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

Besides logging my portions/calories on MFP, I'm also under a weight management program with a local hospital. Per the doctor, I am to drink 64 oz of water daily, which is easy for me because I was drinking that on a daily basis anyway. I do not count my coffee because I add creamer to it. I do track my coffee because I'm staying true to my calorie count. I don't count tea if I drink it, nor do I track it because I don't add sugar or creamer to it, but it's also not water.

But that's just my personal preference.

I log my plain coffee. I usually have 4 cups and that adds the following to my totals: 4 to calories, 1 to protein and 2 to calcium.

YES they count!
Too easy - there's your answer
Do I log my coffees as water? No.

I drink my water in 600mL bottles with one teaspoon of honey (I absolutely log this)
Is it pure water? No.
Could I have separated them and consumed them separately? Yes.
Therefore....my 600mL of water counts in that drink!

Do I log my glasses of 'water'? Nope....not a chance

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.

Diet coke is quite a bit different than tea or coffee

Thank God the consensus seems to be that coffee & tea count because I've been having one hell of a time trying to add 6 more glasses of water to my 4 cups of coffee, 2 cups of water & 1 can of Diet Coke everyday...I would have to be drinking every minute I'm awake to be able to consume all of that! Personally I don't care much for water so I use Crystal Light Liquid to make it easier & I've been able to add an extra 1-2 cups so that puts me in the right spot.

I definitely don't count the Diet Coke as a water...and to the people talking about not counting coffee because it has calories...find another coffee...my coffee has 0 calories & yours should too!

I know this is an old thread that got revived, but whatever, here's my opinion.

I find these debates frustrating. As many people have mentioned in this thread already, the whole 8 cups of water is a rule of thumb to keep you hydrated. Your body doesn’t care if the fluids come water, tea, coffee, juice, whatever. Also, many people in this thread have posted great links of scientific studies done by people who know 100 times as much about biochemistry and biology than any of the posters here.

What frustrates me is the people who post here with their own personal opinion, always saying “water is water, tea is tea, juice is juice, horse crap is horse crap, JUST DRINK WATER PEOPLE!”. I really don’t care about your opinion, and do whatever you want to do. I don’t care if you believe in ghost or aliens, you are allowed to think and do whatever you want.

HOWEVER, there are many people who search these forums looking for advice on their road to becoming healthier, and comments by ignorant people who push their opinion as though it is 100% fact can easily lead to these people being misinformed, and you are, therefore, sabotaging their efforts.

How you really think that you stomach can tell the difference between someone drinking a cup of crystal light between someone who drinks a cup of ‘pure’ water followed by eating some crystal light powder is way beyond me.

It would be miraculous if the alleged diuretic effect of a cup of tea or coffee or a can of diet soda happened to precisely match and thereby cancel out the water content of said item, don't you think ? So the idea of not counting water in food and other drinks dies there for me. About half the water in some diets comes from the food you eat.

There are a lot of people that never drink any water, just tea, coffee or soda. They would just dry up and blow away if the diuretic effect cancelled out the water.

Counting your water glasses is something they'll be laughing at us for 100 years from now. Or 20.

Or today. Right now actually.

Don't log it, just make sure sure my urine is clear/lightly colored. Tuesday I was on the road all day and my liquid intake was 48 oz of gas station coffee (with h&h + liquid splenda flavor) and 20oz of diet coke and that was it. No hydration problems according to my criteria

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....

This! The other day.. I tried to add the cup I drink of Metamucil to my water count, and I felt so guilty.

Did you tell the priest when you went to confession?

You're asking the wrong question, OP. You should be asking whether it's important to log your water/liquid intake, and the answer is "no." If you're thirsty or your urine color is indicating that you need more fluids then drink something. Otherwise, don't worry about it. Protein, fats, fiber, and overall caloric intake are enough to worry over.

Personally, there is no debate......the food I eat contributes to my hydration so why should a cup of coffee not, and no, the diuretic effect doesn't negate all the water.

I count herbal tea only, as water - nothing with caffeine in it and especially not coffee with milk

Same for me. I don't have a problem drinking 8 cups of water, I usually drink 10 to 12 a day.
An actual cup of water once you measure it out isn't much. 2 drinks and it's gone.
My glass holds 3 cups of water, so 3 of my glasses of water is 9 cups. No problem. :drinker:

The only part of anyone's body that actually differentiates water mixed with dried leaves or ground beans (or sugar, or wrapped up in an orange, or well, you get the picture) is the part of the brain that is forming the thoughts and opinions on the subject. The rest of the body's systems only care that they are receiving enough H2O to function properly, no matter what the source.

Also, from Snopes.com


Origins: "You need to drink eight glasses of water per day to be healthy" is one of our more widely-known basic health tips. But do we really need
to drink that much water on a daily basis?

In general, to remain healthy we need to take in enough water to replace the amount we lose daily through excretion, perspiration, and other bodily functions, but that amount can vary widely from person to person, based upon a variety of factors such as age, physical condition, activity level, and climate. The "8 glasses of water per day" is a rule of thumb, not an absolute minimum, and not all of our water intake need come in the form of drinking water.

