One would think so, but perhaps there is something to be said for alternatives.
Nope, the tea flavors have caffeine unless they say they don’t.
I drink diet pop, fruit juices, coffee, milk, and stuff like that that’s mostly water. Water straight up tastes like shit.
FWIW: Even drinking coffee has an overall positive effect on your hydration level (espresso and such probably not). That’s what I’ve heard anyway.
But the OP wasn’t trying “to avoid dehydration”; his doctor recommended this to help him lose weight.
shrug I think if you’re eating right you shouldn’t need to drink any extra water unless you’re thirsty. If I don’t drink coffee I almost never drink anything. But then again I hate salt and don’t salt any of my food – especially not meat or veggies (you freaks who like salt on your steak or broccoli are insane), so that might also be a factor.
He wasn’t given that advice by some random asshole - he was given it by his doctor, who presumably actually HAS “medical credentials” and is not merely claiming them.
This advice was not given to avoid dehydration, it was given as a weight loss aid.
Water adds volume without adding calories, which makes it easier to eat fewer calories with less feelings of hunger. Also, when one looses weight one also burns fat, which produces byproducts that are removed by the kidneys (if they aren’t removed fast enough you can develop a real bodily stench). Kidneys generally function better with more water than with less.
Some people seem to interpret mild thirst as mild hunger… so consuming slightly more water than strictly necessary can help stave off perceived hunger longer, which also makes it easier to stick to a diet.
64 total ounces a day is not going to hurt anybody.
If I only drank 64 ounces of water (liquid) a day, I’d feel thirsty! That’s not much, IMO. Hell, it’s only 7am, and I’ve already had a 24 ounce green tea and a 12 oz diet coke.
That’s 36oz and it’s not even close to lunch time yet.
I drink diet soda, diet sparkling water, or Crystal Light. Plain water makes me nauseated, partly because in the past I forced myself to drink lots of it in a vain effort to “flush my system” as the OP mentions. :rolleyes:
Caffeine is a diuretic and maybe that’s why you’d get thirsty again?
Caffeine doesn’t have to cause a net loss in water to have a negative effect. People seem to be saying “caffeine is okay because it won’t cause a net loss of water”, but the whole point here is to make the effort to hydrate himself, so any loss of water offsets some of that. So if he has the choice to drink X ounces of uncaffeinated liquid he’ll be more hydrated than with X ounces of caffeinated liquid.
Except that “being hydrated” isn’t the point in the OP’s case; if he’s dehydrated, he’ll be thirsty and drink more. The point is assisting weight loss: either to pass liquids through his kidneys to flush wastes (in which case diuretics are good), or to fill the stomach (in which case the diuretic properties are irrelevant, since they’ll only occur later).
Really? Does it work with anything sweet? Because I’ve been feeling pukey all day long and just had a small piece of chocolate, and actually do feel better.
In answer to the OP, I recommend seltzer water, which is carbonated water with some natural flavorings. I don’t like plain water either but will drink cases of seltzer.
Please do not expect me to believe that these beverages became popular because people were concerned about the safety of their water supply. :dubious:
It was my understanding that water that was safe to drink was more difficult to come by in medieval times. Water was often tainted by sewage and unfit for consumption without distilling it or otherwise cleaning it. Wine was popular because there wasn’t a risk of it being tainted. But that’s just what I’ve heard. Is it untrue?
64 ounces of water a day is alot of water. I think one strong indication that this is a load of crap (in the general sense of advice, possibly not specific to the op) is simple body weight.
I teach Defensive driving to teens and during one class I do a demonstration of large male vs small female drinking alcohol. I can tell you there is no way in hell some little 90 pound woman is going to be able to easily down a half gallon of water per day. I weigh 225 and on a HOT summer day I can put down around that much, maybe even a bit more but I out weigh the above woman with a better than 2/1 ratio.
this reminds me of the old weight loss trick where you have dinner before 8 and then don’t eat anything else until breakfast…so what if you dont go to bed until 2 am?
Slight hijack from the direction this thread has turned, but for the most part, the ingredients lists on Kraft’s sugar-free Crystal Light drink mixes and Kraft’s sugar-free Kool-Aid mixes are identical. And Kool-Aid (last time I checked, which I admit was many years ago) is significantly cheaper than Crystal Light. [
](http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=product&m=product/Product_display&Site=1&Product=4300093974) Granted, you may get more flavor options you prefer with Crystal Light, but if you’re going for the standard stuff (grape, cherry, fruit punch, lemonade, etc.), it’s the same stuff (probably made on the same assembly line and just stuffed into different packaging!).
Good luck with your weight loss!
I enjoyed reading all the replies.
Thank you everyone.
So let us know how that weight-loss thingy goes, OK?
Re: Development of fermented fruit beverages in lieu of drinking water, this is all I have been taught in my high level anthropology courses at the University of Utah (which seems pretty big on the anthropology). Many if not most tribal cultures will only drink fermented fruit juices, as it will be safe from parasites, crocodiles, candiru ( 
) etc. I haven’t got my papers with me anymore, but several cultures were pointed out explicitly as having absolutely no potable water, and have used fermented fruit as their only liquid source for many hundreds of years. Seeing as how many different teachers have expressed this in various ways, as well as seeing research papers written about such practices, I would give it good credence (and from well before medieval times as well).