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

well, this proves that whatever the issue is with you, it isn't thirst. Cos water would suffice if it was thirst.

Stop being so melodramatic. You are not being tortured. You say you are thirsty, but don't want the water available to you, so clearly not VERY thirsty!

That's appalling. Filthy British {?}tap water!!
Talking of Tap water, a water services van was handing out bottled water because the local supply was 'cloudy'- and they said UK tap water is held to HIGHER standards of safety than bottled water.

Occasionally one hears of issues with water supplies, but in UK we are lucky to have clean water on tap if we are on the mains.

I don't think there are any standards for this well. It'll be full of chemicals. And boiling won't fix that.

I’d personally hate to have a meal without a drink, but everyone is different

The "8 glasses" thing is nonsense.
Medical advice is to drink when you're thirsty and check that your urine remains a pale, straw colour - that will show if you're dehydrated or not.
And (despite mocking my mother about soup) we get a significant proportion of our water intake from food.

They must drink something surely?

I don't think it's childhood related. On the contrary I think it's partly generational - when I was a teenager in the 80s I remember everyone in my peer group and the magazines we read saying that drinking a lot of water was key to a clear skin, long before other benefits were much discussed, and I took up drinking lots of water and my mother constantly questioned this and assumed at least once per month that it meant I was ill! To be fair my skin has always been reasonably clear 😜

I think a compulsion to drink every few minutes developed in the last decade when people misinterpreted/ massively exaggerated the need for hydration in order to concentrate at school. Of course hydration is essential but it was carried way out of proportion to mean nobody should go even a few minutes without access to a drink, leading to children (teens especially) insisting on their right to drink constantly at school throughout lessons, debates on children being allowed soft drinks instead of water because of the ridiculous claims that certain children "couldn't" drink water (but somehow could drink ribena / squash or Fanta or orange juice) ... then of course all sorts of commercial interests pitched in selling "flavoured water", "sports water" etc partly because sales of sugary drinks reduced somewhat as people started trying to avoid so much sugar, and the industry needed to plug the revenue gap...

My mother thinks having had a cup of coffee at 8am with breakfast means someone couldn't possibly be dehydrated at 2pm, but I drink half liter/ pint glasses of water with meals and whenever I sit down (which to be fair isn't a lot because my work is not desk based and I'm out a lot in my free time, but I drink at least 3 liters of tap water per day, and my parents never drink tap water at all and never have).

My biggest bugbear is people who insist they can't drink good quality tap water, and expect bought bottled water - which especially if contained in plastic is generally worse quality than the tap water where I live.

Like most things actually the middle ground is the right place for most people - drink enough but don't get stressed at going an hour or three without drinking, that will do absolutely no harm at all if you were properly hydrated at the start - after all nobody drinks in their sleep!

You knew you were going somewhere you'd have to boil water, and obviously know them well enough to stay there, why didn't you take a bottle of water with you, you're being melodramatic.

Probably bottled water - In Victorian and earlier times, water was often unsafe {Cholera &c} so ''small beer'' was used as drink- one wonders how children managed.

The drinking fluid all through the day and then not do so one day can lead to drastic dehydration- I’ve witnessed this occurrence. Going from 5 litres to one pint and then having 4 glasses of wine was a hospital job and put on drip.

obviously the wine added to the dehydration, they were so confused. They’ve now been told to limit their fluid intake to 2/2.5 litres a day

Then place an oder for the drinks you desire before you go. Or have the guts to take drinks with you and explain to your hosts why you have done so.
And tell them that you've abused their hospitality by moaning about them on a public forum

this 8 glasses a day nonsense really is

I am very thirsty but lukewarm unclean be water will not satisfy my thirst

Whoever you’re staying with is either family or a good enough friend for you to visit and stay over so just be honest, you need a drink! Just tell them you’re thirsty and go to the shop and buy some bottled water to keep in the fridge. You’re being very melodramatic!

Well if you've got guests upstairs right now GO AND BUY THEM A NICE CARTON OF CRANBERRY JUICE WOULD U, SARAH

You need to leave this place of danger and torture immediately! Send us you 'whar 3 words' location and we will send moumtain rescue

Who is putting chemicals in the well?

and I suspect there is a strong link between the children that suck on manky water bottles all day and being off school with upset stomachs

8 glasses isn't nonsense, it's to make it easier for people to get enough fluid.
There must be some seriously crispy people here .

My DP were the same , drank about 4 coffees a day and constant headaches, constipation and utis plus moody

I always have a bottle of water on the go , filled from the tap.
All the sneery " baby dummy" people?
Have a drink,it might improve your mood

I need a drink with food, always have.
If I went to someone’s house, I’d want tea.

Sorry, what are you wittering about

I'd imagine there's nothing wrong with them. Because human beings managed to live for centuries without being permanently attached to a water bottle, religiously following a government edict as to how much fluid they should consume. The human brain is a remarkable thing that signals to us when we need to drink and people have successfully relied on that until comparatively recently. I'm sure there are soft benefits to consuming a prescribed amount, but people who choose not to are for the most part as healthy as those who do.

Or the water bottles with pop up straws 🤢

The only people I know who don’t drink much are all 70+. They drink tea or coffee but nothing else. One gets frequent urine infections and has been in hospital twice with kidney infections. He has been told numerous times to drink water but he just doesn’t. He doesn’t have dementia in case anyone reading suggests that it is just that this is how he has always lived and he is very resistant to change of any sort.
I don’t want to make sweeping generalisations about people over 70 btw, these are just the people I happen to know.
Personally I always have a drink with food partly because I worry about choking on something and partly because I like it.

It’s taken me well over 40 years to realise my 80 year old mother has almost never drunk anything other than tea, coffee and wine. It’s so weird, and yet she’s 80 so has seemingly not been too bad for her!