# Health benefits of drinking water? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462 "2022-03-04T16:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/1 "2022-03-04T16:30:12Z")
I’m used to hearing a lot of nonsense from nutritionists and dieticians, but one thing in particular they are unable to make much sense to me is the need to drink a lot of water. I understand the need to stay hydrated, don’t get me wrong, but no one has been able to able to explain to me to my satisfaction how drinking water in other forms is incomparable to drinking water by itself. They ask me, How much water do you drink each day?, and I answer that I don’t drink much water, but I keep well-hydrated by drinking cup after cup of coffee, tea, soup, juice, etc. They explain, No I mean just water alone. When I ask if the water in tea, coffee, juice, soup, etc is inferior to plain water, they tell me that it is. The water in those things doesn’t count, they say, just water is what you need to be drinking. I’m no scientist, but I can’t see how my body fails to separate the things that flavor water, such as tea leaves, from the water itself at some early point in the digestive process. Can anyone explain to me the crucial health point that I’m not getting? It’s a little tedious discussing it with nutritionists who can’t explain it any better than “It just is, that’s all.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/2 "2022-03-04T16:36:47Z")
> [@Roger\_That](#): > > When I ask if the water in tea, coffee, juice, soup, etc is inferior to plain water, they tell me that it is. The water in those things doesn’t count, they say, just water is what you need to be drinking. Got a cite? Every reputable nutrition authority I’ve seen says that fluid intake counts, whether it’s from water, other beverages, or food that contains water. The issue is what _else_ you’re getting from those alternatives in addition to water. If you’re getting all your hydration from Coca-Cola, you’re getting more sugar, caffeine, etc. than you need. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/3 "2022-03-04T16:46:57Z")
Also, things like coffee are diuretics, so you might be urinating out a greater amount than you would with water alone. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/4 "2022-03-04T16:53:38Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Got a cite? Every reputable nutrition authority I’ve seen Nope. These are very stubborn nutritionists I’ve seen personally. I don’t drink soda, at all, just herbal tea (no caffeine), a couple of cups of coffee, then I switch to decaf, and I usually a few glasses of sugarless juice (except for the fructose, of course) and maybe a cup of soup every day, and these nutritionists are exhorting me to drink pure water instead. I think they’re out of their minds, but it’s not very useful to share that with them. Actually, I think they’re being paid to give nutritional advice and when they don’t have any to dispense, they go to “Drink more water? Oh, you’re drinking water in other forms? Well, make it pure water then.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/5 "2022-03-04T16:56:06Z")
Maybe they’re in the pockets of Big Water? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/6 "2022-03-04T16:56:40Z")
> [@Roger\_That](#): > > Oh, you’re drinking water in other forms? Well, make it pure water then.” But not _too_ pure. > [@Very pure water dangerous to drink?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/160): > > This reminds me of Randall Munroe asking his friend (who worked at a nuclear power plant) what would happen if he tried to go swimming in the pools where they stored spent nuclear fuel. His friend thought for a bit and then said “you’d die from the gunshot wounds.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/7 "2022-03-04T17:26:30Z")
People tend to completely discount the extra stuff they’re getting from beverages. For example, you mention that your juice is sugarless except for the fructose. Juice has a **shitload** of fructose. It’s literally the only thing I was told was completely off-limits when I first got the diabeetus and had to be super careful. A single cup of orange juice (which is not very much juice at all) has sugar comparable to some candy bars. Since a nutritionist’s job is to help people build better habits, my WAG is that “drink more water” is really just shorthand for “be more mindful of what you’re putting in your body.” But if you press them and they can’t have a facts-based conversation with you about why they’re saying it, maybe you do need a better one. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/8 "2022-03-04T17:31:25Z")
Yeah, if she’d said “No, no more fruit juice, Too much fructose” that would make sense to me, the kind of sense I’d expect from a nutritionist. But she was mostly trying to encourage me to ingest water in its pure form. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/9 "2022-03-04T17:32:04Z")
Other than my morning coffee, I tend to not drink much OTHER THAN water, and I drink A LOT of that. Also, I don’t pay a ton of attention to specific nutritional advice/trends other than basically eating/drinking healthy. But ISTM that over the past few years I have seen references in the paper questioning the traditional advice of something like 6-8 glasses of water per day. And my impression is that those references have consistently said any fluid counts - it doesn’t have to be water. So I’d say your nutritionist friends are all wet! 😃 (Seriously, I’d just smile and say, “Thanks! That’s great to hear!” And leave it at that. IME, folk with super strong nutritional opinion tend to be about as immune to discussion as folk with specific views on religion, politics,…). And if these are nutritionists you are paying to see for some reason (do you have some specific health concern?), I’d consider seeking out a different nutritionist. But I sure wouldn’t argue with them. I used to think fruit juice was good until my wife convinced me it was little better than soda. So I just eat fruit as fruit, and drink water. My standard opinion is is I’m peeing pretty regularly through the day and the pee isn’t to yellow/smelly, I’m drinking enough. And I often drink water to fill me up somewhat and dissuade me from unhealthy snacking. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/10 "2022-03-04T17:35:02Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Maybe they’re in the pockets of Big Water? Although many people don’t realize it, the “Big Hydro” lobby controls almost eighty percent of the Earth’s surface and donates 9 trillion tons of water a year to nearly every nation on the planet. It has infiltrated rivers, lakes, and streams everywhere and has made itself an indispensable part of agriculture, manufacturing, and even life itself! Someone needs to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand! Stranger ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/11 "2022-03-04T17:37:13Z")
