Does Iced Tea Count Towards Water Goal?

dscarr1962 · July 2011

I added my own recipe for the Iced Tea that I make and found that it is really not all that bad in the calories department so I decided that it would be okay to add to my personal list of approved beverages. Then I got to thinking . . . Since the tea is 90+% water . . . Does that count towards my water consumption goal for the day?

I'd be interested in any and all opinions on that.

BTW: The recipe is 1 gallon of brewed Lipton Tea and 2/3 cups granulated sugar.

I am planning on switching to raw or unprocessed sugar when I can find it at a reasonable price.

Thanks,
Doug

MzMiller1215 · July 2011

Nope. It's still not water.

rdunke · July 2011

I count it towards mine. The body is fully capable of pulling water from liquids such as ice tea.

ShapeUpSidney · July 2011

I would count it. Especially if it's sugar free. The point is, if you drink iced tea and go for a run, you won't get dehydrated.

HoopFire5602 · July 2011

I would count it. Especially if it's sugar free. The point is, if you drink iced tea and go for a run, you won't get dehydrated.

Agree with this. I drink unsweet tea and log it as water.

amberlineilene · July 2011

I usually count iced tea or crystal light as water too

jamiefire7 · July 2011

I would count it but try and leave out some or all of the sugar... 2/3 of a cup seems like a lot

rmsrws · July 2011

People will disagree with me on this.

If you were drinking only tea without the sugar. I'd say yes! I asked my Dr. and nutritionist the same question. Tea, with nothing added counts as water consumption.

I DO NOT COUNT IT AS WATER CONSUMED, but do list it in my diary. I am not a big fan of straight water, that is why I don't count tea in my water consumption.

Just_Bethy · July 2011

If it was tea without sugar it could..but that is a lot of sugar...I wouldn't count it as water.

PlanetVelma · July 2011

I do not count iced tea towards my water since it is caffeinated.

dscarr1962 · July 2011

Thanks for all the quick replies.

I was curious when so many of you commented on 2/3 of a cup of sugar per a gallon of tea being "a lot" of sugar, so I went looking for some recipes to see if I was above or below the curve on that.

I know that I can't stand the Sweet Tea's that we can find in restaurants theses days because they are way too sweet for me. I found that some of the more popular recipes in famous chain restaurants add as much as 1 pound of sugar to 1 gallon of tea. WOW . . . that’s way more than the 2/3 cup that I add.

So I added both foods to my diary to get the comparison:
32oz of My Tea – Calories: 130, Carbs: 32, Sodium: 10mg
32oz McDonalds Sweet Tea – Calories: 280, Carbs: 69, Sodium: 25mg

I agree that I should cut back on the sugar and frankly there are plenty of times that I drink it without sugar at all. In particular when ordering it at a restaurant. The sugar simply doesn’t dissolve adequately in the cold beverage (and I try not to use the artificial stuff) so I just forego it altogether. I am acquiring a taste for it that way and hope to cut the sugar out completely at some point.

Again . . . thanks for all the comments.

slheflinVA · July 2011

I always count Crystal Light as water...other beverages, no.

amandalynn1289 · July 2011

I add it to my water count. I drink Arizona Diet Blueberry Green Iced Tea. It's delicious, has no sugar and very few calories. It also hydrates very well. Green tea also is proven to help with weight loss. I suggest you give it a try!

-Amanda

scarletfever2005 · July 2011

I only count water.

I drink tea (unsweetened) too, but that's an extra.

Looking at your recipe. you are making a gallon of tea with 2/3 cups of sugar. That's 85g of sugar.

128 oz in a gallon. That means there is .66 grams of sugar per ounce of your tea.

In a standard 8oz serving there would be 5.28g of sugar. That means the sugar alone is adding about 21.12 calories per 8oz serving. Then you add any calories that the tea steeping adds (minimal) . So your looking at around 25 calories per 8 oz serving. Compared to the zero calories of water. You drink that gallon of tea in a day and you just added about 240 cal. to your diet. Not to mention all the inflammatory damage the sugar just did to your system.

I'm no mathematician and that may not be correct but if it is I think I'd reconsider the sweetened tea.

aj_rock · July 2011

I'd count it, although I've always been of the opinion that counting water is silly... you lose/gain water in your body all the time that you can't measure! (bathroom, sweating, eating, breathing, etc). So what's the use?

Just go by feeling.

RagtimeLady · July 2011

I say yes - it will hydrate you. I don't think it makes a difference what "flavor" it is, as long as it's not loaded with sugar and caffein. It would still hydrate you with those things, but you don't need the extra sugar and the caffein will have a mildly diuretic effect so that's not as efficient.

BTW, if tea won't hydrate, I'd be dead from lack of water... I live on Arizona diet green tea and never drink plain water if I can avoid it!

dscarr1962 · July 2011

So after reading scarlettfever2005's post I went digging again for numbers. I can say with a bit of certainty that your math is good. Your beginning numbers (sadly enough for me) appear to be suspect. By that I mean the number of grams per Cup of granulated Sugar appears to be low. Quite low in fact. Here is what I found as far as the number of grams per Cup of granulated Sugar:

g/Cup Source

250 TraditionalOven.com
200 AllRecipes.com
200 Wikipedia/Domino Sugar Company
213 rec.cooking.faq

Now, TraditionalOven.com and rec.cooking.faq appear to be European sites and their Cup, of 250ml, is actually bigger than the “Legally defined” US Cup of 240ml, so I opted for the 200 grams per Cup given that I live in the US and I would be using a “standard” US Cup.

