There’s a thread out there somewhere that I started asking if you could survive on beer in the desert. The answer seemed to be Yes.
Found the thread.
I believe it’s also relevant to take into account the rest of a person’s diet, as a certain amount of water intake comes from what we would call food rather than drink. Is the inveterate caffeine and alcohol consumer eating bread or soup? :dubious:
OB
Tea and coffee person here. I drink a couple of glasses of water before I go to bed, but that’s all.
Nurses. Enough said. Good for wiping your brow or giving supervised treatments, but unfortunately many of them overestimate their medical knowledge and are prone to spreading myth.
Caffeine and alcohol are diuretics, we do know this much, but typically they are delivered in high water-content beverages (as others have said). You don’t get as much benefit from the hydration as you would an uncaffeinated beverage, but your body’s hormonal regulatory system is smart enough not to sdehydrate you by scoffing at water when it is needed, even if it contains the dread caffeine or alcohol
What is probably more dangerous that seldom gets talked about is that sodas or heavily sugared teas are very hypertonic, and it requires water to move this stuff through and out of the body. So diet sodas are better; I’d be worried about the person consuming gallons of sugared sode. But again, here, it’s delivered in plenty of water (and usually with food and crushed ice, which also contain water) so your body finds a way to balance it out.
But likesay unless you’re in the desert or in the middle of heavy physical activity, you aren’t going to shrivel up like a raisin.
Heh. Just wait until you next need a nurse!
The devil’s definition of a nurse (applies to doctors and patients):
- Someone who can help you and doesn’t.
- someone who can hurt you and does.
Don’t piss off your nurse, or the above may happen.
What about wine on the desert? Or was Max Brand just making stuff up?
Yeah , right HMS. Because you’re a doctor. Have you seen the medical training real nurses go trough today? Actually nurses do everything in a hospital while the DR . Will come check the after work. I wonder what you do for a living? Stupid statement.
Also, nurses do not wipe your brow and give supervised treatment that’s a nurses aid.
All the previous posters have died a horrible death by dehydration…after all, the thread is eight years old!
Are they trained to notice obvious things? Like, oh let’s say medicine that’s 8 years past expiry date.
Also: someone’s jimmies got rustled.
In the thread which Uncommon Sense linked to there was an (uncited) recollection by amarone that liquids up to 10% alcohol were hydrating, and over that were dehydrating. Wine, at 12%, would presumably be dehydrating.
However it would be nice to find a better cite for that.
In very hot weather if I am doing hard manual labor I drink water, right from the hose usually. Other than that about 4 cups a coffee each day and maybe one diet soda, one glass of fruit juice.
For much of the history of civilization, beer was much safer than water. When humans pile up in cities, shit happens (literally). Of course, boiled water was generally safe, so tea and coffee are also good. That whole 8 glasses of water a day is a crock anyway. I usually drink one pot of tea and two glasses of water a day (to swallow pills). I do not feel thirsty (except in the summer when I drink more–usually diet root beer or iced mint tea).
Yes and no. That’s about the total amount of water you need, but that’s counting all sources. Most beverages are basically just water with impurities, and most foods have a lot of water, too.
It’s important to note, too, that individuals vary. Some people just naturally sweat or pee more than others, and diuretics have greater or lesser effect on some people (either naturally or due to developed tolerance).
zombie or no
a small crock.
I wonder if it would doom the person from alcohol poisoning if not dehydration. In the desert you’d need at least 2 liters of water a day even if you’re not particularly exerting yourself. Then, considering the, at least fairly noticeable, effects of wine, you might need 3 liters per day. Which is 18 (American) “drinks” worth, more than you can excrete in a day.
That is the #1 drink of my childhood summertimes, right there. I can smell the plasticky-rubber scent of the hose water just typing this. 
After reading Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, I read one of his sources (which I unfortunately can’t recall now) on this topic. You wouldn’t get dehydrated necessarily, but one consequence of getting all your fluid intake through non-water sources is a much higher incidence of bladder stones, due to more concentrated urine. Those aren’t as common these days in the developed world, which based on the descriptions is a big relief.
No one? :dubious: Maybe in urban areas people avoided water, but the unqualified statement “no one would dare drink water” trips my BS meter.
A bit of googling turned up this blog post on “the great medieval water myth”
and this article on “water” from the Cambridge World History of Food.