Why do some people hate drinking water?
from ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 18:27
https://lemm.ee/post/66920299
from ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 15 Jun 18:27
https://lemm.ee/post/66920299
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.
#nostupidquestions
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Some people don’t have access to decent tasting tap water and bottled water is expensive.
Tip: If your water tastes like chlorine, just fill a pitcher and put it in the fridge. Whatever chemicals they use will off gas overnight and it’ll taste great in the morning.
Most people IMHO. Most places I’ve been where they claim that the tap water is potable, it either tastes like public pool or swamp. Except for Galveston who somehow made it taste like both with residents believing “It’s OK”
My tap water is pretty good, too bad we can’t send taste over the internet
Where do you live, if you don’t mind me asking?
Southwestern NH
Looks like there are plenty of mountainous lakes, so that makes sense.
Yeah, we have a lot of those, and a lot of granite. Our water has some pretty nice minerals, the only downside is due to the granite some places have high radon levels so you have to check your local levels. But where I am that’s not an issue.
You should try it in Iceland. Tap water is so clean you practically ruin it by putting it in plastic.
Never been, but I’m sure their tap water is great for the same reason mine is: Plenty of mountainous lakes, and not that many people around them.
I generally don’t drink nk bottled water… It tastes… stale.
The water at my office smells like chlorine. It’s dreadful. I wouldn’t even use it to make coffee, I fill up a nalgene at home and bring that in. My home water is well water and tastes a tad high iron, just the way I like it. (HOA regularly tests the water and it’s always within legal limits, yay.)
I don’t know if offgassing is the reason the water tastes better when cooled overnight. I would do this with an enclosed bottle (no off-gassing possible) and it would taste equally better.
Definitely cooling it is an improvement, I always thought it tasted different due to how our mouth/taste buds responds to the dropping temperature.
If you have the money for it a water bottle with a filter (even just the carbon Brita ones) improve the taste immensely. I use an Epic water filter for everything and it makes nearly all water taste good*.
Also worth noting: don’t use a filtered water bottle for filtering water that has contaimints you are actually worried about consuming; none except for grayl actually match their claimed results with third party testing.
I installed a filter under our kitchen sink, with a separate small tap.
10/10 recommend this approach.
Yes chlorine is a very volatile chemical and dissipates quickly.
I grew up drinking well water that tastes amazing. When I moved from home I have found that every other water tastes horrid (with a few exceptions). I can drink bad water when it is really cold. I know drinking water is good for me, I do force myself to drink it, but no where near as much as that well water.
Have you considered getting a filter?
A filter does not improve the flavor, only changes it, and it removes TDS that help hydrate.
Guys, please stop downvoting the guy- well water contians more minerals and salts and things that give it it’s distinctive taste (and as someone that grew up with well water, lemme tell you, it can DEFINITELY have a taste- hell, a buddy of ours from school could barely drink it cause he said it tasted like blood- high in copper and iron I think?)
Filtering water makes it taste vastly LESS like well water! So if that’s what you’re going for/wanting, filtering is the worst thing you could do.
And yes, depending on well water, it may have more salts dissolved in it, which could help with hydration in the same way Gatorade does.
I’d still recommend a filter. It’s not just for drinking it straight but pasta, rice, soup and other boiling makes a huge difference.
Eating a spoon of rice and have it taste like sink water with carbs is not a good vibe. I want it to taste like rice or rice with minerals.
What do you think the filter is removing? It is getting rid of the minerals.
It is, along with other less desirable compounds like chlorine and PFAS depending on the filter.
Some people live or grew up in areas where the water source tastes weird or gross, so they might have a mental association of water with a negative quality. Some people remark that water is generally flavorless. I’ve heard this from other people on the spectrum. I prefer water with some kind of flavor. Water without a flavor is only satisfying on a hot day or if you’ve been working out. This is possibly a side effect of growing up with a high sugar diet where you expect everything to taste sweeter. So it might be attributed to the sugar industry’s “fat makes you fat, sugar is fine” lasting effect on the populace.
You are spot on. Water is absolutely not flavorless.
Fortunately I live in a place with high quality clean water, and on a warm day if I’m very thirsty, the taste of water is really really good, it clearly beats any soft drink IMO. I can even prefer it over a cold beer when I’m thirsty!
But even minor contaminants can make it taste way worse, if you live in a house with old plumbing, or if you can see buildup in the metal filter most taps have, the taste of your water is probably influenced by contamination besides Iron from the pipes. Good iron pipes are OK, but new synthetic pipes are better.
If I drink a carbonized mineral water, I can also most definitely taste the carbonation.
If the water smells like rainy weather or wet skin or in some other way smells off, it is probably contaminated. However the water can have a slight metallic smell because there are actually naturally occurring minerals in the water. BUT if your water is discolored, it is definitely contaminated, and drinking it can make you sick.
