Thinking About Drinking: Choosing the Right Hydration Fluids

Written by Dietitians at Diabetes Control for Life

Almost everyone who has tried losing weight as part of their diabetes control plan has been told to drink lots of water. Although it’s not true that water flushes fat out of your body, drinking water does help.

Water helps your body burn fat. Without water, your kidneys can't do their job properly and your liver must pitch in to help get rid of waste products. When this happens, your liver can't burn as much fat, so some of the fat that would normally be used as fuel gets stored in your body instead. Drinking more water lets the liver get back to its own job — turning fat into fuel.

Everybody needs to drink enough fluids each day. This advice is especially important for people with diabetes, where dehydration can be a problem when blood sugars are not well-controlled.

This Healthy Eating article tells you what experts know about drinking fluids and staying hydrated:

• It explains how much to drink and how much water you can get even from food.
• It gives you some useful advice about what to drink.

How Much To Drink?

You’ve probably heard you need to drink 2 liters of water every day. But if you’re like the average person, you probably drink about a liter and a half. Does this mean you’re not getting enough water? No. There isn’t any evidence that people really have to drink this much water. Adults need 1 up to 2 liters (six to eight 1/4 liter servings) of water a day, but we get water from a lot of sources, as the table below shows.

Water Content of Some Foods and Beverages

How do you know if you’re drinking enough? One way to know is to look out for dry skin, dry nasal passages, and dry mouth. Also, your urine should be straw-colored. If you go only a few times a day and your urine is dark-colored, you probably need to drink more.

What to Drink?

Giving your body enough fluid is extremely important, but when it comes to weight loss and managing your diabetes, not all fluids are created equal. Just as you do with everything else you eat or drink, read the label on your beverage. If it’s calorie-free, drink up! If it isn’t, you’ll want to answer these questions:

• How much do you plan to drink?
• How many calories are in the portion you’ll drink?
• Does the beverage offer any nutritional value other than calories?
• What changes will you make to fit these calories into your nutrition plan?

It’s okay to have beverages that have calories but little nutritional value from time to time. But if you regularly replace nutritious foods with soft drinks, alcohol, or other low-nutrition liquids, you’re missing out on good nutrition and putting your health and diabetes management goals at risk.

Here are some other things to think about when you’re picking out something to drink:

• Caffeine: Regular coffee, tea, and colas contain caffeine, as do several other soft drinks. For a long time, caffeinated beverages were thought to contribute to dehydration because caffeine is a diuretic. Newer information says that if you are used to drinking caffeinated beverages, they won’t affect your hydration status much. On the other hand, caffeine is a stimulant: It can cause anxiety, sleep problems, or muscle twitching in people who are sensitive to its effects. So if your coffee or cola makes you “twitchy,” you may want to choose decaffeinated alternatives.
• Non-diet soft drinks: If you drink non-diet soft drinks, remember that you’ll need to limit the amount you drink to lose weight. Better yet, choose diet soft drinks. Or if you feel like you have to have a sugar-sweetened beverage from time to time, compensate by eating less of other foods.
• Non-nutritive sweeteners: Aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame-K, and saccharin are a few of the sweeteners often used in diet or sugar-free beverages. Scientific evidence shows these sweeteners are safe. So, if you are a soft-drink fan, go ahead and enjoy.
• Juices: Most 100 percent juices provide about 60 calories in a 118 ml serving. Sweetened juice products provide even more! Keep in mind, though, that your hunger is much more likely to be satisfied with a piece of fresh fruit than with a serving of fruit juice. Also keep in mind that 296 and 355 ml bottles sold in many vending machines and convenience stores contain as many as 180 calories in just one bottle.
• Sport drinks: For the average active person, water or other non-caloric beverages work just as well. And sport drinks provide 100 calories a serving or more.
• Fitness waters: These bottled waters contain vitamins, herbs, or other ingredients that claim to have health benefits. Usually they contain only a small amount of these ingredients, and sugar may have been added. Read the labels. Some fitness waters offer only 10 calories or so in a bottle, but many will give you an extra 60, 70, or even 100 calories in each bottle.
• Milk: Milk is an excellent source of calcium and other nutrients. But drinking more milk does not add extra benefits, just extra calories. Choose only skim or one percent milk and remember that the serving size for milk is 230 ml — much smaller than the average household glass.
• Alcohol: Alcoholic beverages add anywhere from 70 calories for a 104 ml glass of wine to 380 calories for a 230 ml strawberry margarita. And with the super-sizing popular in many restaurants today, the portion size is probably larger and packs even more calories. Alcoholic beverages provide a lot of extra calories but not much else in the way of nutrition. And if you drink alcoholic beverages, did you ever notice that a glass of wine reduced your desire to resist calorie-laden “bar food”? So monitor your consumption. Guidelines for moderation are one drink daily for a woman and no more than two for a man (One serving is 118 ml of wine, 355 ml of beer, or 44 ml of liquor). Be sure to account for these calories in your journal!

Thinking About Drinking

Remember, hydration is important — but when it comes to weight loss as part of your diabetes control plan, liquid calories count, too!

Write down the type and amount of beverages you consumed in the last 24 hours. Estimate the calories these beverages added to your daily calorie total by checking similar labels or using the information above.

Summary

• Stay hydrated. Aim to get 1 1/2 to 2 liters of water a day in your beverages and foods.
• Drink plenty of water and limit your consumption of other beverages that provide a lot of calories and not much good nutrition.