The origins of the 8-10 glasses per day figure remain elusive. As a Los Angeles Times article on the subject reported: Consider that first commandment of good health: Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. This unquestioned rule is itself a question mark. Most nutritionists have no idea where it comes from. "I can't even tell you that," says Barbara Rolls, a nutrition researcher at Pennsylvania State University, "and I've written a book on water."

Some say the number was derived from fluid intake measurements taken decades ago among hospital patients on IVs; others say it's less a measure of what people need than a convenient reference point, especially for those who are prone to dehydration, such as many elderly people.
Back in 1945 the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council stated that adults should take in about 2.5 liters of water per day (which is roughly the equivalent of eight glasses of water), but it also noted most of that intake level was already satisfied through the consumption of food without the need for the additional drinking of water. And as other nutritionists of the time noted, any shortfall in water intake could be made up through the consumption of beverages such as coffee, tea, milk, or soft drinks; one need not specifically drink water only in the form of water.

As Drs. Aaron E. Carroll and Rachel C. Vreeman reported in an article on this topic: There's nothing wrong with liking water, but there is no scientific proof stating that you need to drink anywhere near eight glasses a day. One doctor who has made this his research focus, Dr. Heinz Valtin, searched through many electronic databases and also consulted with nutritionists and colleagues who specialize in water balance in the body. In all of his research, and in all of the research we conducted to double-check his work, no scientific evidence could be found to suggest that you need to drink eight glasses of water a day. In fact, scientific studies suggest that you already get enough liquid from what you're drinking and eating on a daily basis. We are not all walking around in a state of dehydration.
Other medical experts have also disdained the notion that one need drink at least eight glasses of water per day to remain adequately hydrated: Kidney specialists do agree on one thing, however: that the 8-by-8 rule is a gross overestimate of any required minimum. To replace daily losses of water, an average-sized adult with healthy kidneys sitting in a temperate climate needs no more than one liter of fluid, according to Jurgen Schnermann, a kidney physiologist at the National Institutes of Health.

One liter is the equivalent of about four 8-ounce glasses. According to most estimates, that's roughly the amount of water most Americans get in solid food. In short, though doctors don't recommend it, many of us could cover our bare-minimum daily water needs without drinking anything during the day.


ome nutritionists insist that half the country is walking around dehydrated. We drink too much coffee, tea and sodas containing caffeine, which prompts the body to lose water, they say; and when we are dehydrated, we don't know enough to drink.

Can it be so? Should healthy adults really be stalking the water cooler to protect themselves from creeping dehydration?

Not at all, doctors say. "The notion that there is widespread dehydration has no basis in medical fact," says Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of the medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Doctors from a wide range of specialties agree: By all evidence, we are a well-hydrated nation. Furthermore, they say, the current infatuation with water as an all-purpose health potion — tonic for the skin, key to weight loss — is a blend of fashion and fiction and very little science.
Additionally, the idea that one must specifically drink water because the diuretic effects of caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, and soda actually produce a net loss of fluid is erroneous: Regular coffee and tea drinkers become accustomed to caffeine and lose little, if any, fluid. In a study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers at the Center for Human Nutrition in Omaha measured how different combinations of water, coffee and caffeinated sodas affected the hydration status of 18 healthy adults who drink caffeinated beverages routinely.

"We found no significant differences at all," says nutritionist Ann Grandjean, the study's lead author. "The purpose of the study was to find out if caffeine is dehydrating in healthy people who are drinking normal amounts of it. It is not."

The same goes for tea, juice, milk and caffeinated sodas: One glass provides about the same amount of hydrating fluid as a glass of water. The only common drinks that produce a net loss of fluids are those containing alcohol — and usually it takes more than one of those to cause noticeable dehydration, doctors say.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp#xEsdy6mO4dHUOLfu.99

And from Harvard University (http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HEALTHbeat_091405.htm#art1)

We’ve heard it for decades: Drink at least 8 cups of water a day. Not only can three out of four adults recite this bit of health wisdom, but many even feel guilty if they don’t meet the standard. However, this advice may be based on a misunderstanding. Some trace it to the 1940s, when the National Academy of Sciences published a recommended daily allowance of 1 milliliter of fluid for each calorie burned—a little over 8 cups for a typical 2,000-calorie diet. However, the statement also explained that most of this fluid could be obtained via the liquid contained in foods.

Regardless, the 8-glasses-a-day dictum caught on. Today people frequently consume much more as they tote giant water bottles, buy super-size soft drinks, and follow programs that promise you can lose weight by drinking as much as a quart of fluid at a time.

In a 2000 survey conducted for Rockefeller University and the International Bottled Water Association, 2,818 adults in 14 cities reported drinking about 6 cups of water a day—a result that was presented as alarming evidence that Americans are becoming dehydrated. But if you include the sodas, coffee, tea, milk, juice, sports drinks, and alcoholic beverages these respondents drank, their average fluid consumption was 17.6 cups a day—enough to have you urinating every waking hour, even if you don’t have any problem with bladder capacity.

More recently, a kidney specialist at Dartmouth Medical School searched the scientific literature for studies that might support the idea that people need 8 glasses of fluid a day. Not only did he determine that no such evidence exists, but concluded that the research that has been done "strongly suggests that such large amounts are not needed."