Our water is pretty high on calcium, but there is for instance also a small amount of lithium. Lower calcium water taste a bit sweeter, so natural water definitely exist that is even better than our water.
Remember always let the tap run for a short while before drinking from it.
If the water doesn’t taste good, it’s probably because it’s not good.
Sometimes discoloration of water is just it being full of air. My HOA’s backup water well is like that. It’s been tested and is fine to drink, but it’s incredibly cloudy until it’s sat for a few minutes.
Also, if you’re on well water get it tested. Even if it was fine when you moved in, things change. Maybe the new farm down the road’s fertilizer is leaking in to the ground water. You won’t know unless someone tests.
If it’s only air it just gets cloudy, not discolored.
It can be disolored from iron, and that’s not a health problem AFAIK.
I have never heard of anybody here in Denmark who has brown or cloudy tap water. That would simply not be considered acceptable.
Tap water here is always CRYSTAL clear, and generally higher quality than bottled water.
I don't think the cold water on a hot day is about flavor. Its just as flavorless as its ever been. Its neutral and you can't get away from that without flavoring it. Bad water can taste aweful but the best is just going to be neutral. We like the taste of acidic things for some reason. Not sure why. The cold water when hot is more a craving and if for some reason you can't get ice cold water but you can soda. Even if your not a soda drinker you may guzzle the icey drink.
This is just not true. When my wife’s family moved to my home state they all though that the water tasted “sweet”. Good tasting water definitely exists.
If i moved there I would get it tested to find out why it had that flavor. Pure distilled water that is only h2o definitely does not.
Sad for you, but just because you can’t taste it doesn’t change the fact that water actually has taste.
pure distilled water does not. if water with taste is water then great. I personally have a bad habit of drinking a particular flavor of water called soda.
I think many people simply prefer a tastier option than “flavorless.”
Once I bought a brita filtered pitcher that I keep in the fridge, it became easy to keep a water bottle around me and stay hydrated.
My water growing up had a weird taste so I didn’t drink water until I moved away.
Some people are addicted to sugar to the point where every beverage must be sweet flavoured.
I have water, but othertimes I am sugar addicted so I want a different beverage.
Also I have had tap water in various places across Canada. Most are decent, some are especially delicious, some have awful after tastes and even smell weird (sulfur or chlorine). If that stuff runs to your home I can understand why people prefer bottled water, tea or soda instead of tap water.
I can only add my own personal experience - generally I can only stomach water in small amounts. It just doesn’t go down as smoothly as other drinks (juice for me). It feels like my mouth/throat rejects it a tiny bit.
(for reference, I drink some filtered tap water after every cup of juice)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis
ITT: people with crumbling infrastructure under a corporate oligarchy discuss why they are unhealthy.
What would you suggest we do? Take precious profits away from stakeholders and repair shit? Sounds like communism to me buddy. Up against the wall.
Good thing access to clean drinking water isn’t a human right. Oh wait.
Luckily the US of A has a sneaky trick called not ratifying shit and refusing to be held to the same standard as “third world countries” while saying they are superior.
Seriously the US actually hasn’t ratified most of the treaties that govern how warfare or being a functioning society.
My husband hates drinking water because his parents only gave him water to drink when he was sick. Otherwise it was all juice and milk.
Where I’m at, the tap water not only tastes bad, it’ll also give you the flying shits for days, and beer is cheaper than bottled water…
These days, I mostly drink water. Growing up, however, I hated it. The area I lived in had very mineral-heavy water and it just tasted bad. Took years after moving away for me to even try drinking plain water again.
When I grew up I didn’t like drinking water. I thought it tasted bland compared to all the sugary drinks. Looking back, I think our family struggled with sugar addiction without knowing it. We consumed quite a lot of sugar in my childhood.
It wasn’t until my teenage years I questioned the amount of sugary drinks I consumed. So I just cut off all sugary drinks and embraced the way of the water.
Today I’m a proud water enjoyer.
Same but I didn’t turn around til my 20s. Educate yourself and your loved ones! Sugar is highly unnecessary, especially in liquid form!
This is the answer. People above are somehow blaming private corporations for their public infrastructure (which doesn’t even make sense anyway) when the real answer is that many people just think “it doesn’t taste good” compared to the syrupy swill they’ve become addicted to.
Growing up, I didn’t like water either because I didn’t like the taste. No one around me could understand how I could dislike it because water supposedly tastes like nothing. BUT IT DOESN’T. WATER HAS FLAVOUR. Anyway, I later figured out that filtered tap water tastes a lot better than the bottled kind.
The gaslighting people do about taste is insane. “Celery doesn’t have a taste” “sweet potato tastes like candy” “Water doesn’t have a taste” What planet do these people live on
Whenever I hear that in my family, it always comes from smokers, which basically means their taste buds and olfactory senses have already been compromised
Exactly the same here.
