A Serious Question About Water, Soda And Tea?

Question

We all know that drinking a lot of water is very good for you.

But what about some people who hate the taste of basic water? Like my daughter. She drinks gallons of soda (diet) or tea and sometimes juice. She claims soda and tea are basically flavored water and drinking these gives you more than your share of the water your body needs.

I'm wondering how valid this claim is? Does the caffeine and other ingredients in soda and tea alter the chemistry of the water in that beverage enough to somehow negate the positive effects of the water in the drink?

Thank you all for your replies. I was pretty sure she was wrong before I asked the question but now I have this long list of replies to print out and e-mail her.

(By the way, she's a little too big to be spanking. She's in her early twenties.)

Answer 1

Don't let your daughter tell you that ****. If she was my daughter she would have a red *** right now. You should let your daughter know who is the boss.

Tea and Soda contain caffeine and sugar, both of which cause your body to use water to flush your system. Thus she isn't getting the water. She is just peeing it out. Who cares if she doesn't like water, make her drink it anyway. WTF wrong with you were your parents hippies or something.

Answer 2

Drinking too much soda can be very bad for you. The caffeine can over stimulate your heart if you drink too much. It can make you jumpy, nervous and cause you to be exhausted after the caffeine wears off. It is addictive and you will need to have it to "get your motor running" in the morning. When it wears off you can get a horrible headache. It will also make you very moody.

Tea is not as bad because the caffeine is much less. However she should never drink tea from an aluminum can as this has been found to be a health hazard.

Juice is good, but for the calories involved it would be better to eat the fruit instead.

She could squeeze a slice of lemon or lime into her water to "kill the taste". She is probably getting enough water. There is a lot of water in the foods we eat, especially fruits and vegetables.

Another thing out now is "flavored waters" zero carbs, zero calories and a pleasant taste.

See if you can help her taper off some on the sodas. Athletes do not ever drink sodas to hydrate themselves, because caffeine is a diuretic and does not hydrate you.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Water is indeed great, but diet soda is not. It isn't just basically flavoured water, as she will find if she the list of ingredients. Diet soda has a lot of other things in it, which are not necessarily bad in moderation, but drinking gallon upon gallon of it is probably not good. Commercial tea is the same way, as it contains a plethora of additives. If one brews the tea onself (I don't mean growing the tea, necessarily, but using teabags that don't have anything but tea in them), then that's just as healthy, maybe even healthier than water. Tea is not a substitute for water, as it's still vital to drink water, but it's certainly ok in moderation.

Answer 4

As a nurse who often has people tell me they don't like the taste of water, I usually encourage them to at least drink tea or juice, soda has alot of sodium. Although our bodies need sodium as an electrolyte, we often take in to much. Yes caffeine is found in most teas even decaf, and it does have adverse effects on the body at times.Here is a good article about water: http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=2381
Also remember even if you don't like the taste of water there is flavored water.

Answer 5

There are some great answers so far but your daughter needs to know that juice is not a good option. It is one of the fastest ways to get tons of sugar without a great nutritional payback. (Eating the fruit is not the same as drinking the juice. Your body metabolizes the sugar slowly as you chew and digest it, while juice floods your system with sugar.)

Your daughter doesn't like water because her taste buds are deadened and she feels everything must be sweetened. One can reprogram their taste buds but it takes a little time and making some changes. She would have to be motivated to do this.

Another option is to slightly flavor water with lemon. I'm not keen on plain water but I found if I kept bottled water with me I did sip it without thinking, similar to mindlessly nibbling peanuts.

Water, and not poor substitute water-wannabees is essential for good health. Your daughter needs to quit rationalizing and know the facts. What she does after that is her call.

Answer 6

Well diet soda is definitely not good for you, the link below will verify that. As far as Tea it depends on the type, caffeine free herbal teas may count as water but others can have a dehydrating effect. Juices are good all around if they are not sweetened.

Answer 7

Soda and ready made teas have huge sugar loads. They actually make dehydration worse. Juice has a lot of calories as well, but at least has valuable nutrients as well. If she doesn't like plain water, introduce her to flavored watere, Kool-Aid type drinks that YOU control the sugar in, and lemon- flavored water.

Answer 8

Tea is full of caffeine and sugar and pop is full of empty calories. The best thing to do is use lemon or lime to flavor the water,or put a dry drink mix in a container then you can monitor her fluid intake especially during the summer.

Answer 9

caffeine is a diuretic - it dehydrates you. Better to drink caffeine-free UNsweetened beverages. All those artificial ingredients are bad for anybody, especially if she's still growing!

I can't stand the taste (or lack thereof) of water either. Recently, I found these green tea drops at my local health food store -- no caffeine, no sugar, no artificial ingredients, plus the benefits of green tea. They're expensive, but the bottles last a while...
http://www.pureinventions.com/

Answer 10

Caffeine is a big problem especially for young women.
Caffeine has side effects such as decreasing bone density, and causing cyst formation to proliferate if you are at risk for cysts in the breasts and ovaries. I would think that preventing osteoporosis would be enough reason to avoid caffeine.. but apparently it isn't. You only really build up your bone denisty until you are 25, so I would encourage your daughter to rethink her choices. There are multiple flavored waters out there that taste pretty good.. Fruit h2o, or propel for instance.

Answer 11

Caffeine is a diuretic, and so it actually causes your body to lose water by increasing how much you pee out. It dehydrates you, it does NOT hydrate you. If she doesn't like the taste of water, sugar-free Kool Aid is a good option, as is Crystal Light, or diluted juice (1 part juice to 3 parts water). Straight juice has a LOT of sugar. Caffeine-free diet sodas, like Sprite, are okay, as is decaf or herbal tea.