Why do some people hate drinking water?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

It’s never made sense to me that some people refuse to drink water even if they know it keeps you functioning properly. The same people will complain of constipation or dry skin but don’t want to do the thing that fixes their issues.

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PassingDuchy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I drink it now…on town water lol. Growing up outside of town proper in my area it did not taste good and left you more thirsty than when you started drinking it. The water was hard enough taking a shower felt like washing down with iron wool and if you stayed in more than five minutes you came out peeling. I was actually amazed the first time I lived in a town center on town water and the water didn’t make my skin feel raw lol. I was floored when I lived in a beach town and not only was the water mild, something in the area made the water taste slightly sweet and enjoyable to drink instead of “somewhat metallic from old pipes, but inoffensive cause it’s thirst quenching instead of thirst exacerbating”.

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- topherclay@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  This doesn’t really fit with my understanding of what hard water is and I’m very concerned.
  
  The place I live now has hard water that is way different from what I grew up with, but it just means that I have to use a lot more soap to clean any oils off my skin or hair, and every faucet gets a ton of lime buildup obnoxiously fast.
  
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  - PassingDuchy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    Bit confused here. There’s levels to water hardness and what I listed you’d know pretty much instantly. It doesn’t sneak up on you or anything. If it makes you feel better I grew up in a town on a ravine lol it was all rock. You may not be dealing with the same situation.
    
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SabinStargem@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
The pipes in my residence are at least 60 years old, made of metal, and the resulting water tastes a bit suspect. I get water from the grocery store and put it in the water cooler. Costs about $10-20ish for 20 gallons, but probably far safer than what the tap provides.

Replacing all of the pipes would cost $1,9000+. 😨

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Widdershins@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I drink as much water as I can handle at work so I can go take a leak and have my phone out and not risk getting in trouble with the boss. I don’t eat breakfast or lunch. Since starting work 3 months ago I lost 30lbs. I’ll eat anything for dinner and I haven’t been trying to lose any weight.

I will add that moving to first shift after over a decade of second shift has been hard on my system and I’ve vomited in the mornings before work more often than not. It’s like clockwork. I have learned that I’ve got a window of about 4 hours after work during which I can eat. Sticking to that keeps morning nausea at bay thanks to an empty stomach in the morning.

Anyways water is great. The other guy at work brings cases of bottled water which I try to understand. The water quality here is quite good and a majority of my water at work comes out of the tap. I have no complains and I wouldn’t spend a dime more than I am now for what I get in addition to microplastics.

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MNByChoice@midwest.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The water in some USA cities does taste terrible. Some rural and city water is unsafe to drink. Grow up in one of those places, and one may hate it.

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- TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  water can taste either really bad, or like nothing
  not water tastes consistently better than water
  
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Novice_Idiot@lemmy.wtf ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
For my fiance it’s due to autism, we live in annars with amazing water quality and I drink it without issues. She can’t handle the flavour sometimes though, she gets nauseous. The solution is to add sugar free flavouring to the water. Works pretty well and she actually drinks enough water now.

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DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
People who don’t drink water make me unnaturally irritated. It’s just so crazy. “I don’t breathe air because don’t really like the taste”.

I know I sound like an asshole. It shouldn’t matter to me what you do. It’s your body and your life.

Still…c’mon, like what? It’s water. It brings life. It’s the original thirst quencher. It’s what your body needs. Just drink it.

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- radau@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  No
  
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LovableSidekick@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Eating and drinking are almost entirely habit. I would say the main driver is parents not teaching kids to just fucking drink water. You don’t need something with fizz, color or flavor. Water’s been keeping humans alive forever.

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azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Like what? The toilet water?

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ch00f@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Some people don’t have access to decent tasting tap water and bottled water is expensive.

Tip: If your water tastes like chlorine, just fill a pitcher and put it in the fridge. Whatever chemicals they use will off gas overnight and it’ll taste great in the morning.