Plus, some people are really sensitive to tastes and textures. When we’re not them, we call them picky eaters. When I was a child, I couldn’t stand the taste of water, and there were other foods I found repulsive. Even a different brand of ingredient from the one I was used to made me gag.
Somehow, I completely grew out of that and I’m now very adventurous when it comes to food. But it did leave me with empathy when I encounter someone who has a limited palate, which is pretty common among my nerd-spectrum peer group.
When you think about it, eating the wrong thing is a quick path to sickness or death, so it makes sense that food can trigger extreme reactions of disgust. If you ever ate something and got sick afterward, even if the two were unrelated, it’s very hard to un-make that connection.
Those people are parroting harmful ideologies or have shitty sense of taste.
I don’t like drinking water. Obviously I can and do, but even then only filtered water with ice. But my main complaint is that it has no flavor, it’s not very satisfying. Maybe it’s because I was raised on soda, but I like something a little sweet and with a little flavor, so I drink slightly-sweetened iced tea.
It’s definitely because you were raised on soda.
Wait people don’t like drinking water? Drinking water (not warm) when you’re thirsty is a really good feeling. I only struggled with forgetting to drink water when I’m not thirsty, but once I am I drink.
Seeing the sugar addiction and soda problem maybe it was because I didn’t drink those regularly growing up. They were just treats. Also as a child we had fun eating certain fruits that were sour/bitter and then drink water after that, it makes the water taste sweet.
Maybe you can try eating/licking lemon/lime a bit and drink water later.
Warm water tastes good
Warm as in heated water, yes. Room temperature or lukewarm water from the pipes, NO.
The three are great, I like the roomtemperature water too
I simply like water
It’s probably not the reason for everyone but where I live, tap water has a slightly rancid taste and bottled water used to taste like it was mixed with bleach. I used to not drink water because I thought that all water tasted like that but then we got a cheap water cooler about four or five years ago and the water from it tastes much better. So, I’ve been drinking water from a water cooler ever since.
I’ve lived where tap water tasted like shit, not quite literally but eveytime I went home I’d have to remember not to drink the tap water. Eventually that town got a better water treatment plant but I can sort of see it from that angle. We always had the big 4gallon jugs (again may not be correct but the bigger jugs that sit on top for a dispenser) for regular drinking water
Thankfully where I moved to (many many kms away) the tap water was awesome, don’t live there now but I still do tap water over filtered for the most part. Never seems that much worse so may as well.
Really the only reason you’d drink the other tap water was cause you’re hungover…also been there. Then you remember that there’s a water dispenser somewhere in that house cause no one drank the water from the tap in the town. Even the better water wasn’t great but still noticably improved.
I don’t understand this either, but if you don’t like plain water, there are ways to make it taste different. Squeezed lemon in water is delicious, fizzy water is nice, there’s always Crystal Light, lol.
I love so many drinks but if I could only have one, iced water is it. It’s the best drink of all and goes with every food.
I dislike flat water, I love carbonated water with a drop of lemon juice.
Spicy water. Gross.
TV static, as my girlfriend puts it. I love it though.
Grew up on well water, it tasted funny. Most water I tried to drink was from water fountains, tasted like copper. First bottled water I drank was Deja Blue, and it tasted like hose water. So I thought all water tasted like ass.
I didn’t get that water could taste good until I drank actual bottled spring water. Now I have nice water filters that make my tap taste just fine, and I know what brands of water to buy if I need to.
Can confirm most public sources of water taste like garbage. Drinking fountains taste like liquid metal, city restaurant water tastes like chlorine, some people’s tap water is straight up gross. But good water is SO GOOD. Filtered water or bottled spring water are safe bets, but the best water is actually good tap water; the minerals enhance it imo.
I drink lots of water, but I add coffee...
tbh water was an acquired taste kind of thing for me, if you love fizzy drinks/pop drinking water can feel alien and take time getting used to
Yep, you basically gotta force yourself to drink it. I was this way, then about 12 years ago, I stopped drinking fizzy/sugary drinks and went over to water. Took me a good month + to get used to it, but I literally feel 1000xs better just chugging H2O all day. Plus it taste way better now, and sugar/fizzy drinks are way to sweat for me.
I have a hard time seeing this pov, as someone who likes their fizzy drinks (nay, requires them), but I also chug water frequently for a total of at least 2 litres each day.
It’s not like you need to only choose the one or the other. Some fizzy treats are dehydrating, even, so you kind of need to drink water on top of them.
You can have both! I love my cold water, it’s so refreshing and feels so good to down a 0.5l pint at one go! But I also love my fizzies, I need the stimulation of the fizziness on my tongue and back of mouth, it brings me such joy!
All to say, I find it weird there are so many comments about them being seemingly mutually exclusive.
