus you are still ingesting water with it. If you normally are a tea drinker than by all means you can use it as part of your fluid intake.

jenpolak

No no no! Tea is a dehydrator. Yeah it is "flavored water" but it will also dyhydrate you. If anything you would need to drink more water if you are drink tea. I do not count cups of tea in my water count, and most of the time I make sure my water is room temperature so that is it easier to drink. When you have a meal, I find it easier to tell myself I have to drink at least two cups of water with it. It keeps you full and you'll reach 8 cups much easier.

agree totally.........I never count any beverage other than water as water. Anything with caffeine negates your water intake...so if you want to get 64oz of water/day and you drink two coffees or teas or soda with caffeine you need to replace that 16oz of caffeinated beverage with extra water. Be kind to your kidneys!

Megabot

No no no! Tea is a dehydrator. Yeah it is "flavored water" but it will also dyhydrate you. If anything you would need to drink more water if you are drink tea. I do not count cups of tea in my water count, and most of the time I make sure my water is room temperature so that is it easier to drink. When you have a meal, I find it easier to tell myself I have to drink at least two cups of water with it. It keeps you full and you'll reach 8 cups much easier.

\

Coffee and tea actually dehydrate you. So, you actually are supposed to drink more water if you drink coffee or tea. At least that's my understanding.

Yes, caffeine is a diuretic. However: tea, especially green tea, actually has VERY LITTLE caffeine. Go look up milligrams of caffeine per drink, and you'll see what I mean. I'd definitely count tea.

Coffee I usually don't count in my "water" count, because I'm just trying to make sure I drink more water overall. So I think that one's up to you.

wonderwomanwannaB

When coffee and tea dehydrate you, it's actually their effect as diuretics. They make you pee more. The same is true for alcohol.

Your fluid intake is based on all fluids of the day. The idea of 8 x 8 actually includes water that is found in the foods you eat as well. Studies have been done that show as long as you are getting your fluid it doesn't matter if it is coming from pure water or other sources.

Extra fluid in general make you feel better and prevents dehydration. Water is the most effective source of this. However, if you are just trying to reach your 8 x 8 tea does fit into that.

(That is really over simplified, but that's the gist of it)

TynkEMT

I will count unsweet tea in my water but any other drink besides that gets added to my caloric intake for the day. This way I make sure to get at least 8 cups of water.

HotAshMess

I don't log anything that contains caffeine because caffeine is a diuretic. So....are you necessarily hydrating yourself if you are drinking something that will make you urinate? I don't think so. So....I only log things without caffeine, and....I admit I do log things like really brothy soup. I under record it....(2 cups of soup, I might take 1 cup of intake) but I am recording it.

lauz45

Literally all I ever drink is hot tea with milk, and i'm still alive and well! So I log it. In the summer i'll drink more water and sugar free flavoured water because work makes me thirsty, but i'll still be drinking tea all day. It's a British institution!

I don't like cold drinks much.

sewist

I count water as water. I don't understand counting anything other than water as water.

Lots of things have water in them. But they aren't water.

Doesn't mean I'm more right than you though. Everybody develops their own system. It's much easier for me if the water I count is actually water.

Picturesque2u

I appreciate all of the feedback. To each his own is what I've understood. I think the most interesting idea was logging broth... SMH.

My decision is to log my herbal tea. Not coffee. I drink water with a slice of lemon all the time so I'd like to drink more tea to avoid the boredom that I'm beginning to feel. Anything else gets logged as calories.

Thanks

rmchapman4

I have only counted water under water. As much as I LOVE sweet ice tea and continue to brew my own; I include it under meals. It will be a challenge limiting my intake. I am such a southern girl!!

BlessedandBeautifulBrown

yup my hot tea no sweetner...

rockerbabyy

i log almost all liquids i drink under water, i just make sure to also put them with my food if they contain calories.

Angelhurt

i find tea really dehydrates me...i love to drink it..but a couple of minutes after ive finished a cup i have to dink some water...honestly!! i don't count it as water....i never thought of it like that...just count it as a bonus i suppose...i only drink decaf with just a splash of milk..has like a few cals in it or something?

DataBased

I'm just curious to know if many of you are counting cups of tea under water. Now that I've been able to drink down hot green tea and fennel seed tea without any additives, I think it's acceptable under water..... I know it's not that serious! So it doesn't hust to ask for your thoughts.

Please also share any other beverages that you may log under water.

If it doesn't have any caffeine or diuretic of any kind, I would. My LifeWater (by Sobe) goes in as water every day. Love that stuff!

yarwell

I count water as water. I don't understand counting anything other than water as water.

Look at the ingredients on a can of coke for a clue. Ingredient number 1 is water. It's 99% water, so you count it as water.

gmludlow

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gmludlow

No no no! Tea is a dehydrator. Yeah it is "flavored water" but it will also dyhydrate you. If anything you would need to drink more water if you are drink tea. I do not count cups of tea in my water count, and most of the time I make sure my water is room temperature so that is it easier to drink. When you have a meal, I find it easier to tell myself I have to drink at least two cups of water with it. It keeps you full and you'll reach 8 cups much easier.

yes, yes, yes actually.

oldmanstauf

I count tea. There's not enough caffeine to make dehydration an issue. It's still water. It doesn't magically disappear because caffeine is added to it.

myfitnessnmhoy

Anything with a normal amount of caffeine (coffee, tea, etc) will have a negligible diuretic effect. Drink it and count it.

