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

Cantaloupe melon. Much nicer than a glass of water 😁

Despite the constant propaganda from bottled water companies, the human body is evolved to retain water pretty well. So no one actually needs to go round clutching evian bottles, guzzle water constantly, or even worse spend hard earned cash on those fraudulent bottled waters that claim to make you smarter or infuse you full of vitamins.

Fruit and veg contains tonnes of water. So if you have a healthy diet, you'll get plenty of hydration from that source too.

The idea that we all need to guzzle water at every conceivable moment is a marketing con designed to part us from our £££ and literally piss it down the drain.

Yes, but the OP was about people who don't drink, not just with meals.

I drink water from my own well (pumped by electricity into the taps), unboiled, tea, herbal tea, wine, usually diluted with said well water, cocoa, milk. If I'm off alcohol (Lent and November) I'll have some tomato juice as a treat. Don't have soft drinks. But certainly get through the recommended 2 litres a day, usually more.

My mother, who grew up when the well water had to be carried in buckets the half mile from the well, drank the same sort of mixture of stuff, but less than I do, and did have a tendency to constipation - particularly earlier in her adult life. She managed to convert to an increased liquid intake from her 60s on and was much more comfortable.

OP is so rural that the property only has undrinkable well water, but has still managed to do a Waitrose run for juice.

Loads of older people and kids are constipated so the suggestion that they get enough water from meals probably really isn’t true because we do not eat well in our culture.

I looked up stats and it said 1 in 7 adults and 1 in 3 kids are constipated in the U.K. it’s much worse over 60 and this sounds about right from everyone’s parents comments about how they don’t drink much

I can't believe this is real. If it is why on earth didn't you take a 6-pack of Evian or something similar when you went to stay. Especially if you knew water was a problem. Nobody would be offended. I always take bottled water with me as I find water in certain areas of England can affect my stomach.

I never drink any liquid with my food. I just have a little bit of water in between my meals as and when I am thirsty. No need to have a drink unless you are thirsty.

I'm old enough that in primary school (in England) we got our 1/3 pint of milk in school (which I liked), good lunches with a glass at each place setting (it wasn't cafeteria style) and a big jug of water on the table, and a water fountain that got plenty of use. The post-war effort to improve the nation's health through teaching children good food habits was still going strong.

I'm the same, also have a dry mouth and throat as a side effect of medication, and a tendency for food to go down the wrong way if I'm not careful how I swallow. (The latter is something I've had all my life and just seems to be the way I'm made, in my case I'm not sure it's psychological.)

Similarly my mum has Barrett's oesophagus which causes her major difficulties with swallowing and she needs a lot of liquid to wash her food down.

Why don't you take control of this and be a bit more assertive @OptimismvsRealism ?

If these are friends (and surely they are), can't you just say ,

"Look, I know you don't like to drink much after 4pm but I need to. I'll pop out to buy some bottled water."

OR if that's too much of a big deal for you, just put the bloody kettle on, boil the water and put some in a jug in the fridge.

You sound quite immature to be honest.
Take control of this .

I have a kidney issue so need to drink alot, much more than average, so I do. But I never drink with food. Just feels uncomfortable to me.

No I think she said she'd put in a Waitrose order for when she came home?

So true. Honestly, so much othering goes on on this forum when some people encounter behaviours different from theirs. The number of times the word 'weird' has been used on this thread is depressing. It's lazy thinking. So much narrow-mindedness. I wouldn't have thought it was difficult to grasp that people are different and have different preferences and requirements, but it seems beyond the reach of some on Mumsnet.

No, she's done an online Waitrose shop for when she gets back.

I agree with OP that I would feel awful if I didn't have access to drinking water. I was reading a book where someone was sleeping at a cottage and didn't realise until the morning that she had to fetch water from a well, and I couldn't believe she'd spent all night without a drink! I have to have a glass of water by my bed and I always have a glass or bottle of water by my side. No, it's not marketing - I drink tap water from a refillable bottle - I just feel so thirsty and dry when I don't have water nearby. Thinking about eating without water makes my mouth feel all claggy and gross!

