Plenty of Fluids Means....

Molly:

Fluids to me means:
Water
Hot Tea
Gatorade

Although there is the argument that tea and coffee is caffeinated and will dehydrate you....

Well Molly diet soda is not good for anyone. 1. especially if it's in an ALUMINUM can (aluminum is linked to alzheimers) 2. it doesn't help anyone lose weight. And the aspartame in it is extremely bad for you.

I drink coffee. What I use as a sweetener is stevia. Get it at Better Health or Whole Foods. Kroger even carries it in their organic section.

If you're drinking tap water, I would cut that out and get a water treatment system. Something with a block carbon filter in it, not granules like Brita has. go online and find somethng quality.

And ladies be careful with decaf. The chemicals used for decaffinating coffee and tea are harmful. Whole Foods and Better Health both have organic choices, where it's done in a healthy way.

Wow, from reading your responses, there is a lot of confusion about what counts as water. WATER is the only fluid that counts as water. Coffee, tea, juices, and sodas (basically anything with caffeine or sugar) all have a diuretic affect (meaning they actually hinder your body's ability to absorb fluids.) Sparkling water is okay as long as it doesn't have any sweetener added to it. Flavored waters almost always have SOME kind of sweetener added, so they don't cut the mustard for hydration. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(

Water is actually probably the best drink a person can have, I have no idea where anyone would get the idea it was harsh on the stomach (before sanitation, maybe?) A good rule of thumb about liquid consumption is this: if your urine is clear, you are drinking enough water and can afford to have something other than water to drink, if your urine is not clear, you are NOT drinking enough water. A person should try to drink half of their body weight in ounces of water per day (IDK if that even makes sense, so here's an example: if a person weighs 100 lbs, they should be drinking 50 oz of H2O per day)

I drink tea all day long.....it's low in caffeine and I don't add sugar - sometimes lemon.

I always thought it meant any "clear" liquid any caffeinated beverage is out,

Not coffee, it dehydrates. Some sodas have a lot of sodium so I would stay away from them as well.

Pretty much anything else.

Wow Mommaof4 from reading your response you seem to be confused about how to read a question. She asked about fluids, not water. :p

Molly, diet soda is pure poison. All soda is in truth, but especially diet.
If you are sick don't fill your body w/ poison.
I used to hate to drink water. But I taught my body to like it. (It also gave me a stomach ache.) Build up your body's tolerance to it gradually.
And this is coming from someone who loves her some Dr. Pepper. ;)

Any liquid counts as fluid. But caffeine can be dehydrating so that is kind of defeating the purpose....so watch the total overall caffeine.
It's perfectly OK if it's not all water.
Even jello, soup, etc. counts as fluid.

Drink non-caffeinated and non-carbonated things. For example, juice. Coffee and tea are diuretics and can make it worse.

I like a good soup, so a lot of times I get some liquid at lunch with my soup, too.

Water, plain no caffeine herb tea, soup broth, pedialyte, Gatorade, and maybe ginger ale or Sprite.

Coffee (or anything with caffeine in it including some teas and sodas) is a diuretic.
Diet soda does a number on your kidneys and messes with your metabolism so it's actually harder to lose weight - you're better off staying away from it.

Plenty of fluids means keeping well hydrated possibly with some nutrients and making sure your electrolytes stay balanced (which is really important if your exercising hard (sweating a lot), throwing up and/or suffering from diarrhea).
Additional:
I never heard of the 'drink half our weight, in oz, of water' thing before.
I imagine that's a fine rule of thumb within reason.
There is such a thing as water poisoning (also called hyper-hydration, overhydration or hyponatremia) (drinking too much water can cause death - it over dilutes those all important electrolytes).
If you happen to weigh 300 lbs, I can't imagine that drinking 150 oz (almost 19 cups) of water a day could be good for you.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

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Caffeine can actually be dehydrating, so keep that ot a minimum. Here's the thing: You can afford to consume almost anything if you are sure to drink lots of water. If you know that you are not drinking lots of water, then you should cut back on other stuff. You should drink more water than anything else. If you are drinking 5 glasses per day, 3 of them should be water. Try some of the flavored waters.

Also, wet foods--fruits and broths, etc.

Plain water is one of the harshest things on a persons stomach! Especially if you don't have much food in your tummy!

Every solution is either acidic or alkaline. (Alkaline is often called "base.") These solutions can be anything from body fluids, such as stomach acid and blood, to beverages, such as wine or coffee, to sea water. Acidity and alkalinity are measured in pH (potential of hydrogen). The pH scale goes from 0 to 14, with 0 the most acidic, and 14 the most alkaline. The pH of stomach acid is 1, wine is 3.5, water is 7 (neutral), venous blood is 7.35, arterial blood is 7.4, sea water is 8.5, and baking soda is 12. Ideally, our pH should stay on the alkaline side: between 7.35 and 7.45.

