It’s never made sense to me that some people refuse to drink water even if they know it keeps you functioning properly. The same people will complain of constipation or dry skin but don’t want to do the thing that fixes their issues.
Basically they’re people who got caught in the food industries propaganda.
They might consciously know they need regular water, but their body is now craving sugar with every sip. If it’s missing, it feels wrong.
Sugar needs to be much more regulated, especially for kids… Adults may be responsible enough to handle it but without regulation the industry will run wild and make everyone addicted.
As a counterpoint, I don’t replace water with anything sugary/flavored. I just… don’t get thirsty, like ever, unless I’m working outside in hot weather. Most people’s bodies remind them to drink. Mine doesn’t. I try to remember to drink water throughout the day rather than just at mealtimes, but if I don’t have a glass next to me, I will almost certainly forget. I feel like I can’t be the only person like this.
Perchance do you have autism and/or ADHD? I ask because I experience the same thing as you do, and for me, it feels like it derives from my autism/ADHD. Like, sometimes the first cue that I am severely dehydrated is that I get a headache. I get a similar thing with hunger, where I could legitimately go for multiple days without noticing I’m hungry if I don’t get reminded that food is a thing.
Hmm, interesting point. Thanks for sharing.
The food industry’s propaganda is that you need to drink 2 litres of water a day. You don’t.
In 1974 the book Nutrition for Good Health, co-authored by nutritionists Margaret McWilliams and Frederick Stare, recommended that the average adult consumes between six to eight glasses of water a day. But, the authors wrote, this can include fruit and veg, caffeinated and soft drinks, even beer.
I worked with someone who would never drink water. It was weird to me. I always preferred water because as a kid it was free at all schools I went to, allowing me to save half of my allowance. As an adult it still cheaper and very low calorie, practically zero calories.
It’s not “practically zero”, it’s zero.
To be fair, while drinking water is great and everyone should have an adequate fluid intake (if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated), water is not a guaranteed cure for constipation. I was in Paris for a week back in April and the only thing that helped me was taking a ducolax, my digestive system needed a reset after that long international flight and eating different food for a few days.
Drinking water obviously isn’t the cure for constipation, it’s to prevent constipation caused by dehydration. There are of course other causes of constipation.
I was in Paris for a week back in April and the only thing that helped me was taking a ducolax
tbf, drinking the water in Paris is probably what gave you constipation.
I think it was probably more likely the intestinal compression from the cabin pressure of the airplane.
As long as you didn’t go swimming in the Seine.
They have rabies perhaps
Ive seen people who grew up with flavored drinks because the parents were basically lazy or something and now as adults are simply conditioned to not drink anything without artificial flavor because to them artificial flavor is the normal baseline
I wondered this for a long while, but I’ve realized that I’m in a pretty privileged position. Where I live (the Netherlands) the tap water is not only drinkable, it’s actually almost indistinguishable from mineral water. Certainly for me at least. I’m not much of a traveller, but when I was in Oostende in Belgium I remember the tap water was absolutely vile. It was (or at least tasted like) desalinated seawater. Instead of hydrating and refreshing it tasted stale and salty. If that was the only water I knew I probably would be drinking more refreshing stuff like ice tea or cola all day as well. When I got back to the Netherlands my first glass of tap water tasted like heaven.
water? like out of the toilet??
Fish fuck in water.
“Because I’m not poor! I got all the water I need from food”.
My boomer dad, constantly suffering from health issues because of poor hydration. Does not help that the only liquids he consumes are beer and wine.
That’s the thing, though. People need about 2 litres of fluid a day, and most of that comes from their food.
Maybe if you gave him a wet food diet, like a cat or something.
Water? That’s where fish fuck in.
That was way funnier before you got morbidly obese.
My friend from work doesn’t drink water. Like. At all. She drinks Diet coke like all day. She’s in her 50’s and has a ton of health issues. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
That is insane to me.
Same, you offer me a Coca-Cola or a glace of tap water, I go with water any time. Cola will just make me more thirsty and my mouth will taste unpleasant sugary for hours. It’s just isn’t nice.
If you only drink sugary drinks, water doesn’t taste all that great in comparison.
They have acid reflux and it makes water taste like vomit
Funnily enough, I had a bit of acid reflux this morning (I don’t normally but oh well) and I’m drinking water right now lol
This is my problem. Water aggravates the reflex as well. Three sips of water and instant heartburn. Plenty other liquids dont do that to me.
It tastes gross
It was probably the last thing to change as I got older but for most of my life I hated to drink water cause it all tasted bad to me
iron and sulfur compounds in tap water, or even some more “neutral” ones that are even in bottled water (like carbonates and magnesium), can have a really revolting taste to people who are sensitive to them
I have a friend who is so sensitive to sulfur that she had to rinse her drinking cups with filtered water before using them, just to remove the traces left by washing with tap water from the area we lived in
don’t let anyone tell you you’re crazy or overreacting. also, give distilled water a try. no, it’s not bad for you like people say–your highly acidic stomach is perfectly capable of handling the osmotic shift when drinking distilled.
I grew up on well water that smelled like sulfur and was sometimes unsafe to drink.
The water fountains at school were HEAVILY chlorinated.
Water just wasn’t really an option growing up or if it was you had to mask the taste with Koolaid or something.
I don’t crave it. I’m not in the habit of drinking plain water. I have a zero water system now and I drink it a lot more but some people either have an access issue or never developed the habit due to similar factors as me.
I can stand carbonated water and hate plain water. When I was a kid, my family wouldn’t drink water but other beverages.
My kids (17 and 20 now) grew up with drinking water at home. Water was the thing to drink if you are thirsty, everything else was allowed but “something special” like a sweet. Going to a restaurant also was special, they could choose what they like.
While I still struggle with water - I manage, but I still drink sugar free soda as well, my adult kids can’t understand how I like that sweet stuff all the time.
So I firmly believe your preference is what you grew up with. You can change it, but it takes effort.
I only recently found out I have literal bad technique when it comes to drinking fluids, end up inadvertently swallowing too much air which makes it an unpleasant experience. Combined with ADHD and I’m a poster child for dehydration. Not that I experience much issues, but my skin is definitely dry.
wait, i might have this problem. would you be able to describe or link to a guide on fixing it?
Lol, I wish. As far as I know, this isn’t a well documented thing, my PCP was kinda like, “huh, that’s interesting, I wonder how many people are dehydrated because of that.”
The only reason I discovered this is cuz my girlfriend knows me very very well and she suspected there was something off. So she asked me probing questions until we discovered I’m literally drinking incorrectly.
So the best I can do is give you a couple of different ways to drink and see if you notice any difference in how easy or difficult it is to comfortably drink without ingesting air.
So first thing we did was have me drink from a bottle. Any bottle where you can form a full seal around the opening with your mouth. Tilt back and let the fluid fill your mouth as much as possible before starting to swallow. That should mean a very minimal amount of air in the first gulp, and no additional air in each subsequent gulp because it’s sealed.
Contrast that with drinking from a normal glass, and you may find that you’re gulping down air as you’re drinking with each gulp. In that case, a straw will probably prevent you from doing that.
But really drinking from a bottle really illustrated the mechanical difference to me and made me realize my hatred for drinking was definitely born of a physical discomfort which was ultimately from a poor technique.
And after I thought about it, I was like ya know, no one really ever taught us how to drink did they? We all just figure it out, and assume we all learned the same lessons.
This might have all been the biggest factor in me never really being into drinking alcohol, because the very concept always sounded like a chore to me.
Anyway, I hope that helps!
What about drinking with a straw?
I did briefly mention that, yes, straws definitely help! I would recommend them.