Don’t like plain water? Here’s how to get your 8 glasses a day
Water is important for your health, but do other beverages count toward meeting your daily fluid needs?
You’ve probably heard the old expression, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. Well, I’ve got plenty of clients who are just like that horse. They know water is important to their health and they’ve heard the common advice that they should drink about 8 glasses of water a day. But, as one client said to me recently, “this is going to sound strange, but I just hate water – there’s no way I can choke down 8 glasses of plain water a day”. Which leads to the question: does it have to be plain water? Do any other beverages count?
In a word, yes – other beverages do count towards your daily liquid consumption. Many people take the water advice a bit too literally and assume that, even if they are drinking other beverages, they still need to drink 8 glasses of plain water too.
Does tea or coffee count towards your 8 glasses a day?
Some of the confusion has stemmed from the fact that many commonly consumed beverages contain caffeine, which is considered to be a diuretic. The thinking goes like this: if caffeine makes you urinate, then a caffeinated drink will surely cause you to lose more water than you take in, so a caffeinated drink can’t really be a fluid – maybe it’s more like a ‘negative fluid’.
Well, here’s the good news for coffee and tea lovers – it turns out that, for the most part, this simply isn’t true. A review¹on the topic, which summarized numerous studies on the subject conducted over nearly 40 years, reported that taking in a large amount of caffeine at one time (around 300 mg, or what you’d get in 2-3 cups of strong coffee – and not an amount you’d drink all at once) can promote urination, but only in people who haven’t had any caffeine for weeks. And those who are habitual caffeine consumers develop a tolerance to the diuretic effects – much like they develop a tolerance to the stimulating effects. The report also stated that “doses of caffeine equivalent to the amount normally found in standard servings of tea, coffee and carbonated soft drinks appear to have no diuretic action”. So there you go; caffeinated beverages definitely “count” when it comes to meeting fluid needs.
Actually, all beverages can contribute to your fluid requirement – like coffee, tea, fruit juice, broth, vegetable juice, sports drinks and low fat milk – since they’re primarily water. So if, like my client, you just can’t face drinking water, these “water alternatives” still count.
So, why drink water?
Keep in mind that water is the “original beverage” – it was the only option up until the time that tea was first consumed as a beverage some 3,000 years ago. Water’s natural, it’s readily available and, unlike many other beverages, water is calorie-free.
So water should be your first choice, but plain coffee or tea is fine, too – and sports drinks, broth and vegetable juices are also relatively low in calories. But just because caffeine doesn’t ‘take away’ from your fluid intake, don’t rely on calorie-laden coffee drinks to meet your needs. If you do, you could really pile on the pounds – and meeting your fluid consumption needs will be the least of your problems.
¹ Maughan RJ, Griffin J. J Human Nutrition & Dietetics. 2003
Written by Susan Bowerman. Susan is a paid consultant to Herbalife. Herbalife markets beverage mixes and dietary supplements containing caffeine.
Tags: 8 glasses a day, Discover Good Nutrition, drink more, Drink water, Herbalife, how to, hydrate, nutrition, Susan Bowerman
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@ Kathleen H. try an IV of fluids or sneak more water into his wine. Try telling him he cant have wine until after he drinks his water. Try getting him to drink more tea throughout the day with his wine. Water is so neccesary.
Hi Kathleen,
Thank you for writing. Many older people do not drink enough fluids, in part because the ability to perceive thirst declines with aging. The tea that he is drinking in the morning does count towards his fluid intake, so that is a good start.
If the problem is that he does not like plain water, you can add a dash of fruit juice to his water to flavor it, or you can add some diced fresh fruit, cucumber or citrus slices to flavor the water and see if that will help. He also may not like very cold liquids, so you might avoid ice in his beverages. You might also try offering liquids with a straw, which may encourage him to drink more.
Lastly, keep his beverages where he can see them and be reminded to drink them. You might start by filling up a pitcher with two glasses of water (or flavored water as above) and place it where he will see it throughout the day, and encourage him to finish it over the course of the day. Once he’s accomplished that, you can gradually increase the amount of liquid in the pitcher.
Best of luck,
Susan
My father is 81 and refuses to drink any water. The only fluid he puts into his system is one small cup of tea with breakfast and then he drinks red wine from early in the day until he goes to bed. I sneak water into his wine but he shows all the signs of not enough water in his system ie. dry skin, dementia, concussion and recently hallucinations. I has a geriatric specialist and he is aware if the problem and he tells my father that he must drink water as do I.
I would be very grateful to anyone that could give me more ideas as how to get fluid into his system.
I don’t understand how people can HATE water. I drink water every day, since a child, my parents only pretty much offered water and milk, and juice as well as soda was a treat. If you hate water, try getting water and adding some flavor crystals and then over time adding less and less until you really don’t ned them.
There is a difference between drinking a coffee & taking caffeine in its isolated form. The coffee bean contains many other plant compounds that may negate the detrimental effects linked to caffeine, such as heart attacks that have occurred from consuming energy drinks/diet pills etc. ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ Furthermore, the diuretic tolerance you mention does not negate the need to drink water, as coffee is dry & warming, so one needs to hydrate the body for health and this is the natural way Europeans drinks coffee.
This is very good to know. I have often wondered what to do about the fact that even RO filtered water gets tiresome after a couple of days! Thumbs up for variety!
I am really impressed by this article. As an experienced weight loss surgeon, I can’t stress enough how important it is to have adequate water intake. I recommend at least 64-80 ounces daily. Thanks for sharing.