It’s not that they’re mutually exclusive, it’s that they do change your taste for a lot of people to the point that water just tastes off. So they’re less inclined to reach for water vs a sugary/fizzy drink.
This is true. I had to force myself to develop a tolerance to plain water, but of course I’m really glad I did.
I still can’t stand unsweetened flavored water (including tea*), or especially unsweetened and carbonated. Those are all very bitter to me, and therefore undrinkable - particularly given plain water exists.
*But I do like some tea in my sugar.
I just never got used to it. I grew up drinking club soda or sparkling mineral water. Also milk, I would drink liters of milk a day for a time, but no water. Flat water just doesn’t do it for me. If it’s ice cold, it’s ok, but I never think “I feel like I’d like some water now”.
Hard to even know where to start: https://www.dhmo.org/
Microplastics are just the tip of the iceberg. At this stage most of our planet’s water is almost indistinguishable from pure dihydrogen monoxide.
I don’t like drinking water because the fact is you don’t need that much of it. When I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, walking 12 hours per day, I drank at most 3 liters, plus a pint for breakfast and a pint for dinner. So that’s 1 gallon total for extreme physical activity. In such a day I would pee maybe 3 or 4 times.
In normal life in an arid climate my water needs are about 1-1.5 liters. But this can entirely be covered by coffee or tea, a fizzy water, and maybe a beer or bedtime tea.
The only reason for the hydration obsession is excessive salt intake. Because salt and water are always a balancing act, excessive hydration will likely lead to salty snack cravings. If it didn’t we’d have a lot more cases of hyponatremia. The only serious side effect of being in the yellow pee club is kidney stones, but those are better prevented by lemon water and avoidance of spinach than excess hydration. I have no complaints of constipation or dry skin.
Drink when you’re thirsty. Eat when you’re hungry. Rest when you’re tired.
Until a week ago I was like this, coffee, some water and in the evening 1 or 2 beers.
But about a week ago my big toes started to hurt while walking. Googled my symptoms and I’m fairly sure I’m developing gout. So now I’m trying to get at least 2 liters of water in.
My problem is mostly that I just don’t get thirsty during the day. Like some days I might only drink one litre in total and I don’t feel thirsty at all.
Sorry to hear about your current condition. I have recently stopped drinking coffee, and cut down on the beer, so I’ve been conscious to replace that fluid.
As gout symptoms are very diet related, if I was in your position I would do some sort of fast or juice cleanse for a week or two. Not only does it reset your body, but it also resets your taste buds, making it easier to maintain a healthful diet.
Keep in mind you can also get a lot of water from foods. Not just salad but smoothies or yogurt bowl or steamed vegetables.
Everyone drinks water, otherwise they would be dead.
Lots of people drink water with extra steps
Breaking old patterns and just drinking water can take lots of effort and time.
Yeah in my teens and early 20’s I basically lived on Pepsi, mountain dew, and Gatorade. How I avoided kidney stones I’ll never know.
In my 20’s I became a self-employed courier with a contract for one long route and then anything I could pick up on the side. After a while I started talking a small Dr pepper and a large bottle of water with me every night. I basically forced myself to drink more water since I was trapped in my car for hours on a tight schedule and the Dr pepper didn’t last long.
Now at 41 I mainly drink water and hot tea. I still enjoy a mini can of Dr pepper once in a while but once or twice a week is enough for me.
This is our time to shine Hydro Homies!
Because it doesn’t taste like soft drink. That’s basically it.
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.
This is funny, considering how many people in the world survive on muddy water they had to walk miles to collect in a bucket.
I know some people would kill for water that only might kill you, but when you have choices, you don’t choose the stuff that might make you sick.
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.
thanks for the writeup! I dislike straws but am going to try using them for a few days to see if I notice a difference, alongside the bottle trick.
If you remember to, please report back, more data is always good!
Rabies?
To quote an old buddy of mine, “do you know what fish do in that?” Of course in reality he just preferred coffee over water if he could help it.
I love water, easily my most preferred beverage; I’ll choose water even if my meal comes with a drink. But it makes me sick in the middle of the night or in the morning. I don’t get it. It makes me nauseous. If I cut the water with juice or I drink coffee it’s fine. If I wait until like 11:40 am, it’s fine. But if I wake up parched at 4 am and I chug water like I want to, I’ll feel sick. If I drink half a glass before breakfast? Sick. OJ? Fine any time. Coffee, apple juice, 2/3 apple juice with 1/3 water? All fine. What’s wrong with me?
Sounds like something you should seriously ask your doctor.
Is it possible you’re tap water is low quality? An interesting experiment would be to boil some water for 5 min to kill any bacteria. Then let it cool, and then pour it in a container and pop in the fridge. Then try drinking that in the morning and see if it resolves your issue.