Note: I did see on the AllRecipes.com page that confectioner’s Sugar comes in at 85g/Cup so I assume that may be where scarlettfever2005’s number came from. Pure speculation on my part though.

I also found a varying number of calories per gram that granulated Sugar contains. Anywhere from 3.87 to 4.5. Mostly though I found that the value of 4 calories per gram was used so that’s what I’ll use. I do believe that this is the number that scarlettfever2005 used as well.

So here are my assumptions:
There are 200 grams of granulated Sugar in one US volumetric Cup.
1 gram of granulated Sugar contains 4 calories
There are 128 fluid ounces in 1 US gallon.

Okay . . . so here’s the math.
200 grams of granulated Sugar per Cup is roughly equal to 133 grams of granulated Sugar per 2/3 Cup
133 grams of granulated Sugar at 4 calories per gram = 532 total calories
532 calories divided by 128oz = 4.16 calories per Fluid Ounce of Tea

So, every 8oz glass of tea contains 33.28 calories from Sugar (8 ounces times 4.16 calories per ounce)

Given that I try to limit myself to no more than 32oz of tea per day (I try not to take in too much caffeine as well), I consume 133.12 calories (32 ounces times 4.16 calories per ounce) from granulated Sugar in the Tea that I drink. My target caloric intake for a day is 2070, so the Sugar in my tea accounts for 6.43% of my total target caloric intake ((133.12 / 2072 X 100).

I WILL be reducing that over time.

Thanks to scarlettfever2005 for the mental exercise. I, admittedly, love math and data. It must be the computer programmer/engineer in me. And this keeps me interested and working towards my goal. Which is a VERY good thing!

By the way, I have decided not to count the tea as water intake. I'd rather error on the side of caution.

Thanks again to everyone for all the comments!
Doug

caseyj884 · July 2011

May I suggest trying Sweet Thing in the blue package? I know it's artificial but I used that to wean myself off the sugar I was using in my tea and it tastes really good compared to other substitutes. And this is coming from a south Georgia gal who loved to drink sweet tea! ( I use 1/4 cup per gallon of Lipton Cold Brew tea)

dscarr1962 · July 2011

I'm really trying to stay away from any and all foods that are "artificial". That's not to say that I always succeed. In fact I don't. I occasionally use Equal (which is Aspartame as well). But it is my goal. I really try to cut things out altogether rather than use an artificial substitute. For that same reason I don't eat or drink diet anything . . . or decaffeinated coffee for that matter. A choice that I firmly believe saved my life. And I mean that quite literally. But that's a story for another day.

Please don't think that I am judging anyone. As I said I do occasionally use artificial sweeteners . . . I am simply trying not to. Let's face it, there has been plenty of information come out recently telling us that plain old sugar is horrible for us. Frankly it's nearly impossible to really know what's good and what's not. It is truly exasperating trying to weed through all of the information and make any kind of "informed" decision.

I firmly believe that each one of us needs to use whatever tools we can to help us succeed at this. Regardless of what anybody else thinks. It's what works best for ourselves that is truly the most important thing, because if it works for us then we stand a much better chance of succeeding.

beaches20004 · July 2011

Plus it has all kinds of other stuff in it.

minadeathclutch · July 2011

I drink raw tea... i take a tea bag and just throw it in room temperature water for a few hours... put it in a glass full of ice.. it's basically flavored water. no sugars or anything.

jujudot · July 2011

Doug-

I count my tea as water. As for the sugar thing.....2/3 cup DOES seem like a lot BUT if you can fit it into your calories for this sweet treat & it's worth it to you, DO IT!

Maybe later on down the road you'll find your recipe to be too sweet and cut it back, or switch it up with raw sugar, maybe you won't. As long as you are making it work for you that's all that really matters.

I drink fruit juice and I've been no-no'd for this......but it's worth it to me, so I allow myself to have 4-8oz daily. To each their own, ya know?! :bigsmile:

Good luck on your journey!

leynak · July 2011

Thanks for all the quick replies.

I was curious when so many of you commented on 2/3 of a cup of sugar per a gallon of tea being "a lot" of sugar, so I went looking for some recipes to see if I was above or below the curve on that.

I know that I can't stand the Sweet Tea's that we can find in restaurants theses days because they are way too sweet for me. I found that some of the more popular recipes in famous chain restaurants add as much as 1 pound of sugar to 1 gallon of tea. WOW . . . that’s way more than the 2/3 cup that I add.

So I added both foods to my diary to get the comparison:
32oz of My Tea – Calories: 130, Carbs: 32, Sodium: 10mg
32oz McDonalds Sweet Tea – Calories: 280, Carbs: 69, Sodium: 25mg

I agree that I should cut back on the sugar and frankly there are plenty of times that I drink it without sugar at all. In particular when ordering it at a restaurant. The sugar simply doesn’t dissolve adequately in the cold beverage (and I try not to use the artificial stuff) so I just forego it altogether. I am acquiring a taste for it that way and hope to cut the sugar out completely at some point.

Again . . . thanks for all the comments.

I was surprised at all the people saying 2/3c was a lot. Where I come from I was looked at as crazy when I used that much. Most of my family uses more than 1 whole cup & I knew one lady that used 2-2.5cups. Anyway, I usually only count water but I don't drink a whole lot else. I think if it weren't sweetened it'd be ok.

Does Iced Tea Count Towards Water Goal?

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