I’ve heard all my life that alcohol causes dehydration. I have also heard that people in the Middle Ages often drank beer or cider because it was less likely to carry bacteria than the local water supply. I have also noticed that after drinking a moderate amount of beer (really!) my urine is almost colorless, a sign that I am NOT dehydrated. What’s the deal? This seems contradictory to me. Is it a matter of ABV or proof? I’m sure the sages on this site can set things straight for me.
I don’t think this is true. Your pee is clear because alcohol is a diuretic.
Duplicate post, reported
A couple issues:
– If it does dehydrate you, your urine will be clear until you’re dehydrated. Your urine will not be dark when you’re in the middle of getting dehydrated but not dehydrated yet.
– Part of it is indeed the alcohol percentage. I’m not sure if beer and cider will dehydrate you in an absolute sense or just simply not hydrate you as much as water, but I’m pretty sure hard liquor will have a worse effect than beer and would, at least initially, dehydrate you. Not sure if the body would eventually compensate for this if you were a hard core boozer.
Thanks. A little too eager with it. Perhaps a nice cider would calm me down.
This is generally after I have dark urine BEFORE I begin the consumption. I am a former safety manager, so I notice this sort of thing.
Alcohol dehydrates you. Water hydrates you. Beer (or in fact, any alcoholic beverage) contains both alcohol and water. So the net effect depends on the relative amount of alcohol and water.
It’ll vary some from person to person, but typically, it’ll be on net more hydrating than dehydrating until you get to strong distilled stuff.
As for the urine: There’s some amount of waste products that your body needs to get rid of. That’s what gives urine its color. Alcohol doesn’t change that. And there’s also some amount of water that goes with that. Alcohol does change the amount of water. The way that alcohol dehydrates you is by making your body excrete more water. Excreting a lot of water means that your urine is clear.
By contrast, when you’re not under the influence of any drug that affects your kidneys, the reason that you’d be excreting a lot of water would be that your body has more water than it needs. That’s why, in that case, clear urine is a sign of adequate hydration.
I’m not sure it’s a clearly detailed as we think, but this article Hydration and health: a review cited in The Diuretic Action of Weak and Strong Alcoholic Beverages in Elderly Men: A Randomized Diet-Controlled Crossover Trial has an interesting graph with water loss/gain vs various beverages - Beer is a gain, wine and spirits a loss
Moderator Note
The duplicate threads have been merged.
Two things: First of all, a lot of medieval beer, particularly that drunk by ordinary working folks, was small beer, which is very low-alcohol, and probably would keep you acceptably hydrated. Secondly, the “medieval people didn’t drink water because it was unsafe” thing appears to be largely a myth. In most cases, people probably were drinking water as well as beer on a regular basis, they just didn’t tend to leave written records about it any more than we do.
With nothing more scientific than my untested perception, this is the closest to my experience.
I am not a doctor, but I would think a diuretic would cause your kidney to produce more urine (i.e. converting more water from your blood into urine) and make it a lighter color.
That’s maybe a bit oversimplified. Bilirubin can make the urine a dark yellow color. Bilirubin, a breakdown product of red blood cells, is normally handled by the liver and excreted in the bile. The liver can be overwhelmed by large amounts of bilirubin and the excess will be excreted by the kidneys, leading to yellow urine even if the person is well hydrated.
Well, it’s true and not true. You can live fine (if your liver can stand it) with wine or beer as your primary water intake. The small amount of alcohol wont really effect your hydration. Same with caffeine, like coffee. In fact I knew of some fishermen that drank nothing but black coffee and red wine for a couple of days.
But if you’re doing tequila shots and not getting any other substancial form of hydration, yes, you could be in trouble.
Right. Water with some small amounts of sodium, potassium, and a couple other trace minerals is the best. But beer or wine will keep you hydrated.
See Post 8 and the cite referenced. Beer is fine, wine is not.
I dunno. The day after a night of heavy beer drinking I can drink a lot (water, more beer, whatever) before I have to pee for the first time. I assume that’s because I’m dehydrated because, at some point and for reasons quoted by Fear Itself, I’ve pee’d out more than I’ve taken in.
Wine is only 11% or so, only twice beer. Now some fortified wines are quite high, and in fact some few beers are also. Of course YMMV.
From that cite “In conclusion, only moderate amounts of stronger alcoholic beverages (≥13.5%) resulted in a temporary diuretic effect compared to their non-alcoholic counterparts”.
However, with wine you are getting close. Beer is OK, except the very high alcohol content ones.
French wine, yes. California wines are often more like 14-16%. Warmer climates can result in higher sugar levels in the grapes which can turn into more alcohol. Market forces also have an effect; we Americans apparently like sweet strong wine.
Sure. But not sweet, the wine I see is highly tannic and not allowed to age.
And I suppose it’s not a sharp cut off either.
So- Most beers are Ok
Wine is a maybe.
Hard booze is a no.