Is tea as good as water?

[TuneMyHeart]

I've been drinking a lot of unsweetened tea lately. Some is naturally decaf; some has a little bit of caffeine. I'm normally a huge water drinker, but the tea has tasted so good. Can tea replace water, or should it be in addition to my normal water intake?

[Lady TS]

:popcorn because I'd so much rather drink herbal teas than our icky water. :shifty

[Ali]

The only bad thing I've heard about tea (unsweet) is that it could be diruetic. But I believe that's not the case if it's decaffeinated (which still has a little caffeine in it, but not much). I drink a lot of tea, but I make it pretty weak and buy decaffeinated kinds. And green tea has less caffeine than black. That said, here is a study that seems to show caffeinated beverages don't really affect hydration: http://www. pponline. co.uk/encyc/caffeine-dehydration.htm

The researchers concluded that their results did not allow them to support the standard advice to ‘disregard caffeinated beverages when calculating daily fluid intake’. To put it another way, cutting out caffeinated drinks in order to improve hydration may well be counterproductive unless such drinks are replaced by an equivalent volume of non-caffeinated drinks.

So if drinking tea instead of water is getting you to drink more liquids, then I think that's good - especially since you drink unsweetened and not always caffeinated. Dehydration aside, caffeine is not that good for you anyway, but it atleast doesn't seem to dehydrate you.

[TuneMyHeart]

Thanks Ali! That's good news for my tea-loving self. :heart

[Zooey]

I believe that tea is just fine....The decaf is better, because caffeine can act as a mild diuretic, but the operative word here is "mild"....
Actually, I don't think, even without :O checking the link, that tea is a problem. It got linked to the subject, because it is a hot caffeine containing beverage, like coffee. But I have been told, by a really terrific doctor, that caffeine has never been the reason that coffee acts as a diuretic; it has compounds that actually act as a bladder irritant.
Tea doesn't have these; therefore, its OK. (Personally, I'm with you: tea has always been a major source of hydration for me!)

[cobluegirl]

I see no problem drinking it but wouldn't replace water with it.