are hot drinks ok for water intake??

timeforachange

Hi everyone

I am trying to get an answer to this problem as myself and a friend are disagreeing here over it!

Basically we know you should have an intake of approx 2 litres of water a day, but if you drink hot drinks such as tea, coffee, hot chocolate, bovril... are these included in this intake?
and if not do they actually require you to up your water intake to more than 2 litres to balance it out?

One of us thinks hot drinks can be counted, the other thinks hot drinks are not counted but actually make you need to drink more water!!

Dotcomdolly

Caffeine free hot drinks count in my book,not regular tea or coffee but herbal teas.
I would discount the bovril & instant hot choc because of the high salt/sugar

FTGFOP

You should count caffeinated hot drinks. If you regularly drink them the caffeine's diuretic effect is negligible and even if you don't the caffeine's effects are still far out-weighed by the water those drinks also contain.

(With the possible exception of straight espresso )

rubadub

timeforachange wrote: »

Basically we know you should have an intake of approx 2 litres of water a day

Actually this is sort of a myth, well a misunderstanding, a hospital study was supposed to say people needed ~2L of fluid per day and people misinterpreted this as meaning water, but it included food, e.g. fruit is ~90% water, so if you ate loads of water melons you might get enough water from them alone. Too much water could be a bad thing.

As for caffeine
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-277X.2003.00477.x/full

Background Caffeine and related methylxanthine compounds are recognized as having a diuretic action, and consumers are often advised to avoid beverages containing these compounds in situations where fluid balance may be compromised. The aim of this review is to evaluate the available literature concerning the effect of caffeine ingestion on fluid balance and to formulate targeted and evidence-based advice on caffeinated beverages in the context of optimum hydration.

Method A literature search was performed using the Medline database of articles published in the medical and scientific literature for the period of January 1966–March 2002. Subject headings and key words used in this search were: tea, coffee, caffeine, diuresis, fluid balance and water-electrolyte balance. A secondary search was performed using the bibliographies of publications identified in the initial search.

Results The available literature suggests that acute ingestion of caffeine in large doses (at least 250–300 mg, equivalent to the amount found in 2–3 cups of coffee or 5–8 cups of tea) results in a short-term stimulation of urine output in individuals who have been deprived of caffeine for a period of days or weeks. A profound tolerance to the diuretic and other effects of caffeine develops, however, and the actions are much diminished in individuals who regularly consume tea or coffee. Doses of caffeine equivalent to the amount normally found in standard servings of tea, coffee and carbonated soft drinks appear to have no diuretic action.

Conclusion The most ecologically valid of the published studies offers no support for the suggestion that consumption of caffeine-containing beverages as part of a normal lifestyle leads to fluid loss in excess of the volume ingested or is associated with poor hydration status. Therefore, there would appear to be no clear basis for refraining from caffeine containing drinks in situations where fluid balance might be compromised.

I drink a fair bit of water as I tend to have a higher salt intake, and I exercise.

Mellor

rubadub wrote: »

Actually this is sort of a myth, well a misunderstanding, a hospital study was supposed to say people needed ~2L of fluid per day and people misinterpreted this as meaning water,

Even things like soft drink would count toward a fluid requirment. Obviously its a bad idea to get all your fluid from coke, but strictly speaking your body with still use it.
I drink a bit of water, but mostly cos it would be my drink of choice with food.

EileenG

Even alcoholic drinks like wine and beer count. Though I wouldn't base my fluid intake on them if you want to keep your job. But any drink with enough liquid counts, even soup.

Back a couple of centuries ago, the water wasn't great and needed a lot of filtering before it was possible to drink it. So the regular drink was "small beer". Servants had a daily allowance of 8 pints a day. Before you start getting excited, it was only about 1% alcohol. But it was still safer and cleaner than water.

moonage

EileenG wrote: »

Even alcoholic drinks like wine and beer count.

I don't think alcoholic drinks count. While they might have an immediate hydrating effect, in the longer term they cause dehydration.

This wouldn't apply to very weak drink, like the 1% beer you mention.

EileenG

Depends on the alcohol percentage (shots don't count, obviously) but low percentages definitely count. There's a reason people have to pee after drinking a lot of beer.

FTGFOP

EileenG wrote: »

There's a reason people have to pee after drinking a lot of beer.

But is it because they're excessively hydrated, affected by a diuretic, or a combination of both?

What's with the delayed reaction of dehydration the next day anyway? Is ethanol a diuretic? Its metabolites? Why does one wake up like a raisin after a session? Is it because the ethanol lingers in your body long after you stop drinking*?


*(so that the diuretic effect is no longer offset by the nett hydration of beer)

EileenG

There is a hydration effect. The after effects of too much beer are not just due to dehydration, it's also about the effect of all the alcohol and the other chemicals in the beer. Otherwise you could drink as much as you like as long as you drank water as well.

FTGFOP

Yeah, but I was wondering how, if there isn't an overall (long-term) dehydrating effect, why you wake up so dehydrated? ...but maybe I should stop dragging this thread off topic...