Espresso? Not so much. There's a lot more caffeine and a lot less water, so I'd recommend not counting that.

The better gauge of "am I drinking enough" is urine color.

- Clear: Too much water, but this is harmless, DRINK UP and enjoy.
- Pale yellow, translucent: Perfect
- Bright yellow: Add a little water, say a glass or two a day. Check next day and adjust as appropriate.
- Dark yellow or darker, any sign if opaqueness, etc: Drink a LOT more water, and if it doesn't clear up quickly see your doctor.

8 8oz glasses is a very generic recommendation. Chances are, you don't need that much. But it's out there because drinking a little too much water is completely harmless.

munanabanana

I'm pretty late in replying to this, but I just found this article, and the sources seem pretty creditable.

In sum, the article is saying that caffeine negates the effects of water only in LARGE amounts (2-3 cups of coffee at once, which isn't common for people, is it?). So if you're drinking just 1 cup, then you should count it as water. As it is an alternative. And it can be healthy granted you don't add loads of sugar. Even black tea and coffee can count.

To those we especially felt abhorantly about the effects of caffeine and how you should replace those cups with extra water might in fact be drinking more water than you realize. It can't be bad, at this level, although too much water can propose certain problems. But if anything, you're doing yourself more good than bad at this point


Anywho, here's the link to the article:
http://www.discovergoodnutrition.com/2012/09/plain-water-get-your-8-glasses-a-day/

I've also copy / pasted the article at the bottom of this post in case you're wary of going to the link.

In addition, here's a link to the study done on Caffeine ingestion and fluid intake:
http://www2.hcmuaf.edu.vn/data/lhquang/file/Coffee/Caffeine ingestion.pdf

Its a study done in the UK, and includes the data and how they went about the experiment to come to the conclusions they have.

Hope I helped clear some questions up!
If not, I'm sorry for this unnecessarily long post


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Water is important for your health, but do other beverages count toward meeting your daily fluid needs?

You’ve probably heard the old expression, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. Well, I’ve got plenty of clients who are just like that horse. They know water is important to their health and they’ve heard the common advice that they should drink about 8 glasses of water a day. But, as one client said to me recently, “this is going to sound strange, but I just hate water – there’s no way I can choke down 8 glasses of plain water a day”. Which leads to the question: does it have to be plain water? Do any other beverages count?

In a word, yes – other beverages do count towards your daily liquid consumption. Many people take the water advice a bit too literally and assume that, even if they are drinking other beverages, they still need to drink 8 glasses of plain water too.

Does tea or coffee count towards your 8 glasses a day?

Some of the confusion has stemmed from the fact that many commonly consumed beverages contain caffeine, which is considered to be a diuretic. The thinking goes like this: if caffeine makes you urinate, then a caffeinated drink will surely cause you to lose more water than you take in, so a caffeinated drink can’t really be a fluid – maybe it’s more like a ‘negative fluid’.

Well, here’s the good news for coffee and tea lovers – it turns out that, for the most part, this simply isn’t true. A review¹on the topic, which summarized numerous studies on the subject conducted over nearly 40 years, reported that taking in a large amount of caffeine at one time (around 300 mg, or what you’d get in 2-3 cups of strong coffee – and not an amount you’d drink all at once) can promote urination, but only in people who haven’t had any caffeine for weeks. And those who are habitual caffeine consumers develop a tolerance to the diuretic effects – much like they develop a tolerance to the stimulating effects. The report also stated that “doses of caffeine equivalent to the amount normally found in standard servings of tea, coffee and carbonated soft drinks appear to have no diuretic action”. So there you go; caffeinated beverages definitely “count” when it comes to meeting fluid needs.

Actually, all beverages can contribute to your fluid requirement – like coffee, tea, fruit juice, broth, vegetable juice, sports drinks and low fat milk – since they’re primarily water. So if, like my client, you just can’t face drinking water, these “water alternatives” still count.

So, why drink water?

Keep in mind that water is the “original beverage” – it was the only option up until the time that tea was first consumed as a beverage some 3,000 years ago. Water’s natural, it’s readily available and, unlike many other beverages, water is calorie-free.

So water should be your first choice, but plain coffee or tea is fine, too – and sports drinks, broth and vegetable juices are also relatively low in calories. But just because caffeine doesn’t ‘take away’ from your fluid intake, don’t rely on calorie-laden coffee drinks to meet your needs. If you do, you could really pile on the pounds – and meeting your fluid consumption needs will be the least of your problems.



¹ Maughan RJ, Griffin J. J Human Nutrition & Dietetics. 2003



Written by Susan Bowerman. Susan is a paid consultant to Herbalife. Herbalife markets beverage mixes and dietary supplements containing caffeine.

Stage14

I only count water as my water, but honestly most days I don't even track that. Unless you are specifically needing to drink more water, I don't think it matters.