Soda water and hydration?

March 31, 2005 2:31 PM

It seems that soda water (i.e. water with bubbles) doesn't hydrate me very well at all, even when consumed in great quantities. This is true of club soda, seltzer water, and sparkling mineral water. Is it all in my head or is there a good scientific explanation of this?
posted by callmejay to health & fitness (10 comments total)

I have no idea if there's a scientific explanation, but I definitely feel like those beverages dry my mouth out for some reason.
posted by untuckedshirts at 2:36 PM on March 31, 2005

Some sparkling water, especially club soda, has a fair amount of sodium in it. Sodium-free versions should do a better job. But I think that drying out your mouth and drying out your body are different phenomena.
posted by anapestic at 2:59 PM on March 31, 2005

Carbonated water is a diuretic.
posted by grouse at 3:07 PM on March 31, 2005

Strange, because I feel that sparkling water is the best thirst-quencher for me, and I was just speaking to one of my friends about it and she agreed. Maybe it really has to do with the water, maybe the degree of sodium.
posted by keijo at 3:07 PM on March 31, 2005

Any information to back up that mineral water is a diuretic grouse? I find as well that it is not thirst quenching, though it is my prefered beverage (with a dash of juice).
posted by Dag Maggot at 6:03 PM on March 31, 2005

I thought that carbonation in general was dehydrating.
posted by bingo at 6:42 PM on March 31, 2005

hmm - sounds like another chapter in the water myth.
posted by insideout at 7:38 PM on March 31, 2005

If you are peeing clear you are hydrated. I'm a soda/aparkling water junkie and have not had any issues. (Note: this diagnostic technique doesn't work if you take vitamins which will change the color of your urine)
posted by donovan at 10:17 PM on March 31, 2005

Chill out, I'm sure you're hydrated just fine on your soda water unless you have a kidney problem. I drink four cans of it a day myself, since it's free at the office.

Peeing clear or yellow is not a reliable indicator of whether or not you are hydrated. The waste products which give urine its colour accumulate independently from your hydration state.

Let's say you're already dehydrated, and you eat a salty snack. Water will be sucked from your tissues into your bloodstream to dilute the salt (a major cause of high blood pressure), and your kidneys will flush the brine into your bladder. You will pee clear even though you're dehydrated, unless it's your first pee in a while.

Let's say that through some really high-tech monitoring device, you are able to drink exactly as much water is necessary to stay perfectly hydrated -- no more and no less. Let's say during this time you're very active or you eat a lot of meat -- your body produces waste products which must be flushed by the kidneys. Very little water is necessary to get rid of these waste products as the kidney relies on an active transport process rather than mere diffusion or osmosis. It is these waste products which give urine its colour, and you'll pee very dark but very little even though you're perfectly hydrated.

Now, I don't know about carbonation, but your body can become desensitized to some diuretics such as caffeine, because diuretics are chemical signallers that the body learns to ignore. So drinking coffee or cola will not, in the long run, dehydrate you. However alcohol will always dehydrate you because water is a necessary input in the process to metabolise alcohol -- just like oxygen is necessary for respiration. There's no way around it.

Thing is, if you are surfing Metafilter then you are most likely sedentary and living in a temperate (or at least air-conditioned) environment. Not to make light of her example, but it took Terri Schiavo just over two weeks to die after being competely deprived of food and water. Hardly anyone suffers from true dehydration these days unless they're running a marathon in 100 deg heat or if they have some severe gastrointestinal infection like cholera.
posted by randomstriker at 11:06 PM on March 31, 2005

ardly anyone suffers from true dehydration these days unless they're running a marathon in 100 deg heat or if they have some severe gastrointestinal infection like cholera.
posted by

Or unless you're old and the people taking care of you aren't giving you enough water. I once had a job processing insurance claims, and far and away the main diagnosis I saw was 'dehydration.'
posted by bingo at 3:35 PM on April 2, 2005