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- neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  Some people don’t have access to decent tasting tap water
  
  Most people IMHO.
  
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  - Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    My tap water is pretty good, too bad we can’t send taste over the internet
    
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- grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  The water at my office smells like chlorine. It’s dreadful. I wouldn’t even use it to make coffee, I fill up a nalgene at home and bring that in. My home water is well water and tastes a tad high iron, just the way I like it. (HOA regularly tests the water and it’s always within legal limits, yay.)
  
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- scintilla@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  If you have the money for it a water bottle with a filter (even just the carbon Brita ones) improve the taste immensely. I use an Epic water filter for everything and it makes nearly all water taste good*.
  
  The only exception I had was the Atlanta airport I have no clue what the fuck was going on their but the water was disgusting.
  
  Also worth noting: don’t use a filtered water bottle for actually filtering water that has contaimints you are actually worried about consuming; none except for grayl actually match their claimed results with third party testing.
  
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  - null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I installed a filter under our kitchen sink, with a separate small tap.
    
    10/10 recommend this approach.
    
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- scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yes chlorine is a very volatile chemical and dissipates quickly.
  
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- overload@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I don’t know if offgassing is the reason the water tastes better when cooled overnight. I would do this with an enclosed bottle (no off-gassing possible) and it would taste equally better.
  
  Definitely cooling it is an improvement, I always thought it tasted different due to how our mouth/taste buds responds to the dropping temperature.
  
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meekah@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Basically they’re people who got caught in the food industries propaganda.

They might consciously know they need regular water, but their body is now craving sugar with every sip. If it’s missing, it feels wrong.

Sugar needs to be much more regulated, especially for kids… Adults may be responsible enough to handle it but without regulation the industry will run wild and make everyone addicted.

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- Pandemanium@lemm.ee ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  As a counterpoint, I don’t replace water with anything sugary/flavored. I just… don’t get thirsty, like ever, unless I’m working outside in hot weather. Most people’s bodies remind them to drink. Mine doesn’t. I try to remember to drink water throughout the day rather than just at mealtimes, but if I don’t have a glass next to me, I will almost certainly forget. I feel like I can’t be the only person like this.
  
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  - AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Perchance do you have autism and/or ADHD? I ask because I experience the same thing as you do, and for me, it feels like it derives from my autism/ADHD. Like, sometimes the first cue that I am severely dehydrated is that I get a headache. I get a similar thing with hunger, where I could legitimately go for multiple days without noticing I’m hungry if I don’t get reminded that food is a thing.
    
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  - meekah@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Hmm, interesting point. Thanks for sharing.
    
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- starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The food industry’s propaganda is that you need to drink 2 litres of water a day. You don’t.
  
  In 1974 the book Nutrition for Good Health, co-authored by nutritionists Margaret McWilliams and Frederick Stare, recommended that the average adult consumes between six to eight glasses of water a day. But, the authors wrote, this can include fruit and veg, caffeinated and soft drinks, even beer.
  
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  - meekah@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Honestly not sure where to start with this one.
    
    I’m sure the blanket statement of needing to drink 2 liters of water is misleading in plenty of situations but I really don’t think this is what we should be focusing on. This is the last thing from the food industry that I’d consider propaganda. Not to mention that it’s really not a bad recommendation, and a 50 year old book 2 people wrote (no matter their qualification) isn’t really a solid foundation for an argument like this.
    
    Of course water intake is highly individual. Athletes may drink 10+ liters per day, but most people are probably fine with just drinking when they’re thirsty.
    
    I don’t think anyone is saying that 2 liters are necessary for survival. You can get away with much less. The thing is, it’s easy to drink more than enough, it has many benefits, and there isn’t really much of a downside to it. The 2 liters are a rule of thumb, not an exact required amount for everyone.
    
    Regarding the beer, we know nowadays there is no amount of alcohol that is healthy. Sure, beer might be able to hydrate you when enjoyed in moderation, but it’s plain counterproductive when recommended as a healthy diet.
    