With the coffe it’s already getting boiled for a short time, with the apple juice and oj, you might not be drinking enough water for it to affect you, and it’s getting diluted.
It’s happened for years over many different houses and locations, even different states. That was a good and thoughtful response though, thank you!
In different states? Do you huff steam?
Har har har. I’ve been to different states in the US
Nothing comes close to a crispy glass of cool water
Might be electrolyte imbalance.
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.
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.
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.
They have acid reflux and it makes water taste like vomit
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.
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
If you only drink sugary drinks, water doesn’t taste all that great in comparison.
“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.
Water? That’s where fish fuck in.
That was way funnier before you got morbidly obese.
Maybe if you gave him a wet food diet, like a cat or something.
Don’t eat cats, that’s gross.
That’s the thing, though. People need about 2 litres of fluid a day, and most of that comes from their food.
water? like out of the toilet??
Fish fuck in water.
Giggity!
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.
Similar to my ex-wife who grew up on well water with loads of minerals. She found tap water to be disgusting and said it tasted of chemicals. And everywhere I’ve lived in America, the tap water is indeed loaded with chemicals.
For anyone wanting a cool experiment to try: Turn your tap water on full blast and fill a cup. Immediately hover your nose directly above the water and take a deep smell. Now set that glass in the sun for an hour or three, or just leave it on the counter for a day, smell again.
For a longer term experiment: Water identical plants with a) only tap water, b) only rainwater. I catch rainwater and have found a profound improvement in my house plants and terrariums.
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
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.
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.
Honestly not sure where to start with this one.
I’m sure the blanket statement of needing to drink 2 liters of water is misleading in plenty of situations but I really don’t think this is what we should be focusing on. This is the last thing from the food industry that I’d consider propaganda. Not to mention that it’s really not a bad recommendation, and a 50 year old book 2 people wrote (no matter their qualification) isn’t really a solid foundation for an argument like this.
Of course water intake is highly individual. Athletes may drink 10+ liters per day, but most people are probably fine with just drinking when they’re thirsty.
I don’t think anyone is saying that 2 liters are necessary for survival. You can get away with much less. The thing is, it’s easy to drink more than enough, it has many benefits, and there isn’t really much of a downside to it. The 2 liters are a rule of thumb, not an exact required amount for everyone.
Regarding the beer, we know nowadays there is no amount of alcohol that is healthy. Sure, beer might be able to hydrate you when enjoyed in moderation, but it’s plain counterproductive when recommended as a healthy diet.
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.
Hmm, interesting point. Thanks for sharing.
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.
(not oc) yes, this happens.
ADHD here and I do this way to often. I have reminders set to drink water or I will often go a whole day without eating or drinking anything. It is absurd.
+1, ADHD and will forget to drink anything until I start feeling low BP. Usually good at feeling hunger thankfully.
Undiagnosed, but yeah it’s very probable that I am at least one of those.
I’m on the opinion that marketing anything related to addiction is immoral and should be illegal. This includes cigarette, gambling, sugar, drugs (looking at you oxycontin), alcohol and even caffeine.
There is a backdoor into people’s brains that should not be used. Allow people go get their own coffee and sugar but don’t remind them it’s missing when they’re quitting.
(Coffee has been shown to be beneficial in reducing the overall death rate in adults when consuming something like 2+ cups a day so marketing it could be beneficial but the chance kids getting addicted to caffeine is something to avoid regardless.)
Absolutely agree. It is horrible how our governments allow corporations to use that backdoor to extract as much shareholder value from us as possible
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.
They have rabies perhaps
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.
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.
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.
Living off flavored drinks and craving that sugar is stimulation you don’t get from plain water.
This is my issue. Now I use water additives like PureLemon and MIO to spike em. I try to drink 4-8 cups a day and feel better when I do.
I still slip into my days of 4 cups of coffee with no water often.
Yeah, it can sorta be a “boredom reliever” kind of thing.
Some people don’t like the taste? It’s like asking why people don’t like to exercise even though it’s good for them, or they complain about stiffness or what have you. I’m not a huge fan of the taste of water myself, but I drink it because it’s good for me and free (once I purchases a filter anyway).
Drinking water is exponentially easier and less time consuming than exercising
That’s true very true, but some people don’t like being uncomfortable (I saw as a prior non water drinker lol).
I hear kidney stones are mad uncomfortable too but to each their own
My favorite beverage is a glass of ice water. Friends are always offering a beer or a soda, and all I want is a tall glass of ice water.
Now I carry a big Stanley cup of ice water everywhere I go.
I know two people who refuse to drink water, and even say that they HATE water.
totally agree, but you lost me at stanley cup
Not the hockey trophy.
