do you count water in coffee/tea as daily water?

Saw a dietician when I started out as was struggling with the eight glasses of water and she told me that I could count tea (as only a small amount of milk going into it).

I never count water from tea or coffee or green tea
and I dont think you should count that water as water intake the more you can drink plain water the better it is!

It's really personal choice. Lots of people apparently feel better about only counting plain water with nothing added towards their daily fluid intake. Meanwhile, your body makes perfectly good use of the water in tea, coffee, milk, cola, soup etc, It also "counts" the water in food. Water doesn't somehow lose its usefulness to the body just because it's mixed with something else. We don't need to consume "pure" protein separately from "pure" carbohydrate, so why would we need to do that with water?

Caffeine does have a mild diuretic effect in large doses (so does water!) but moderate consumption, especially for people who are used to it, doesn't appear to have be dehydrating. You don't even need to necessarily drink 8 cups or glasses of water a day. You might need more, or less, depending on a number of variables.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16131696
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8632375/Advice-to-drink-eight-glasses-of-water-daily-nonsense.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/12/08/the-myth-behind-drinking-8-glasses-of-water-a-day/
http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

How much is 8 cups in litres? Is a cup an exact measurement???

I don't drink as much water as I should but London tap water is pretty chemicalised up, I should think anyway .... and bottled water is SO heavy to carry with the rest of the shopping.

Probably maximum I drink is one litre a day - if that.... but I would count herbal teas in that definitely!

8 glasses/cups of water is 2 litres.

In weight Watchers when I was in it years ago they told us tea and coffee was counted as water. However I have never counted it.

4th time in as many days...

Here we go again!

You need the equivalent of 8 cups of water a day on average, from any source. These sources can be pure water/tea/coffee/juice/soda/milk/fruit/veg etc. It does NOT have to be pure neat water!

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/13/myth-eight-glasses-water-day

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/wellness-water-8x8-myth.html

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/12/08/the-myth-behind-drinking-8-glasses-of-water-a-day/


As for tea/coffee being a diuretic, so many people just spout that word as a reason, without actually understanding what "diuretic" means.

di·u·ret·ic (d-rtk)
adj.
Tending to increase the discharge of urine.
n.
A substance or drug that tends to increase the discharge of urine.

Neat water is also a diuretic. The diuretic effect of caffeine is far, far outweighed by the actual water in the tea/coffee. Also, regular consumers of caffeinated beverages will build up a tolerance to said effect, eventually reaching the point where caffeinated drinks provide practically the same amount of hydration as a cup of neat water will.


http://www.divinecaroline.com/22178/46361-coffee-makes-dehydrated-say-what

http://worldofcaffeine.com/2011/06/14/caffeine-does-not-dehydrate/

http://advance.uconn.edu/2002/020722/02072207.htm

http://nomoredirtylooks.com/2011/04/surprise-caffeinated-tea-does-not-dehydrate-you/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html

http://www.sharecare.com/question/does-caffeine-dehydrate-not

http://www.artofdrink.com/2009/12/caffeine-in-coffee-does-not-increase-dehydration-during-hangovers.php

http://www.caring4cancer.com/go/cancer/nutrition/questions/do-caffeinated-beverages-cause-dehydration.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5552790&page=1#.TrQWc0O5_oo

I drink tea and water to make up my daily fluid.......I love my tea in the morning and lunch time....The rest of the day, I drink water....

Nope

the 8 glasses of 8 ozs is largely a baseless number plucked out of the air. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020809071640.htm

If hydration is your concern that's as much about salt as water - think about "rehydration salts" which are a dry powder.

Your water / H2O balance is equally well served by H2O in a glass of water, a glass of pepsi, a mug of coffee or the H2O in the foods you eat.

I agree! Although I probably wouldn't include coke/Pepsi

Omg so many uninformed people answering.

Yes. Water is water, what's in tea? water+tea. You get hydrated from many sources. If you eat an orange, soup, coke, whatever you will get hydrated.

The water in my city is disgusting and until like two months ago I NEVER drank pure water, only water+powder juice or diet coke. Am I dead because only pure water can supply the hydration the body needs? No, I'm alive.