Comment on How do I drink more water?
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Don’t. Drinking water with meals dilutes your stomach acid. Just eat less processed food and less salt and you’ll barely need to drink any water. Cooked vegetables and fruit are both mostly water.
Only time you need to drink water is when exercising outdoors for extended periods, and even then it’s about 3-4 liters per day (including food).
Also despite a lot of bogus advice out there, coffee is water, beer is 94% water. I have gone months with only coffee and beer and it’s not a problem.
Finally that brings us to kidney stones. Avoid high oxalate foods, and if you are worried about stones drink lemon water or other acidic beverages, as it dissolves stones better than plain water.
Chronic mild dehydration is not a disease and it does not need treatment. I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice.
Drink when you’re thirsty. Water or any other liquid other than soda pop. You’ll probably be fine.
yoevli@lemmy.world 3 days ago
OP, please don’t listen to this person. Most of this is terrible advice.
To start, it’s still advisable to drink water through the day even if you’re getting some from your food intake. A typical diet will provide around 20% of the recommended daily amount - the rest needs to come from actual fluid intake. Even with a diet with a high proportion of fruits and vegetables, it doesn’t come close to meeting the ideal amount.
Coffee and beer are not the same as the equivalent amount of pure water. Caffeine and ethanol both function as diuretics - that is, they promote urine production which in turn reduces your overall hydration. Ethanol is worse in this category to the extent that alcoholic drinks can actually dehydrate you. Caffeine has a more mild effect and is overall hydrating, but a cup of coffee still isn’t equivalent to a cup of water.
Citrus fruits do help prevent kidney stone formation, but it’s primarily via a different mechanism involving the citrate found in those fruits/juices rather than the acidity itself. Not that this matters too much in practice, but I point this out due to the inclusion of “other acidic beverages” as an alternative.
Chronic mild dehydration (generally) won’t kill you, but it will prevent your body from functioning at its best and can potentially cause issues with electrolyte imbalances, blood pH, and plenty else. You should aim to stay optimally hydrated as much as possible for the benefit of your overall health.
“Drink when you’re thirsty” is the one solid piece of advice here. Your body has evolved cues like this over hundreds of millions in order to get you to take good care of it, and its best to listen to them as much as possible. That said: these cues only works when you’re cognizant of them, and it’s still important to be actively mindful and intermittently remind yourself to follow them, especially when you’re involved in tasks that would otherwise distract you from them.
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
We don’t know OPs diet. All we know is that OP feels some kind of societal pressure to drink more than they want to. Nobody should do that. We should consume the amount that feels right and it’s as simple as that. Those who consume a high fat diet, or are overweight may have plenty of metabolic water through fat.
Water pushers are just as wrong as I am. Hyponatraemia can be fatal and it can have similar symptoms to heat exhaustion, leading people to chug more water. The only safe advice for water is to drink what feels right.
yoevli@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Respectfully, what on Earth are you talking about? OP has only indicated that they’re trying to be health-conscious by maintaining proper hydration - the weird “societal pressure” angle is being superimposed by you. As I alluded to in my previous comment, it’s easy to ignore mild dehydration and sometimes a conscious effort is needed to maintain optimal intake. “Drink when you’re thirsty” is fine in a vacuum, but to distill (no pun intended) hydration advice down to just that is to ignore how people work in real life.
I don’t know why you’re bringing up hyponatremia. Water toxicity is exceedingly rare and one would need to consume an inordinate amount of water in short time before it becomes “unsafe.” You’re unnecessarily fearmongering and pushing misinformation when you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Also, there’s no “water-pushing” conspiracy at play here. It’s just a reality that most people don’t consume as much water as they ideally should, and as a result people sometimes draw attention to that reality as a means of improving the general health of society.
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
OP said “I don’t like drinking water” and my response to that is, then don’t. No reason to force a habit. Could even be risky to just follow the advice of somebody on the internet.
Reference
Hyponatremia was found to be almost as common as dehydration at the Grand Canyon. It is not a rare condition. It is very important to bring salty snacks when hiking in the heat. As important as bringing water.
Most people don’t drink enough water maybe, but most people also eat loads of sodium from ultra processed food, many times what the body needs.
Anyway there are many perfectly healthy people who drink very little water. There are also people who drink their own urine. Don’t worry about it.