water

Sadly, that's probably the same answer you'll keep getting: mixed answers. Some yes and some no. I don't know what the real, medical truth is, but I just kinda think about like this:

My body's composed of bone, muscle, organs, and water. (Well, along with a whole bunch of other medical-term stuff.) So, I'd stick with water as the purest choice. My body's not composed or Crystal Light or Tea.

Ion't know...that's just my thought on it. I'm, in NO way, a medical professional.

*smiles*

Jean

For me, the hard and fast rule is urine color. Doctors recommend that the urine is clear or mostly clear every time you use the restroom. The problem with getting hydrated by tea (I don't know if decaf makes a difference) is that it is a diuretic, so you may not be getting the proper hydration.

That being said, if your urine is clear, you're probably properly hydrated and don't need to worry.

EDIT: And yes, too much water can be dangerous, so don't over do it unless you're living in a really hot place (think Texas right now) or sweating it off.

I have no idea, but I heard that from WW too (the 50:50 concept).

Bump, I want to hear what folks say.

Also, why do we have to drink so much water again? And what is with folks exceeding the 8 glasses (like double)? I understand hydration and cleaning out kidneys, but if we drink tons and tons of water, couldn't we be overworking our kidneys and diluting nutrition? To me, some days I eat lots of veggies and fruit and my sodium intake is low, so I don't feel like I need as much water. Other days, my sodium is high and I'm eating more grain and protien and I feel like I need more water. 8 glasses a day must be a guideline, not a hard and fast rule . . . right?

8 glasses is a guideline not a requirement. You DO Need additional if you are working out, especially in high heat areas (like AZ for me). It does help naturally supress that appetite as well as keep your teeth cleaner throughout the day and prevent dehydration (even adults dont sense it immediatly) your body actually takes 30 minutes form the time you need fluids for your brain to tell you to drink, so put that in perspective, you're thirsty (needed fluids 30 min ago) and you wait another 30 min to get a drink, your body has needed fluids for the last hour now. Excess water does not harm the kidneys it actually helps them by giving it more water to transport toxins out, it also allows your body to rid of the toxins sooner preventing back ups and damage. The only harm it MAY cause is unbalancing your electrolytes but you need EXTREME amounts of water for that (and a pretty low calorie intake, below 1200 for most people)

Now given I am a Dental Assistant not a nurse, nurse practitioner or physician. But my uncle is a top-in-the-nation OBGYN and is one of the 4 doctors following my health and weight loss. The rest of my family is medical (I was the odd ball with dental) I am currently on my thrid week fighting a kidney infection, my kidney basically gave up due to the mass toxins & dead blood cells it was processing out after a car accident that cause MAJOR deep bruising. I was drinking 10 glasses a day and it still wasnt enough to help my kidneys flush out everything. Right now I am to drink 160-300ozs a day even if its flavored with crystal light or as tea (without sugar). Their philosophy is, if it gets you to drink your water then flavor isnt bad, given ideally you should use natural flavorers like lemon lime and mint.

Water is water.....if you add tea or crystal light mix or coffee or whatever, it becomes tea or crystal light or coffee or whatever.
You are gonna get many different answers to this but anything you add to water is filtered differently than plan water and therefore doesn't do the same job in your body as plain water.

p.s I drink roughly a gallon of plain water a day as I work in the heat and sweat a lot.