It’s one of those big 40 oz insulated cups with a handle, lid, and straw. Put in some ice and cold water, and it will stay cold for 24 hours. They were made famous by the Stanley Tool company. The Stanley ones are about $45, but now there are lots of cheaper knockoffs. I got mine at Aldi for $13.
They’ve become an entire industry in themselves. They even make accessories for them. I saw a short news story on the wildly decorated house of a woman who designed a special purse that had two compartments, one for her stuff, and one for her big tumbler. She made them in all sorts of color combinations, and had them all displayed on shelves in her basement office. They’ve become extremely popular, and have made her rich.
Get one. They work great. I carry mine with me everywhere I go. When I leave a fast food place, I always fill my empty cup with ice, and dump it in my tumbler when I get in the car.
I’ll bet that’s way more about the “Stanley Cup” tumbler than you thought existed.
I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it either. Unless I’m doing something very physical, I don’t really get thirsty. If I do drink water, it’s almost always carbonated since I actually enjoy it.
Which is fine. I alternate between carbonated and still. AFAIK it has the same benefits, but with the additional joy of gaseous bloating 😀👍
Fish fuck in it
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/7000956f-dd70-47d6-9acd-8a6f6614e4b4.jpeg">
I don’t like the taste of pure water. Filtered, bottled, doesn’t matter. It tastes bitter and metallic and it always takes effort to choke down.
I keep a bottle of unsweetened juice and use a splash of that to add the bare minimum of flavor I need to be able to enjoy drinking it at home, and when I’m out and about I just drink it and suffer.
Sometime in my 20s I just switched to water only. It wasn’t even a conscious decision really. Wasn’t like one day I woke up and was like I’m just going to drink water now. Just one day I’d realize that you have been like 2 years since I drank any soft drink. So I tried drinking some Dr pepper which I loved. It was disgusting. I had someone try to see if there was something wrong with it and they said it tasted perfectly normal. And it’s been that way for a long time now. I’ve tried little sips of new soft drinks that have come out that my friends like… And none of them taste good to me. Just room temp water, perfect.
I used to use mio to add a little flavor every now and then, but switch to Crystal light. I found the flavors to be more consistently good.
People who don’t drink water make me unnaturally irritated. It’s just so crazy. “I don’t breathe air because don’t really like the taste”.
I know I sound like an asshole. It shouldn’t matter to me what you do. It’s your body and your life.
Still…c’mon, like what? It’s water. It brings life. It’s the original thirst quencher. It’s what your body needs. Just drink it.
No
Because it’s annoying
Like what? The toilet water?
Eating and drinking are almost entirely habit. I would say the main driver is parents not teaching kids to just fucking drink water. You don’t need something with fizz, color or flavor. Water’s been keeping humans alive forever.
The water in some USA cities does taste terrible. Some rural and city water is unsafe to drink. Grow up in one of those places, and one may hate it.
water can taste either really bad, or like nothing
not water tastes consistently better than water
For my fiance it’s due to autism, we live in annars with amazing water quality and I drink it without issues. She can’t handle the flavour sometimes though, she gets nauseous. The solution is to add sugar free flavouring to the water. Works pretty well and she actually drinks enough water now.
I drink as much water as I can handle at work so I can go take a leak and have my phone out and not risk getting in trouble with the boss. I don’t eat breakfast or lunch. Since starting work 3 months ago I lost 30lbs. I’ll eat anything for dinner and I haven’t been trying to lose any weight.
I will add that moving to first shift after over a decade of second shift has been hard on my system and I’ve vomited in the mornings before work more often than not. It’s like clockwork. I have learned that I’ve got a window of about 4 hours after work during which I can eat. Sticking to that keeps morning nausea at bay thanks to an empty stomach in the morning.
Anyways water is great. The other guy at work brings cases of bottled water which I try to understand. The water quality here is quite good and a majority of my water at work comes out of the tap. I have no complains and I wouldn’t spend a dime more than I am now for what I get in addition to microplastics.
You should go to a doctor if you haven’t already.
I appreciate your advice and will do that as soon as new job insurance kicks in but I am a sweat machine doing a physical job in increasing heat. Its a birth defect I was born with that had pediatricians warning my parents it could be a sign of cystic fibrosis. I am in OK condition currently and far past the CF terminal years. Back in gradeschool I would have salt on my cheeks after recess from dried sweat.
If I step out of my fan zone at work I’ll be sweating in under half a minute and beads will roll off my face two minutes later. I’ve been wearing my winter coat at work in the heat to remain comfortable while in the fans. I am not always standing in my fans.
I also started back on nicotine vapes. Everybody at work smokes cigarettes and I’d rather have firsthand smoke as opposed to secondhand smoke. When in Rome and all. It sucks and isn’t the wisest life choice but that’s the breaks.
Thanks again for your concern. If I didn’t have a litany of ways to lose weight going on I’d be more worried. I’m not doing anything I don’t have to do to lose it. I was over 200lbs from being a couch potato for a year. Now I’m only a potato 2 days a week and I bought a new chair.
