Debate: Does Tea and Coffee count towards your water intake?

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  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    For me, I only count actual water towards my water intake for the day. If other people want to count coffee, tea, soda, juice, etc that is their choice, but my daily water goal is 60oz (this is the amt in which I feel best, my skin looks best, etc) and I only count actual water towards it.


    To each their own, I say. And who cares what someone else chooses?
  • liss125
    liss125 Posts: 77
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    I tend to think it doesn't count. From personal experience anyway. I have never enjoyed an iced tea or coffee and felt hydrated afterwards.
  • funkyspunky872
    funkyspunky872 Posts: 866 Member
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    Yes. All water-based liquids should count including sodas and flavored waters. Do not give me this complete BULL**** about dehydrators. The recommended 8 glasses of day counts water intake that you get from food substances, so why shouldn't a bottle of diet coke? I still like to shoot for 8-12 glasses of plain water though throughout the day no matter what else I've had to drink. That's a personal preference and challenge, because I'm absolutely horrible at remembering to drink. (I've been hospitalized several times for not drinking for days and then being severely dehydrated.) If I'm having a bad day at it, then hell yes I'm at least proud that I got ANY form of liquid in.
  • eduardo_d
    eduardo_d Posts: 85 Member
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    I definitely don't consider it part of my water consumption. Another question: I drink my coffee black most days and don't log it because it has no nutritional/caloric value. Do other people who drink just black coffee log it? If so, why?
  • taiyola
    taiyola Posts: 964 Member
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    I did quite a bit of research about this. I recently had a spat with my manager (I sing) about caffeine. He would preach to me not to drink it because it was dehydrating. After showing him many studies by doctors and universities, he had his first cup of coffee yesterday :wink:

    Caffeine is a diuretic - as is water. It doesn't dehydrate you unless you drink a LOT of it. That's basically it.

    I count all fluids that go in to my body. I pretty much never drink plain water. I always add no-added-sugar squash to water, and also drink 2 cups of coffee and a tea a day, as well as sometimes some fruit juice. I aim for 8-12 glasses of fluids a day.
  • Elukiee
    Elukiee Posts: 9
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    I drink a TON of tea during the day.
    Brekkie, I have one small pot of orange pekoe or yorkshire tea. Through out the day I'll have a pot of assam/genmaicha green tea/darjeerling and a variety of others.
    Another wonderful tea I drink is corn tea to help maintain health and weight loss. It also (apparently) helps with blood pressure and has many health benefits :3

    I haven't been counting the tea I drink as water intake though. It does keep me uber hydrated through out the day, but I still try to drink pure H20 during the day too. Especially during and after workouts.
    I keep a 2L water bottle filled up and try to drink 1x a day, or 2! It's tough xD

    I do think of tea as water intake imo, but I only count the "pure" water I drink through the day. Weird.
    Just one of those grey areas I guess =P
  • TeachTheGirl
    TeachTheGirl Posts: 2,091 Member
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    I don't consider tea or coffee in my daily water totals. I log them anyway because of the calories, but my water intake is simply water. As long as I'm hitting my water totals, anything else I drink is just an aside.
  • taiyola
    taiyola Posts: 964 Member
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    There has been some debate about how much water one should drink each day, and whether or not beverages like coffee and tea count towards that amount. As most of us know, coffee and tea contain caffeine, which is a diuretic, and diuretics do the opposite of hydrating you.


    A cup of coffee has about 200mg of caffeine. A cup of tea has quite a bit less (40-100mg), depending on the strength of the tea. However, the general consensus as of late is that, despite the caffeine, these beverages still count towards your fluid intake for the day. The reason is that, although caffeine is a diuretic, the amount in a strong cup of coffee or tea is simply not enough to dehydrate, and there will still be a net gain of fluid.


    Although coffee and tea may be equal in their hydration factor, tea still gets the upper hand for your health. A recent sutdy in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that drinking tea is not only as good as drinking water, but possibly better, as it may carry extra health benefits in protecting against heart disease and some cancers.


    The beneficial ingredients in tea are flavinoids, polyphenol antioxidants that are found in many plants (including tea leaves) that protect against oxidative cell damage. Other benefits were found to be bone strengthening and protection against tooth plaque, due to the flouride content. Researchers from this study recommend 3-4 cups of tea per day to help reduce the risk of heart attack.


    One thing not mentioned in this article is the difference between types of tea. Different teas have different amounts of processing and, therefore, have different degrees of health benefits, with green tea found to be the strongest. More on that in another post...


    *This particular study was funded by the Tea Council, which usually leaves me extremely skeptical of a study's results. However, this is not new evidence nor is it the first time these findings have been reported.*

    http://www.factorfictionnutritionblog.com/2009/03/tea-and-coffee-vs-water.html

    Great post. The amount of people who hear a myth and just believe it on face value is amusing. :smile:
  • liss125
    liss125 Posts: 77
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    Yes. All water-based liquids should count including sodas and flavored waters. Do not give me this complete BULL**** about dehydrators. The recommended 8 glasses of day counts water intake that you get from food substances, so why shouldn't a bottle of diet coke? I still like to shoot for 8-12 glasses of plain water though throughout the day no matter what else I've had to drink. That's a personal preference and challenge, because I'm absolutely horrible at remembering to drink. (I've been hospitalized several times for not drinking for days and then being severely dehydrated.) If I'm having a bad day at it, then hell yes I'm at least proud that I got ANY form of liquid in.