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aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
water? like out of the toilet??

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- null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Fish fuck in water.
  
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  - barneypiccolo@lemm.ee ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Giggity!
    
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Okami_No_Rei@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I don’t like the taste of pure water. Filtered, bottled, doesn’t matter. It tastes bitter and metallic and it always takes effort to choke down.

I keep a bottle of unsweetened juice and use a splash of that to add the bare minimum of flavor I need to be able to enjoy drinking it at home, and when I’m out and about I just drink it and suffer.

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gerryflap@feddit.nl ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I wondered this for a long while, but I’ve realized that I’m in a pretty privileged position. Where I live (the Netherlands) the tap water is not only drinkable, it’s actually almost indistinguishable from mineral water. Certainly for me at least. I’m not much of a traveller, but when I was in Oostende in Belgium I remember the tap water was absolutely vile. It was (or at least tasted like) desalinated seawater. Instead of hydrating and refreshing it tasted stale and salty. If that was the only water I knew I probably would be drinking more refreshing stuff like ice tea or cola all day as well. When I got back to the Netherlands my first glass of tap water tasted like heaven.

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- shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Similar to my ex-wife who grew up on well water with loads of minerals. She found tap water to be disgusting and said it tasted of chemicals.
  
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kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Fish fuck in it

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RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Living off flavored drinks and craving that sugar is stimulation you don’t get from plain water.

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- Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This is my issue. Now I use water additives like PureLemon and MIO to spike em. I try to drink 4-8 cups a day and feel better when I do.
  
  I still slip into my days of 4 cups of coffee with no water often.
  
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  - RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yeah, it can sorta be a “boredom reliever” kind of thing.
    
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CaptPretentious@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Sometime in my 20s I just switched to water only. It wasn’t even a conscious decision really. Wasn’t like one day I woke up and was like I’m just going to drink water now. Just one day I’d realize that you have been like 2 years since I drank any soft drink. So I tried drinking some Dr pepper which I loved. It was disgusting. I had someone try to see if there was something wrong with it and they said it tasted perfectly normal. And it’s been that way for a long time now. I’ve tried little sips of new soft drinks that have come out that my friends like… And none of them taste good to me. Just room temp water, perfect.

I used to use mio to add a little flavor every now and then, but switch to Crystal light. I found the flavors to be more consistently good.

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Phoonzang@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
“Because I’m not poor! I got all the water I need from food”.

My boomer dad, constantly suffering from health issues because of poor hydration. Does not help that the only liquids he consumes are beer and wine.

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- T156@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Maybe if you gave him a wet food diet, like a cat or something.
  
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  - barneypiccolo@lemm.ee ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Don’t eat cats, that’s gross.
    
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- slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Water? That’s where fish fuck in.
  
  That was way funnier before you got morbidly obese.
  
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- starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That’s the thing, though. People need about 2 litres of fluid a day, and most of that comes from their food.
  
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Raiderkev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
My friend from work doesn’t drink water. Like. At all. She drinks Diet coke like all day. She’s in her 50’s and has a ton of health issues. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

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- slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That is insane to me.
  
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  - synapse1278@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Same, you offer me a Coca-Cola or a glace of tap water, I go with water any time. Cola will just make me more thirsty and my mouth will taste unpleasant sugary for hours. It’s just isn’t nice.
    
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weariedfae@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I grew up on well water that smelled like sulfur and was sometimes unsafe to drink.

The water fountains at school were HEAVILY chlorinated.

Water just wasn’t really an option growing up or if it was you had to mask the taste with Koolaid or something.

I don’t crave it. I’m not in the habit of drinking plain water. I have a zero water system now and I drink it a lot more but some people either have an access issue or never developed the habit due to similar factors as me.

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- scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  Water just wasn’t really an option
  
  This is funny, considering how many people in the world survive on muddy water they had to walk miles to collect in a bucket.
  
