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

[OptimismvsRealism]

No - not alcohol

Just liquid

People who can sit down to a meal without so much as a glass of water

People who invite guests to stay but have nothing to offer them to drink oh and you'd have to boil the tapwater haha

I can't sleep from thinking about this

Not drinking with a meal is wrong and mad hth

Hahahaha god I love Mumsnet lately. So bonkers. I never knew so many people could get so passionate about so many different minor matters 😄

If it was really that bizarre to want a drink with your meal why would restaurants etc always bring free tap water? 😵‍💫

😂😂😂 I am honestly gobsmacked 😂

Genuinely everyone I know takes a water bottle with them wherever they go. Babies sucking on dummies 😂

I don’t really drink and I’m a runner and work in a really active job. Most non running days I have a cup of coffee and a cup of tea at the start of the day and dont drink again until I have a cup of tea or 2 in the evening, some days at work I am in site walking up and down big hills all day long and I never take a drink with me unless it’s hot. If I’m running/exercising I will have a drink of water before I leave the house and unless it’s a particularly long run i won’t drink again during or after as I just don’t feel thirsty so I forget!

I do get bad headaches and dry eyes though so my body does get dehydrated, clearly I need the water i just don’t get thirsty for some reason!

why does everyone you know take a bottle of water with them everywhere they go?

Because the big international bottled water companies have played a clever advertising trick on them. Many people drink far more water than they need now, which is mostly harmless, in itself. Although as a PP pointed out, water overdose can be life threatening, the biggest danger is stomach upsets from bacteria in the water bottles. And of course, the inconvenience of needing to go to the toilet more often, as your body deals with the excess of water. ( And this is a massive inconvenience in schools, where many children are constantly drinking far too much water)

But why was this advertising trick so successful? Psychologists have theorised that it is to do with the instinct for oral comfort, like sucking your thumb, or a baby sucking a dummy.

I don't carry a water bottle, and never have, and never will. I run marathons without carrying a water bottle. I come from the generation BEFORE bottled water was pushed in your face so much. We used to have a drink of water after breakfast, and after tea in the evening. There was supposed to be water available at school lunches, but there wasn't always. There would be drinks available if it was very hot, or if we were doing something extra strenuous, hiking up a mountain, or something. In other words, if it was likely to actually be necessary.

These friends/ relatives aren't hospitable at all but why can't you just say you need to drink more as you get headaches and buy a supply for your stay?
Personally I'd be lost without my pints of coffee, so I'd take my mug with me

My mother once she hit 60 decided that drinking (any liquids) with food isn’t good for her health and assumes everyone should do it so doesn’t offer drinks to others 🤦🏻‍♀️
before that I remember her carrying a water bottle everywhere; since she hit 60 I barely see her drinking anything.

I think it is madder to have a problem with people not drinking, they are not asking your permission

Wow, why so passionate? Why write a massive reply like that? Genuinely interested in why you’re so offended by people hydrating 😄 no one is asking you to.

It’s nothing to do with marketing. Weird how you’re insinuating those who drink lots are so foolishly susceptible to marketing. It’s not bought bottled water.

You run your marathons, I’ll continue to be a brilliantly hydrated successful singer in a circle of other wonderful, hydrated singers and we’ll both be happy yeah?

You sound pretty upset yourself

@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 ?

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

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.

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.

@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?

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.

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 🙄

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

So why not organise that for yourself?

I don't think water you have to boil is safe.

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.

"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.

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

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.

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.