I’ll drink to that! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/12 "2022-03-04T17:40:46Z")
> [@Daithi\_Lacha](#): > > Also, things like coffee are diuretics, so you might be urinating out a greater amount than you would with water alone. - > **[No Evidence of Dehydration with Moderate Daily Coffee Intake: A...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3886980/)** > > It is often suggested that coffee causes dehydration and its consumption should be avoided or significantly reduced to maintain fluid balance. The aim of this study was to directly compare the effects of coffee consumption against water ingestion... ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/13 "2022-03-04T17:41:20Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > do you have some specific health concern? My physician wants me to lose weight, and I concur, but it’s the old story of diet being restricted and exercise undertaken with very few results. So he sent me to talk with a nutritionist, and after my eyes stopped rolling (I’ve spoken to at least a half-dozen over the years) all she could come up with is “Drink more water.” It’s all covered by my insurance, but it’s the cost in terms of time and my patience more than the co-pay it costs me. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/14 "2022-03-04T18:32:31Z")
Well, things like juice and soup surely have more calories than water, no? (Pretty sure coffee and teas have no calories, tho they can be harmful in excess.) Is there a reason you dislike drinking water? Since I stopped drinking beer, water is pretty much all I drink. It is now pretty much my preferred drink. My wife and I joke about preferring tepid tap water. (Of course, Chicago has excellent tap water.). I just like it, and don’t feel I’m missing anything. (When I want a real treat I add ice cubes! :D) The fact that it is the cheapest, healthiest, most convenient option is an added benefit. If you really want to lose weight, wouldn’t the substitution of water for juice be about the easiest thing you could do? And don’t ignore the aspect of water “filling you up” and making you less hungry. But I don’t want to be one of those pain in the butt nutrition zealots I commented on above! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/15 "2022-03-04T18:46:11Z")
**Roger** needs to realize that the nutritionist is playing a game, and he is stuck on level five, the water level. In order to advance past this level, he is going to have to use a cheat code: just lie and say you drink water, and lots of it. Then the game will advance to level six, and gameplay will resume. Hint - level six is the kale level. You may want to play a different game. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/16 "2022-03-04T18:56:18Z")
There are multiple articles, but here is one I found in The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal): > **[Medical myths](https://www.bmj.com/content/335/7633/1288)** > > Sometimes even doctors are duped, say Rachel C Vreeman and Aaron E Carroll > > Physicians understand that practicing good medicine requires the constant acquisition of new knowledge, though they often assume their existing medical beliefs do not need... > [@](#): > > Another endorsement may have come from a prominent nutritionist, Frederick Stare, who once recommended, without references, the consumption “around 6 to 8 glasses per 24 hours,” which could be “in the form of coffee, tea, milk, soft drinks, beer, etc.” The complete lack of evidence supporting the recommendation to drink six to eight glasses of water a day is exhaustively catalogued in an invited review by Heinz Valtin in the _American Journal of Physiology_ . ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/17 "2022-03-04T18:58:39Z")
What of flavored water? (No sugar added) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/18 "2022-03-04T19:09:06Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > Hint - level six is the kale level. You may want to play a different game. “I eat a bite of creamed kale with my ‘Turf & Turf’ (prime rib and top sirloin) dinner. Does that count?” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/19 "2022-03-04T19:09:17Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > If you really want to lose weight, wouldn’t the substitution of water for juice be about the easiest thing you could do? Yes, absolutely. 24 ounces of orange juice (two 12 oz glasses) a day is around 300 calories. 2100 calories a week. 8400 calories a month. It’s a gross oversimplification to say you’ll automatically lose half a pound a week if you substitute it with water, but you **are** reducing your caloric intake by a significant amount. My personal rule (and I’ve lost about 80 pounds since the abovementioned diabeetus diagneesus) is that liquid calories are absolutely off-limits except as a treat. Usually alcohol. > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > What of flavored water? (No sugar added) Sure. I drink plenty of diet soda and seltzer water. I know there are potential health implications for artificial sweeteners, but there are way worse implications if I fall off the wagon and go back to drinking a half-gallon of milk or orange juice a day. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462/20 "2022-03-04T19:10:26Z")
Huh! Well, coffee makes me pee like a racehorse. I guess it’s actually a balancing act. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-benefits-of-drinking-water/960462.md?page=2)