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  - JcbAzPx@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I know some people would kill for water that only might kill you, but when you have choices, you don’t choose the stuff that might make you sick.
    
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RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I worked with someone who would never drink water. It was weird to me. I always preferred water because as a lid was free at all schools I went to, allowing me to save half of my allowance. As an adult it still cheaper and very low calorie, practically zero calories.

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- alsimoneau@lemmy.ca ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It’s not “practically zero”, it’s zero.
  
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Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
They have rabies perhaps

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SunshineJogger@feddit.org ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Ive seen people who grew up with flavored drinks because the parents were basically lazy or something and now as adults are simply conditioned to not drink anything without artificial flavor because to them artificial flavor is the normal baseline

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howrar@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Growing up, I didn’t like water either because I didn’t like the taste. No one around me could understand how I could dislike it because water supposedly tastes like nothing. BUT IT DOESN’T. WATER HAS FLAVOUR. Anyway, I later figured out that filtered tap water tastes a lot better than the bottled kind.

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- Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  The gaslighting people do about taste is insane. “Celery doesn’t have a taste” “sweet potato tastes like candy” “Water doesn’t have a taste” What planet do these people live on
  
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  - pdqcp@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Whenever I hear that in my family, it always comes from smokers, which basically means their taste buds and olfactory senses have been compromised
    
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chunes@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Because it’s annoying

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Rentlar@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Some people are addicted to sugar to the point where every beverage must be sweet flavoured.

I have water, but othertimes I am sugar addicted so I want a different beverage.

Also I have had tap water in various places across Canada. Most are decent, some are especially delicious, some have awful after tastes and even smell weird (sulfur or chlorine). If that stuff runs to your home I can understand why people prefer bottled water, tea or soda instead of tap water.

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nokturne213@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I grew up drinking well water that tastes amazing. When I moved from home I have found that every other water tastes horrid (with a few exceptions). I can drink bad water when it is really cold. I know drinking water is good for me, I do force myself to drink it, but no where near as much as that well water.

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barneypiccolo@lemm.ee ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
My favorite beverage is a glass of ice water. Friends are always offering a beer or a soda, and all I want is a tall glass of ice water.

Now I carry a big Stanley cup of ice water everywhere I go.

I know two people who refuse to drink water, and even say that they HATE water.

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- isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  totally agree, but you lost me at stanley cup
  
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froh42@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I can stand carbonated water and hat plain water. When I was a kid, my family wouldn’t drink water but other beverages.

My kids (17 and 20 now) grew up with drinking water at home. Water was the thing to drink if you are thirsty, everything else was allowed but “something special” like a sweet. Going to a restaurant also was special, they could choose what they like.

While I still struggle with water - I manage, but I still drink sugar free soda as well, my adult kids can’t understand how I like that sweet stuff all the time.

So I firmly believe your preference is what you grew up with. You can change it, but it takes effort.

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Gerudo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Grew up on well water, it tasted funny. Most water I tried to drink was from water fountains, tasted like copper. First bottled water I drank was Dasani, and it tasted like hose water. So I thought all water tasted like ass.

I didn’t get that water could taste good until I drank actual bottled spring water. Now I have nice water filters that make my tap taste just fine, and I know what brands of water to buy if I need to.

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- Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Can confirm most public sources of water taste like garbage. Drinking fountains taste like liquid metal, city restaurant water tastes like chlorine, some people’s tap water is straight up gross. But good water is SO GOOD.
  
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2ugly2live@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Some people don’t like the taste? It’s like asking why people don’t like to exercise even though it’s good for them, or they complain about stiffness or what have you. I’m not a huge fan of the taste of water myself, but I drink it because it’s good for me and free (once I purchases a filter anyway).

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- ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Drinking water is exponentially easier and less time consuming than exercising
  
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  - 2ugly2live@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    That’s true very true, but some people don’t like being uncomfortable (I saw as a prior non water drinker lol).
    
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