Dehydrated - will drinking tea help?

sweaty_betty

Hello there - I'm not seeking medical advice as such, just opinions.

I always seem to be dehydrated as I regularly forget to drink during the day. I'm making a concerted effort to put this right but the only things I really drink are (mostly decaf) tea and water. I've been told that tea is a diuretic so might be undoing the good effects of drinking water. This doesn't seem quite right to me! I'd have thought any fluids were ok.

What do you think?

hgotsparkle

I would say if one of the things you drink is water, then just stick with a water for a while and maybe have 1 or 2 cups of tea a day.

I have to make a conscious effort to drink - or I'll totally forget so I always carry a bottle of water with me and I've gotten into the habit of always having it next to me, making me reach for it more.

Linda32

Tea is fine imo. Its still water, just hot and flavoured.

PlymouthMaid

I drink mainly tea and coffee but quite a lot of it. I usually have a glass of water with dinner. I don't think I am dehydrated although I have heard that too.

emslovesmickey

Caffeine is a diuretic, but i'd think that coffee is worse for it than tea. Like hgotsparkle has said, it's a good idea to take a bottle of water with you to remind you to drink.

tizerbelle

You would have to be drinking a lot of tea at one sitting for it to have a diuretic effect. According to this http://www.teaadvisorypanel.com/myths it would take 6/7 cups of tea at a sitting to have an effect

milliemonster

Can I ask why you think you are dehydrated? What symptoms have you had that lead you to think this? Remember 80% of the food you eat is water so even without additional fluids if you are eating regularly you will be getting enough hydration from your food! the myth behind the '8 glasses of water' a day is just that, a myth

sweaty_betty

milliemonster wrote: »

Can I ask why you think you are dehydrated? What symptoms have you had that lead you to think this? Remember 80% of the food you eat is water so even without additional fluids if you are eating regularly you will be getting enough hydration from your food! the myth behind the '8 glasses of water' a day is just that, a myth

I know I'm dehydrated because there have been some health checks at work (purely voluntary) and my "specific gravity" initially showed up to be off the scale! Apparently this indicates dehydration (or heart failure, or kidney failure :eek:). I'd not had anything to drink that day when I took the test, so drank a bottle of water and a large cup of tea and re-tested - thankfully the next test was nearer normal (although not completely) and the third test, after another tea/water, was too. So I'm crossing my fingers that dehydration is the cause (although have a health MOT in a few weeks so will have kidney/heart things tested then to be on the safe side).

It's not uncommon for me to just forget to drink, so I think I'm going to have to make a real effort to do so regularly. With water I'll generally sip it throughout the day, but with tea I know I'll drink the lot (before it goes cold!), so I was hoping that a combination of both would do the trick. I don't drink juice or fizzy drinks, so they're my main fluid options

Mojisola

sweaty_betty wrote: »

I've been told that tea is a diuretic so might be undoing the good effects of drinking water.

Nonsense! Tea and coffee are mostly water apart from a little flavouring.

My mother was told by a nurse that for every cup of tea she drank, she would pee out that much water and about half as much again so she'd get really ill if she didn't drink lots of plain water.

Considering Mum had made it to 80+ fuelled by copious cups of tea, he should have realised how stupid his advice was.

Dizzy_Ditzy

A good indicator of your hydration levels is the colour of your pee.

The lighter it is the more hydrated you are.

elsien

I rarely drink anything but tea (on the non-alcoholic front, anyway.) If I'm feeling dehydrated I just drink 2 or 3 cuppas in a row - our tap water tastes vile and I can't be bothered with filters or bottled water. Personally I find the diuretic effect of tea is so mild as to be negligible. Fruit teas are ok, if you like those.
Now coffee on the other had just seems to make me feel thirstier so I don't touch the stuff. Each to their own.