I drink it now…on town water lol. Growing up outside of town proper in my area it did not taste good and left you more thirsty than when you started drinking it. The water was hard enough taking a shower felt like washing down with iron wool and if you stayed in more than five minutes you came out peeling. I was actually amazed the first time I lived in a town center on town water and the water didn’t make my skin feel raw lol. I was floored when I lived in a beach town and not only was the water mild, something in the area made the water taste slightly sweet and enjoyable to drink instead of “somewhat metallic from old pipes, but inoffensive cause it’s thirst quenching instead of thirst exacerbating”.
This doesn’t really fit with my understanding of what hard water is and I’m very concerned.
The place I live now has hard water that is way different from what I grew up with, but it just means that I have to use a lot more soap to clean any oils off my skin or hair, and every faucet gets a ton of lime buildup obnoxiously fast.
Bit confused here. There’s levels to water hardness and what I listed you’d know pretty much instantly. It doesn’t sneak up on you or anything. If it makes you feel better I grew up in a town on a ravine lol it was all rock. You may not be dealing with the same situation.
ETA also limestone wasn’t the mineral that was the issue there, was a different one
My understanding of hard water is just that there’s more calcium and magnesium ions than would otherwise be present in softer water. The varying degrees of hardness would just be the varying concentrations of these ions.
The way you experience as a human (as opposed to measuring this with a water probe) is that soap will form a complex with these ions and maybe precipitate out a little soap scum, and this reaction will happen at the same time as the reaction which complexes with any oils or dirt so it’ll effectively be wasting some of your soap and you will have to use more soap.
So you’ll be shampooing your hair and you’ll use the same amount as you used back in the soft water city and you’ll be thinking “I used the same amount of shampoo as I always do so why does my hair still feel oily?”
I have one of those articulated segmented hose things on my shower head so you can pick it up and move it around while it’s spraying and the whole thing gets all covered in limescale super fast because the hard water evaporates and precipates out the magnesium and calcium as calcite or aragonite crystals. I had never seen this happen so fast and it ruins the hose so often that I thought I was dealing with excessively hard water.
I’m not a mineral person going to be honest (I work in healthcare lol), so not sure I can really answer your questions. Also sorry being a bit cagey didn’t want to dox myself before a google, like felt 99% sure this was a common mineral, but again not a mineral person.
Basically I lived in some foothills along a ravine made of granite. Home 1 I think we had a neighborhood well and home 2 was a personal well. I can’t list the equipment being used to soften the water (if at all), I just know neither were on town water and home 2 I helped my dad install a softener since there wasn’t one (which tbh didn’t help too much besides making the water coming out of the faucet less cloudy and mildly less thirst inducing).
I don’t think my hometown has a lot of limestone (idk may be wrong, like said I’m not a mineral person, all I know it’s a granite ravine) so can’t comment too much beyond that. This was just my experience with water growing up and what put me off it for a long time.
Well, hard water means it could be Ca+2 or Mg+2 ions, but it doesn’t have to be. Any metal or mineral in a “high” concentration (often as a dissolved salt) would make water hard. e.g. Salt water is hard compared to tap standards.
The water for the above user certainly could have been corrosive, or an allergic reaction could be the explanation. With a rural, rock ravine environment, any number of minerals could be in the water. You’re also more likely to get other contaminants like toxins in water not properly tested and treated.
The pipes in my residence are at least 60 years old, made of metal, and the resulting water tastes a bit suspect. I get water from the grocery store and put it in the water cooler. Costs about $10-20ish for 20 gallons, but probably far safer than what the tap provides.
Replacing all of the pipes would cost $19,000+. 😨
That sounds like it should be seriously checked. Hopefully there’s no lead, but that’s not sure given what you’re saying.
The plumber a couple weeks ago showed me some pictures of the pipes from the inside. It explains why I needed filter cartridges for my shower, why my sink needed looking at, how come the toilet was losing flushing power, and why the water heater’s recirculator never worked. Turns out, the thing burned out from debris.
This residence totally needs a revamp, well beyond my means. 😒
Ah that really sucks. Who should be on the hook for replacing and fixing all this?
Me and the other residents, if there was money to spare. Unfortunately, the economy doesn’t lend itself to getting a job that lets people to be adults and human at the same time. The bread victor shouldn’t have to sacrifice their happiness for keeping the place in better shape.
For me it’s because I’ve been drinking carbonated drinks for so long that flat water is awful to drink. I know it’s good for me, I know I need to stop the carb drinks. I know I’ll live a longer life if I do this. But it’s somewhat like an addiction for me, it’s really hard to quit and move to water.
