To really swear by drinking water ?

I am aiming for 1l a day. Have a bottle with markings . Plus tea and apple juice. Thsi is a huge improvement from zero litres a day. I have frequent UTIs and constipation which contributes.

Haven't noticed any benefits yet (weeing in the night can get knotted).

I just don't like water and love tea so when thirsty I have tea. So I am struggling. I'm old enough to think drinking water is newfangled!

This.

The whole "keeping hydrated" thing was invented by one of the American manufacturers of "sports drinks".

Yes, you can get dehydrated if you ignore your thirst. But otherwise it's just going in and straight out.

I think that a lot of people also imagine that they are "flushing out toxins", like their body is a can of soup and they are rinsing the inside before putting it in the recycling. But your liver and kidneys do a great job of "detoxing" all by themselves, and if you drink enough you can end up flushing out your electrolytes.

No amount of water drinking is going to make you lose weight unless your goal is to fill your stomach with water until you feel sick instead of hungry. You can assess your level of hydration by looking at the colour of your pee: straw coloured = fine, dark yellow = have a drink. I drink when thirsty and the only time I exceed this is when the weather is hot or I'm unwell.

I agree 100%, drinking a fair bit of water every day is important and I have done that for many years. Yes, we are fortunate to have so much water, I can't imagine being without it.

Studies have shown that drinking diet drinks, especially while eating, causes people to over eat and consume more calories in total than people who drink the sugar version of the drink. Sweeteners have also been found to cause a negative effect on gut bacteria. It's not the worst thing in the world but it's certainly not harmless.

You do know that naturally filtered water will be filtered through rocks containing naturally occurring chemicals such as arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium. It doesn't necessarily have to be a negative effect though, for example, lithium is routinely used in psychiatric medicine. Schrauzer & Shrestha (1990) reported that the average incidence rates of suicide and violence (i.e. homicide and rape) in 27 counties of Texas, USA, over a 10-year period were consistently lower in counties with relatively high natural lithium levels in the drinking water compared with those with medium or low levels.
When was your water last tested?

Haha OP you’ll love thread [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5233459-water-water-everywhere-but-no-real-need-for-it-why-do-people-not-believe-this www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5233459-water-water-everywhere-but-no-real-need-for-it-why-do-people-not-believe-this]]]] absolutely bonkers! I agree with you!

yes so true, especially while people get older the thirst disappear, so people need to drink for the sake of it not because they feel thirsty.

I try but I really don’t like drinking water.

I really like rooibos tea so maybe will try to drink more of that.

I feel a lot better when I wake now I’m drinking more water. Used to feel a bit groggy & headachy, like I was a bit hungover. Thought it couldn’t be dehydration as I always have a mug of herbal tea before bed, but turns out I wasn’t drinking enough fluids throughout the day.

I like roibos tea, but I need to use 2tea bags per cup, find it quite weak otherwise.
I sometimes drink it with a bit of milk too.

My mum never drank water and nearly died from horrendous kidney stones a few years ago

@Catza, some people don’t have much of a thirst thing - my (otherwise entirely normal!) dh doesn’t - I’m sure his brain interprets thirst as hunger. I so often used to tell him that he didn’t drink enough. Of course he took no notice, until he ended up once in A&E, and later actually in hospital, directly because of it.
Once the medics told him very firmly that he must drink more, he now makes a point of it.

It does make a difference, my husband and I go hiking every year to places thar are quite remote with no facilities, have to carry everything on our backs for a week or more, and we just drink water of course, usually from streams if its safe. Our skin is always amazing when we finish 😅 and we feel so good inside and out, the nature and exercise helps of course alongside.

I prefer bottled or filtered water even in hot drinks
I’m not a huge tea drinker so often at work have hot water with a splash of lemon
my top tip is to always have water bottle in car and by side of bed, on desk etc - if it’s there I will drink it

Diet coke is 2 calories per can. Added caffeine helps to suppress appetite. Switching to water will not do anything of substance, I'm afraid.
Health... it depends on how we define "health" doesn't it? Diet Coke won't damage your organs, won't cause cancer or anything like that (despite the whole aspartame hype, there is little evidence of it being harmful in the doses that a human typically consume. From memory, you will need to drink 56 cans of pop a day to elevate the risks of adverse effects of aspartame). So, unless, there is a different definition of "health" you have in mind, I am not aware of any substantial data that would point to damaging it.

I thought I drank a lot of water but turned out it was hardly anything. The first day I drank 2 litres I felt like I had taken something because the mental clarity I had was amazing. I joke it was like Scarlett Johansson in that film where she ingested those drugs and can do things with her mind. It was insane.

Sorry, I wasn’t implying your mum has dementia. I just know of the jelly drops because my mum did have dementia and thought they are a good way of sneaking in liquid to stubborn old people! 😁

My Dm had dementia. Hardly any of the residents (all dementia) would drink plain water, so as well as tea/coffee they gave them several small glasses of weak squash throughout the day. Plus quite a lot of ‘wet’ food, e.g. soup, stewed fruit and custard, etc.

Cut out tea and coffee about 5-6 months ago, drinking 3ltrs of diluted juice, don't like plain water. I was dehydrated before and I couldn't lose weight - noticed a massive difference and less migraines.

I've always drunk water. Luckily I just don't like sugary drinks. I can feel it when I haven't had enough water.
We are so lucky to have easy access to good clean water, and where I live it's lovely and soft as well.

Are you sure drinking water instead of Diet Coke wouldn’t make a difference in terms of your health and weight? Genuine question as I might be wrong and happy to have it pointed out if I am.