So take a plain glass of water with a pH of 7. You drink it and it enters your stomach which has a pH of 1. Your stomach immediately sets to work to produce more acid to bring the pH of that water down. Common symptoms of an unbalanced pH in the stomach include heartburn, bloating, belching, stomach ache, or that feeling of heaviness that the plain water is just not sitting well.

So now take a look at the ingredients in those little packets we add to water: Crystal Light, propel, etc, you'll see that the ingredients include things like citric acid and ascorbic acid - both which are natural acids. What these do is bring the pH of water DOWN closer to the pH of the stomach. Your stomach recognizes this as more manageable so does not produce extra acid which results in no heartburn, bloating, belching, upset stomach or that feeling of heaviness.

Water! Some of your responses cracked me up. Dawn B and Mommaof4 are both right on the money! Great advice, girls!

Plain water is best and is most readily and easily absorbed. Anything else has to be digested before being absorbed. Water is essential for getting nutrients to the cells of the body as well as for cleansing and removing waste. Drinking sugary beverages without cutting calories elsewhere means weight gain over time. Sparkling water is acidic to the body...and an acid body leads to diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes and osteoporosis. The body will take calcium from the bones to neutralize an acid body. Sugar acidifies the body as well. Artificial sweeteners really scare me and many beverages have artificial colorings in them as well. I work in health and wellness and from what I'm learning, I'm not willing to take any chances with those chemicals. There are so many different ones that we are exposed to every day. Why eat them as well? Who knows what the combination of them might do in a vulnerable body.

I can't imagine why water would make your stomach hurt. Are you drinking water from the tap? I would highly recommend a high quality charcoal filter to remove chlorine and other nasty chemicals from that water. Try to have a bottle with you at all times and just keep sipping all day long instead of drinking large amounts all at one time. I like to have mine slightly chilled...a mixture of water kept in the fridge and that kept at room temperature. My hubby likes his cold...from the fridge and on ice.

Just be patient with yourself...if you want to start drinking more water. It takes 4-6 weeks to establish a new habit. Be diligent so that you give yourself the opportunity to see if that habit will stick. If you have any questions, or would like to see supporting documents for the points I've raised, feel free to contact me. I would be my honor to share those resources with you. It is in knowing your options that you will make the best decisions for your health. Take care...D.

Fluids, to me, means anything you can see through that is not carbonated. I drank decaffeinated tea, water, Koolaid, juice, and some other stuff but that's pretty much the main things. It you don't like so much sugar then cut the stuff 50% water and 50% drink stuff. I don't mind and I do NOT use any artificial sweeteners.

Yep...water is the best for keeping you hydrated. Coffee, tea and carbonated beverages ARE fluids but coffee and tea are natural diuretics so they can be DEhydrating if you drink too much of it. A balance with the water and coffee/tea is fine, but I believe pop is bad all around. Between the bubbles (not good for your heart) and the artificial sweeteners (turns into formaldihyde when ingested) talk about YUCK! Maybe you are drinking the water too cold and too fast. You might try drinking water at room temerature, slowly.

Well, I think we all know that if you were to drink coffee all day, vs water, you are not doing your body a great service, right?

In order of caffeine content it goes white tea, green tea, black tea then coffee I believe. Soda, I am clueless as I haven't drank any for years, but I am a Splenda-a-holic. I use it in my lightly brewed coffee, in all my flavors of hot tea or iced tea I drink. I love one of the MIO water enhancer flavors they have (its one of the ways I personally attempt to get enough water in). I do like water, but some days I am just not very thirsty.

I have recently read in some health and fitness articles, that we should drink half our weight, in oz, of water. So if you weight 150 pounds, you should drink 75 oz of water a day. Does that make sense? Just plain old water. The "8 glasses a day" thing makes no sense...why would my husband need the same amount of water as I would when we are anywhere from 75-100 pounds different in size?? This other way makes ALOT more sense.

I think in a perfect world, fluid would mean water. Better for our bodies, but in reality for most of us, it is other things too, with a goal of it being all water? Thats what I strive for (as I sit here with my full water bottle..and almost empty huge coffee cup.....LOL)

I would say add some sort of drink packet to your water. Or even just add some lemon juice. That way you know exactly what is in your water, but at least it's not so stinking plain...

The right amount of water for each person is half their weight in ounces. For example, a person weighs 130 pounds they should drink 65 ounces of water daily.

Decafeeinated tea may be included. Coffee, no as coffee is acidic (you don't have to eliminate but no more than one cup daily) and it also releases water/fluids from the body. Which water is to help hydrate your body.

Diet Soda, no. In fact think of soda as a treat. I would even recommend that if you have a pop that it is regular pop. Artificial sugars have many bad affects on the body including they have been linked to neuroligical problems and also stimulate the pancreas.

Sparking water isn't bad.

Maybe you should drink Reverse Osmosis water. You could just have bad tasting water in your home/work.

Why drink water? The body needs to be hydrated. Also one 8 ounce glass of cold water, burns 40 calories in the body. Why? The body is warming up the water and it gets the metabolism going.

Hope this helps.