To wonder what is wrong with people who don't really drink

Having had my thyroid removed and my right lymph node removed due to cancer.Need something to wash down food while eating.

I have had a gastric sleeve which means I can’t drink while I eat as it can make food “slide” down too easy and make you eat more. In my house the only drink options are water, tea, coffee and orange squash. No one else drinks anything else and unless we are expecting guests I won’t buy anything else!!

I hardly ever get thirsty and have to remind myself to drink but I do offer people who visit a drink.

Well I don’t really get thirsty tbh, I drink when I want something but prob not enough. I also don’t drink tea coffee or take milk so it doesn’t always occcur to me to ask people but I’ve got better at it. And i do have stuff in for other people in house but they need to tell me if milk is done as it don’t notice tbh

Usually tea or coffee though. I don't get juices and squashes in unless I'm expecting children and even then it's a minefield as I was told a certain child likes lemonade, but there was a language barrier and it turns out he doesn't like any fizzy drinks. I don't think a host is expected to have all the different kinds of drinks a guest might want.

Yes, but some habits come from the climate was my point.
In any case, there is always water on the table in France too, but you have to pay for it in Belgium.
I do agree that water should be provided to guests, but these people obviously live in a strange situation for western countries where they don't have drinking water.
OP is actually expecting fizzy drinks and juices too though it seems, and certain types of water.

Not in the winter. Where I was - in the north, near the Alps - it was actually colder in the winter and not that much warmer in the summer.

So, they live in a house with no potable drinking water? I don't believe you.

Do they never make tea or coffee, or drink anything at all in the house?
Do they have electricity, mains gas?

It's strange not to offer guests a drink if entertaining

2-3l a day isn’t the recommendation though. There was a scientific paper which said the body needed 2l on average, but that the majority of that would come from food. If you want more, have it, but you really don’t need it.

They don't always, do they? Depends on the restaurant, depends on the country.
As others have mentioned, drinking with food isn't necessarily good for digestion.
In any case, OP is complaining about the lack of NICE drinks, whatever that means and also seems to want ICE water, which is not what you'd get in many restaurants anyway.

It's a hotter country, at least in the summer, so more water is needed.

"Comedycook · Yesterday 08:25
Yes. It is totally weird to me to not have any soft drinks at all in the house. I don't like fizzy drinks...but I like juices, smoothies, squash, cordials. I honestly cannot imagine having nothing to drink in the house except tap water."

I don't have any of that stuff in my home on a permanent basis. There is tap water (and a filter because it's extremely hard here), tea bags and coffee sachets. The other stuff are extras and treats that I may buy when I'm out and about. At the moment I do have a bit of tonic water in, but it's not regularly there.
I wouldn't know where to start buying this kind of thing for guests because people like different things and I've got it wrong in the past. Taste for fizzy drinks and juices is quite personal.

You don't need to be drinking water constantly like that.
I dislike going out in a group and having to order water for the table because I live in a country where tap water isn't offered and I resent having to pay for water. If I'm paying, I'd prefer wine, thanks. I'll have some water when I get home.

So why not organise that for yourself?

But OP claims to be incredibly thirsty. Surely in those circumstances you'd drink the "not great" (but safe) water?

All these replies are very uk centred (obviously nothing wrong with that), but I lived in Italy for years and there would ALWAYS be water on table and people would always be aware of staying hydrated. This was back in the 1980s, absolutely nothing to do with marketing campaigns by bottled water companies, just people aware of their health.

I think most people would agree that the Italian diet is healthy, and I have certainly never heard of anyone over there struggling because of their high fluid intake 🙄

I would drink a lot of tea in your house, We have squash/cordials and non alco fizzy drinks (drunk fairly sparingly). I can cope with water but don't like it much.

@OptimismvsRealism are the people you are staying with elderly? Maybe they don't want to keep having to get up in the night to use the loo, and that is why they restrict fluid intake in the evening.

Do you not drink tea or coffee?

Im beginning to wonder if this is another one of those threads to keep you hanging for the next installment..

If op ha been able to buy elderflower etc op could have bought some large bottles of water.

If op is staying with these people she could have asked what to do to the water to make it safe and done that.

All very odd.

LemonandLimeCake

You've somehow got yourself staying with friends (?) who don't drink much. The water (we assume) has to be boiled first as it's from a well.

This is what really puzzles me.
@OptimismvsRealism knows these people well enough to stay with for an unspecified length of time but - forgive me if I've misunderstood, OP - doesn't seem to like them particularly. Also didn't know they only have chemically treated well water to drink and doesn't feel able to tell them she's thirsty and is going to get some drinks that she likes in.
I don't understand why they'd be put out if the OP went and got some drinks - instead she's having to smuggle them into the house!
Why on earth are you staying there, OP?

Also, just as a by-the-by, I would always take a gift for someone hosting me for dinner, let alone having me to stay overnight!
And, no, drinks for me wouldn't count as a gift - that would be separate.

no one is asking me?

This thread is very specifically asking me!

I am not "so passionate" about drinking water in particular, I do think it is mostly harmless.

• I am however a biologist and educationist, and am very interested in how unscientific myths take hold in the population and become "accepted" - and advertising and very poor "science" from bottled water industry is the source of this one. Another example is very warped research from the sugar industry is the source of the myth that saturated fat is bad for you- and this myth has killed millions

So it is the mechanism of the origin and spread of the lie that is of interest to me, rather than this lie in particular

@OptimismvsRealism I think you've got to accept that there are a few different things going on here and your subject line is slightly ambiguous.

The point is

• You've somehow got yourself staying with friends (?) who don't drink much. The water (we assume) has to be boiled first as it's from a well.
• You want more to drink than they do. Your options are to boil the water and chill it or go out and buy water.

The not drinking with a meal is just your own preference.
I think it's partly generational. There is nothing 'wrong' in not drinking with a meal.

When I was a child in the 50s and 60s, not everyone drank with a meal. It wasn't a 'thing' to do.

People would drink over the day of course, but glasses of water or squash or whatever were not automatically placed on the table with the food.

Neither did people carry water everywhere with them like now. (A fad created by the manufacturers of bottled water or canned drinks.)

I rarely drink with meals now. Sometimes I might have a glass of water, sometimes not. What's important is to have around 1.5 litres over the day.
It doesn't matter a jot if that's with a meal or an hour before or after it.

Your mindset sounds quite 'fixed' to be blunt. Do you have this intolerance to other people's behaviour in other ways ?

You sound pretty upset yourself