Why doesn't all water count as water? I'm curious

I don't get it.

Why would one even be counting other things that have water in them as anything other than calories ... Even when I did drink a lot of juice I never counted it as water in. But then I've never really given consideration to hydration beyond feeling hydrated and having light colored urine.

So ... yeah ... anything with water as a component of it (like, everything) "counts" toward hydration, but ... I don't know, I fill my diary all too quickly with just a little food, I wouldn't want to add sugary drinks—or the sodium in the case of diet drinks.

I feel like people are asking so they can use it as an excuse to drink Diet Coke or, "Oh, I had four cups of coffee today, I'm good" ... In one of those "But I can't stand the taste of water, boo hoo!" sort of ways, y'know?

I feel like people are asking so they can use it as an excuse to drink Diet Coke or, "Oh, I had four cups of coffee today, I'm good" ... In one of those "But I can't stand the taste of water, boo hoo!" sort of ways, y'know?

Why can't they? I do not see what is wrong with it. I drink no plain or even flavored water other than when at the gym (unless I bring my coffee mug, then its coffee). It's not an excuse, it is just not necessary to drink plain water

Edited for typos

Unless your drinking distilled water, water has plenty of additional stuff. Sodium, potassium, chloride, flouride, assorted other minerals, chemicals, pretty much anything it decides to pick up along the way. They don't call it the universal solvent for nothing. Water doesn't taste right if it has nothing in it. Of course, sometimes it ends up with stuff in it that isn't very good to drink (cryptosporidium, E. coli, etc.,) that most home filters won't filter out. This is why coffee, tea, and beer have been so popular historically, as coffee and tea are made with water that is first boiled, which kills bacteria, and beer has enough alcohol to kill bacteria. In the 1700's, humans essentially lived on those 3 beverages. Nobody drank plain water, because it would kill them (sanitation being incredibly poor back then.) interestingly enough, the human race didn't die out from dehydration, in fact, it flourished...

Anyway, the general point is anything that is consumed hydrates, and there is no reason to focus on hitting an arbitrary amount of a specific fluid. I don't track hydration either, and I do drink some plain old filtered water, but most of my hydration comes from coffee, tea, soda, and my giant fruit smoothie, with fruit, milk, and juice in it. If I were to track hydration, all of those would be tracked, both in my food diary and in the hydration tracker, I just find it pointless to track it twice.

I feel like people are asking so they can use it as an excuse to drink Diet Coke or, "Oh, I had four cups of coffee today, I'm good" ... In one of those "But I can't stand the taste of water, boo hoo!" sort of ways, y'know?

And that is their business.

I drink lots of water, plain. But I still give myself a tick on the counter for tea or hot chocolate or juice.

I live in the desert. Fluid intake is a way of life here. Not a factor of diet. Just a matter of survival. If it's fluid, it's fluid. You don't get enough fluids, you end up in the hospital, plain and simple. We Desert Rats aren't concerned with what sort of fluid it is, as long as it's a fluid. Fluids hydrate. We never just drink straight water all day long, that's actually dangerous around here, if you aren't careful to also make sure you have enough electrolytes.