    When I was young, I drank the equivalent of 4-5 cans of diet coke a day, maybe only a couple glasses of water. I couldn't figure out why my sides ached all the time. My mom pointed out that I was probably dehydrated and my kidneys were rebelling. I tend to think she was right, as I cut back significantly and no more side aches. Of course I drank waaaay too much, but still, be careful :) Also, when my brother had kidney stones, the doctor told him to drink two glasses of water for every glass of soda. If you're drinking 8-12 glasses of water a day, sounds like you're doing that anyway.
  • dayone987
    dayone987 Posts: 645 Member
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    A Mayo Clinic study showed the diuretic effect of coffee was minmal and that the magical 8 cups of water is a myth; more like 8 cups average of fluid needed. Fluid can be derived from food any pretty much anything liquid except maybe alcohol. Likes others have said, if this wasn't rue many of us would be dead from dehydration a long time ago. The human body is capable of extracting H2O from anything that contains H20 through the GI system.
  • wiltl
    wiltl Posts: 188 Member
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    Recent studies show that the amount of caffeine someone has to drink to have a diretic effect is pretty high. So, one or two cups won't do it and will end up being the same of "output" as if you drank plain water.
    I found these two articles when googling this after the thread yesterday.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661


    I could them towards my liquid intake (but only end up logging my coffee, drinking enough water hasn't been a big problem for me), but would also consider water dense foods as part of my intake too. Water is basically molecules that can be added to other molecules to create something else like coffee. We humans don't drink pure H2O anyway, our water sources are usually full of chemicals, minerals and whatnot.
  • o2bADyer
    o2bADyer Posts: 208
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    I only include my actual plain water in my water count.

    I do put coffee and tea in my regular journal though.

    Ditto for me!
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    'course it does.

    It's like saying a piece of chicken doesn't count towards your protein intake because you put it in a bun.
  • theresmynapkin
    theresmynapkin Posts: 183 Member
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    water is water. Tasteless, clear, calorieless. if you call it anything other than water it doesn't count towards your WATER intake. It might count toward your coffee or tea intake, but not your WATER intake. Just because it is a fluid doesn't mean it's Water. If you'd shower in it, then it counts... on second thought that rule's not very good cuz I'd shower in chocolate.....
  • cruisinskier
    cruisinskier Posts: 63 Member
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    Looks like we are still at about 50/50 as to whether to count it. Personally, I drink 2-3 cups of black tea daily (sometimes more). Since joining MFP I also drink 7-9 cups of water daily. I do not typically count the tea but I consider it a bonus in addition to the water intake......but I don't have any real reason I don't count it other than it does not come directly out of the tap /Brita......
  • funkyspunky872
    funkyspunky872 Posts: 866 Member
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    water is water. Tasteless, clear, calorieless. if you call it anything other than water it doesn't count towards your WATER intake. It might count toward your coffee or tea intake, but not your WATER intake. Just because it is a fluid doesn't mean it's Water. If you'd shower in it, then it counts... on second thought that rule's not very good cuz I'd shower in chocolate.....

    The first ingredient on all sodas is water. Diet coke (which I have a bottle near me right now) has the second ingredient listed as caramel coloring. Knowing that these products are listed in biggest to smallest order, diet coke is colored, flavored water. Your body doesn't ****ing care.
  • tlblood
    tlblood Posts: 473 Member
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    if its liquid, then i count it.

    Me too. I don't like coffe, tea, and don't drink much soda anyway, so the caffeine issues isn't really one for me, but I've just come off of WW where they count any liquids toward the water count.
  • takehimaway
    takehimaway Posts: 499 Member
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    I had a health instructor in college that taught us this:

    Once you add ANYTHING to water, it stops being water. Count only H20 as water. Coffee and tea (which I love and drink a lot of) should not be included in your water intake goals. At least that's my belief....:smile:

    This! The other day.. I tried to add the cup I drink of Metamucil to my water count, and I felt so guilty.
  • auntiebabs
    auntiebabs Posts: 1,754 Member
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    Tea and coffee are NOT dehydrators the just hydrate less effectively.
    I had always counted 1 cup as 3/4 of a cup.

    BUT recently read and article about a study that was done about the effective hydration of water vs. coffee... the bottom line was that there was a difference, but it was a very MINIMAL DIFFERENCE and basically it's okay to count a cup of coffee as a cup of water.


    Googling now to see If I can find a link for that article.
  • reojames
    reojames Posts: 96
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    water is water. Tasteless, clear, calorieless. if you call it anything other than water it doesn't count towards your WATER intake. It might count toward your coffee or tea intake, but not your WATER intake. Just because it is a fluid doesn't mean it's Water. If you'd shower in it, then it counts... on second thought that rule's not very good cuz I'd shower in chocolate.....

    The first ingredient on all sodas is water. Diet coke (which I have a bottle near me right now) has the second ingredient listed as caramel coloring. Knowing that these products are listed in biggest to smallest order, diet coke is colored, flavored water. Your body doesn't ****ing care.

    Oh funkyspunky.... you couldn't be more wrong. Don't get me started on the tumor juice... diet coke....

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