• 0 Posts
  • 5 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 12th, 2023

help-circle


  • Respectfully, what on Earth are you talking about? OP has only indicated that they’re trying to be health-conscious by maintaining proper hydration - the weird “societal pressure” angle is being superimposed by you. As I alluded to in my previous comment, it’s easy to ignore mild dehydration and sometimes a conscious effort is needed to maintain optimal intake. “Drink when you’re thirsty” is fine in a vacuum, but to distill (no pun intended) hydration advice down to just that is to ignore how people work in real life.

    I don’t know why you’re bringing up hyponatremia. Water toxicity is exceedingly rare and one would need to consume an inordinate amount of water in short time before it becomes “unsafe.” You’re unnecessarily fearmongering and pushing misinformation when you don’t know what you’re talking about.

    Also, there’s no “water-pushing” conspiracy at play here. It’s just a reality that most people don’t consume as much water as they ideally should, and as a result people sometimes draw attention to that reality as a means of improving the general health of society.


  • OP, please don’t listen to this person. Most of this is terrible advice.

    To start, it’s still advisable to drink water through the day even if you’re getting some from your food intake. A typical diet will provide around 20% of the recommended daily amount - the rest needs to come from actual fluid intake. Even with a diet with a high proportion of fruits and vegetables, it doesn’t come close to meeting the ideal amount.

    Coffee and beer are not the same as the equivalent amount of pure water. Caffeine and ethanol both function as diuretics - that is, they promote urine production which in turn reduces your overall hydration. Ethanol is worse in this category to the extent that alcoholic drinks can actually dehydrate you. Caffeine has a more mild effect and is overall hydrating, but a cup of coffee still isn’t equivalent to a cup of water.

    Citrus fruits do help prevent kidney stone formation, but it’s primarily via a different mechanism involving the citrate found in those fruits/juices rather than the acidity itself. Not that this matters too much in practice, but I point this out due to the inclusion of “other acidic beverages” as an alternative.

    Chronic mild dehydration (generally) won’t kill you, but it will prevent your body from functioning at its best and can potentially cause issues with electrolyte imbalances, blood pH, and plenty else. You should aim to stay optimally hydrated as much as possible for the benefit of your overall health.

    “Drink when you’re thirsty” is the one solid piece of advice here. Your body has evolved cues like this over hundreds of millions in order to get you to take good care of it, and its best to listen to them as much as possible. That said: these cues only works when you’re cognizant of them, and it’s still important to be actively mindful and intermittently remind yourself to follow them, especially when you’re involved in tasks that would otherwise distract you from them.