The tap water in my area tastes pretty gross. I’ve tried the flavored water and never really found one that was good and didn’t have weird taste or drinking effects. I would do carb water but it’s so expensive, more expensive than my carb drinks now. So it’s hard to even find a replacement.
You might be a super taster like me, you can get a genetic test for it if you really want to know. Obsession with diet soda seems to be a common thread as is the distaste for water.
Get a filter for your tap water, then get the water cold. Both will reduce the flavor of the water, leaving you with crisp, neutral flavored water. If that doesn’t do it for you, look into an at home carbonation system, there’s guides for making your own if you don’t wanna do premade.
I suggest ZeroWater. The filters don’t last as long because they have more layers, but that means they filter out more things.
Wait until they get kidney stones from being chronically dehydrated
Well then it’s too late… I’d much rather avoid people the excruciating pain.
Had family who lived in an area known for having the highest quality tap water who refused to drink any water. One notably said “I’m not drinking what fish fuck in!”! I think they have never been truly dehydrated. I can’t tell you the ecstasy of a cold glass of water when you’re legit thirsty!
It sounds like somebody needs to spend more time watching documentaries on the mating habits of freshwater fish!
Give me all the squirms!(iykyk)
Former non-water drinker here.
I was addicted to caffeinated/carbonated sodas. I never had any problems drinking almost exclusively diet coke for a long time. My caffeine consumption was well over the FDA recommendation for maximum daily intake.
I would still drink water, especially when doing sports or exercise, but it wasn’t my go-to for hydrating myself throughout the day.
Several times in my life, I quit drinking them, but I would always circle back around to it because I missed the taste more than anything, and I had never noticed any kind of significant health benefit to stopping.
Recently some months ago, I was having some pretty severe bladder issues. Sudden onset urge to urinate. Like going from 0-100 in a racecar, the rapid urgency was the main issue. One minute I was fine and if you asked if I needed to use the bathroom I’d say “Nah”, and then 5 minutes later I’m literally dancing my way to the nearest toilet to just barely make it in time, like literally almost peeing my pants it was that bad.
Went to the doctor about this, obviously, and that was when he told me that the extreme caffeine intake is causing irritation in my bladder and diagnosed me with Overactive Bladder Syndrome. I was instructed to completely cut out caffeine from my regular drinking habits, no tea or sodas, but I could have a cup of coffee in the morning to get me going, although initially I would want to quit cold turkey to purge my system of caffeine and let my bladder settle down. So water it was. Within about a month, I started to feel more regular again and I didn’t need to rush to pee as often and when I did I could hold it for longer periods of time.
Now I pretty much drink only water all the time. I take a big 54oz jug with me to work and refill it towards the end of the work day. I’ll have a cup of coffee now and then in the mornings on weekdays, but I try not to make a habit of it, and I’ll have a sip of a soda at the movies or something, but I don’t even miss the taste of cola anymore. Occasionally I will buy the flavored waters at the grocery store just to get the carbonated experience, but I can’t drink those all the time. Water is great, it just takes forever to get your brain used to the idea that not everything you put in your body needs to have flavor. It’s super refreshing to get the filtered water pitcher right from the fridge, maybe pour it over a glass of ice, and drink it straight that way.
In short, chugging sodas never used to bother me at all, but I guess as I’m getting older my body is just not having that shit anymore. Just like how I can’t eat straight junk food and not gain any weight like when I was a teenager, my metabolism has finally caught up with me on my soda/caffeine addiction and I had to cut that out too. I realize that I am better off now for it and I’m going to try and keep up the good habit I’ve started to form and keep drinking water.
I expect it’s just a taste thing; water tastes fine but, like, it could taste more interesting if we added a bit of sugar or flavor to it (I was a huge justice fan).
For my own end, it was an easy way to keep my emotions/mood simulated or engaged against my depression that was low effort and easy to supply; that said, I switched entirely to water last year and, now fully comfortable drinking nothing but water and being fairly averse – previously –, I can’t say the previous reasons really make that much of a difference for me, now. Maybe it’s just having drank to my non-water content, already, but drinking nothing but water’s been pretty great and removes low-key health fears I always had.
I imagine a 1 2 punch of they are used to sugary intense flavour drinks, and their teeth are gross from them so neutral water tastes bad. Like their mouth
Because their parents never taught them to.
It doesn’t make sense to me that I don’t like drinking water. When I lived in the desert, I would drink it all the time, but it’s a habit that I’ve fallen out of. Strangely, I went back to the desert on a trip and immediately resumed drinking water again.
For me, I don’t like the taste. I can taste the chlorine and fluroride and other stuff in the water. I have an RO system with carbon filter and then I need to have it near freezing. Even then, I need to put stuff in it like berries, cucumber or mint. I don’t drink pop, sports drinks or other stuff like that. I do drink tea and coffee.
Yeah, my doctor told me that I’m dehydrated, so I’m trying.