Why are you being such a wet lettuce about it? Just go to the bloody shop, as if anyone would be offended by you needing a drink.

You really are being a drama queen.

If you want a drink that much, you'd boil some water and put it in the fridge in a jug.

And maybe don't stay with this family again.
You're clearly on different wave lengths.

^ Yes, all of this. ^

The human body needs a bit over a litre of water per day (except when sweating in hot weather). But it will extract all of the water it can from food. Nobody needs to drink an extra 1.5 litres of water, let alone "sports/hydration" drinks (aka pop with a bit of salt in it).

Evolution gave us a mechanism for knowing when to "hydrate" ourselves. It's called thirst. As nobody reading this is very likely to be unable to get to a source of drinkable water for several hours, there is no need to "preload" (and you would pee most of it out anyway).

A few years ago there was a case of quite a famous actor who collapsed from drinking 5 litres or more of water every day. Turned out that he was basically washing all the electrolytes from his body. Of course, the hydration industry has a solution for that: electrolyte supplements. 🙄

Perhaps they can't afford to get drinks in because they're saving up for their old age. Just a theory.

Old people get constipated because the gastroenteric muscles atrophy with age, like all muscles.

Kids can get constipated especially young kids because they don't always respond promptly to poo cues.

let alone "sports/hydration" drinks

Honestly, I roll my eyes when my teenager starts blathering on about this, and he gets a good dose of "in my day, it was called drinking".

"You need to hydrate and fuel" is just a wanky way of saying you need to eat and drink, which is hardly a ground breaking new scientific revelation!

I honestly don't know how people can be defending this? I find it so bizarre visiting people that aren't constantly pressing drinks and snacks and just ultimately wanting you to be comfortable?

I remember being invited out for a meal with friends and her parents (I was about 11) and they had one drink each for the entire meal. Luckily, I had orange juice as a starter (remember when that was a thing?!) so I was ok, but still. Couldn't believe they weren't parched.

and PS I'm always the one baffled at the massive water bottles kids take to school these days - I just can't fathom it with guests?!

If they're that hard up they really shouldn't be hosting someone should they. What with all the wanton water used for additional washing, possible heating costs as well? A bottle of squash is about £2 for crying out loud.

A 95 year old chap who still ran half marathons for charity told us that his secret for health was not drinking for half an hour either side of eating as it dilutes the stomach acid.

I didn't drink all day when I was at school because I thought that the Pyrex glasses they used at lunchtime smelled dirty. We weren't allowed to slurp whenever we fancied and we weren't allowed to go to the loo until break times.

When people drink while they are actively chewing/have food in their mouths, makes me feel queasy. Reminds me of the 'spit back' in the huge, old pop bottles, of water that were passed around when we went out playing for the day during the school holidays - with an old bread bag containing half a jam sandwich each. We used to have to be home before dark. I didn't drink all day then either. 🤢

Can't get through the night without a drink now. The pint of water which I take to bed every night is gone before morning. Probably making up for a dry childhood.

I admit it would never occur to me to offer a guest snacks or fruit juice. Never have the latter in the house (tomato juice excepted, and that quite rarely as a pre-dinner thing) and eat three meals a day. I suppose I'd put some kind of biscuit out if I was offering tea or coffee.

I do have a hot drink mid-morning, but don't eat anything with it. Tap/well water with meals, carafe of tap/well water beside the bed. Lots and lots of Barry's tea which I enjoy as much cool as hot.

I think the more water you drink the more your body craves/ needs it. As a child in our house we lived on milk/ orange juice/ tea / sometimes 7up and only started drinking water as a drink when they started announcing the 2l thing. My mum always says the worst thing she ever did was getting herself reliant on a certain amount of water a day and I do agree, if I don’t drink enough water my body practically shrivels up, made worse by our disgusting tap water (filtered but still disgusting!)