# Water = Juice, Juice = Water **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2000, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114 "2000-03-24T13:06:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Glitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/0ea827/32.png) [@Glitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glitch)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114/1 "2000-03-24T13:06:00Z")
A health question. You are supposed to drink umpteen dozen glasses of water a day. What I am wondering is does a glass of juice count as a glass of water? ---
**Author:** ![Glitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/0ea827/32.png) [@Glitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glitch)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114/2 "2000-03-24T13:07:00Z")
By juice I mean, apple juice, orange juice, grape juice, grapefruit juice, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Fyodor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/958977/32.png) [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114/3 "2000-03-24T13:24:00Z")
I asked my doctor about this a couple of years ago because I was working overseas where there was very little potable water available. He told me I should drink about six pints of water every day and juice, soup, and coffee all counted as water. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114/4 "2000-03-24T14:09:00Z")
Al, not to disparage your doctor, but everything I’ve read and what _my_ doctor told me is that caffeinated beverages don’t count as they act like a diuretic - forcing your body to shed water. Tea, coffee, and sodas not only don’t count towards water, they count against it. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114/5 "2000-03-24T14:11:00Z")
\<----------- Pounding Diet Tonic water as fast as I can. ``` Cartooniverse ``` * * * If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel. ---
**Author:** ![Fyodor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/958977/32.png) [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114/6 "2000-03-25T06:49:00Z")
I’ll stick up for my doctor. Granted there’s nothing better than pure water but I wouldn’t say coffee etc. “counts against” hydration. Coffee, soup, etc. may not be as good as water but they’ll still hydrate you. I spent several months one winter living in a tent in Northern Quebec doing geophysical surveys in frozen swamps. We were outside working all day on snowshoes. (Ever shit in the woods at -50 degrees? I have.) Our water supply was a hole chopped through ice and the swamp water was brown with dead vegetable matter in it. We never drank straight water - always coffee, hot chocolate and, yes, eating snow while we worked. Also lots of ice cream every day. It’s a funny picture; sitting in our tent in the evening, our breath visible, a white frost forming on our backs (the side away from the stove), shovelling in bowls of ice cream. Life was good. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-juice-juice-water/9114/7 "2000-03-24T19:08:00Z")
This page from [The Boston Globe](http://search.boston.com/globe/search/stories/health/health_sense/051198.htm) has this to say about water content in various beverages and _beer_\*! > [@](#): > > - How much do you need? On a sedentary day, to balance water lost through urination, breathing, and sweating, you should consume half an ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight. If you’re 120 pounds, that’s 7 1/2 eight-ounce cups. > - How can you get this much? Easily, and not just by drinking – there’s water in fruits, veggies, and other foods. If you’re still worried, keep water at your desk to sip. > - Do caffeinated beverages count? Sort of. Coffee, tea, and caffeinated sodas are mild diuretics, making you urinate more. But they’re basically water, so they help somewhat. > - What about sweet drinks and fruit juices? They count because they’re mostly water. But the sweetness can make you thirsty – and they’re fattening. > - OK, how about beer (or other alcoholic drinks)? Beer is mostly water, too, but because alcohol is dehydrating, you can’t count beer as hydration. That goes double for wine and liquor, which have so little volume they don’t contain much water. Of course, what you have to evaluate now is the reliability and accuracy of medical advice from a newspaper.