Looking for the best drinks to hydrate?It turns out there are quite a few options when it comes to filling your bodyback up with water and electrolytes. Whether you're looking for post-workoutreplenishment or trying to keep your body hydrated during a bout of the stomachflu, these options will help you feel better. However, there are also some drinksthat won’t help when it comes to being dehydrated, so watch out for those.
The importance of stayinghydrated
Staying healthily hydrated means that you’remaintaining your body’s natural water balance. Your everyday optimalperformance depends on keeping that balance right, so you should replace allfluid that you lose. As over half of your body is made up of water, all of yourfunctions depend on there being enough. By knowing the best ways to rehydrate, you caneasily maintain a healthy level of hydration in your body.
Don’t forget that there are many adverse effects of dehydrationso you can stay motivated to drink more water!
What are the best drinks to hydrate?
Luckyfor you, there are a few drink options when you’re looking to hydrate. Becausethere are a range of options, you can mix and match so hydrating doesn’t getboring! We’ve listed the bestdrinks for you to hydrate below, so make sure to read them all.
1. Water
No surprises here. Water is always going to be one of the best drinks to hydrate.Pure water is completely natural. A half to three-quarters of our bodies aremade up of water, so when we start to lose some of it (ie: dehydration), whatdo you think it should be replaced with? There’s no arguing with that.
Take a look at
howmuch water we should be drinking.
2. Milk & milk alternatives
has suggested thatmilk is right up there with the most hydrating drinks. This is because it contains themineral sodium - an electrolyte also found in rehydration solutions such asDioralyte. Along with the natural amounts of sugar (lactose), protein and fatalso found in milk, this slows the amount of urine we pass and therefore cankeep us hydrated for longer. As milk also contains calcium and vitamin D, it’sgenerally an all-round healthy drink to help hydration levels.
If you’re not into dairy, you should be able to find a milk alternative to suityour taste buds. They generally have fewer calories, fat and protein than milk (althoughsoy milk has roughly the same amount of protein, and coconut milk may containmore fat). You can also go for the ones with added calcium, but best avoidthose with lots of added sugar.
If you’re ok with dairy in principle and just want to avoid lactose, thenlactose-free milk is your best bet as it has the same nutrient value thannormal milk. Instead of lactose, it contains lactase - the enzyme thatdairy-tolerant people produce that breaks down lactose in their bodies.
3. Fruit and herb-infused water
Adding a slice of fresh fruit or aromatic herb to your water is an ideal way toadd a bit of extra taste while staying healthy. While a slice of lemon, gingeror mint remain the favourites, why not try some different combinations - suchas strawberry, lime and basil or grapefruit and rosemary?
4. Fruit juice
That’s 100% fruitjuice, not the stuff made from concentrate. Also, whilethe real stuff is best as it contains lots ofvitamins and minerals, it does contain a fair amount of sugar - around 8-9g per100ml. Therefore we’re advisedto keep our daily intake down to roughly one small glass a day.
Find out more about theamount of sugar in fruit juices and smoothies.
5. Sports drinks
Not to be confused with energy drinks (such as Red Bull), isotonic sports drinks (such as Lucozade Sport, Powerade and Gatorade) are one ofthe best ways to rehydrate while exercising. While drinking water is sufficientlyhydrating for light and moderate exercise, isotonic drinks are what you need ifyou’re exercising for over an hour or you haven’t eaten in a fair while.
Decent isotonic drinks should contain around 50mg per 100ml of that oldhydration favourite, sodium, along with smaller amounts of other electrolytessuch as potassium and chloride, and around 6-8% should be a carbohydratesolution (that’s where the sugar is - around 6g per 100ml). This idealcombination will help give you energy and replenish what you lose in sweat but,because of all the sugar, isn’t great for you if you’re not exercising.
6. Coconut Water
Coconut water has been called the natural sports drink as it contains all theessential electrolytes: sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus.It generally has more potassium than sports drinks and, at around 4-6g per100ml, slightly less sugar. Coconut water contains far less sodium though soit’s no substitute if you’re into serious exercise. But that amount of sugar,while less than most soft drinks and fruit juices, is still one to watch ifyou’re not burning it off.
7. Tea
While you don’t want to be drinking too much regular tea all day, as thecaffeine may make you pee more and get dehydrated, herbal tea can be a greatway to help stay healthily hydrated as, like normal tea, it’s full ofantioxidants that can help fight off harmful free radicals that couldcontribute to diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Green tea is particularly great for antioxidants and has less caffeine thanblack tea. Decaf tea has obvious advantages over regular tea, but itsantioxidant power isn’t so great.
If you’re intrigued by tea, discover our article on
30things you didn’t know about caffeine.
The 8 worst drinks tohydrate
While most things are fine in moderation, there are some drinks thatare less than ideal when you’re trying to find the best ways to rehydrate. Check out some of the worst drinks you canhave when trying to stay hydrated:
1. Soft drinks
Most soft or fizzy drinks are packed full of tooth-rotting and weight-addingsugar, and some also have caffeine.
2. Beer, wine and spirits
Alcohol can have a diuretic effect, meaningthat it can make you pee more often. Although this can affect some people morethan others, anything diuretic will hinder your healthy hydration.
3. Hot chocolate
Although you’re only likely to drink a steaming mug of hot chocolate when it’scold and you’re not losing more body fluid than usual through sweat, the badnews is that calorific hot chocolate can contain more sugar than a can of pop.Sorry!
4. Coffee
We’re not going to tell anyone they shouldn’t enjoy a lovely cup of coffee, butwe would heed advice and not to drink too much of it. Excess caffeine can havea number of negative effects, from making you pee more, to stopping yousleeping, to upping your anxiety – although this does vary from person toperson.
5. Lemonade
Why is lemonade on the naughty list? To counteract the naturally bitter tasteof lemon, a huge amount of sugar is added to lemonade to make it sweet. It’senough to make your teeth cringe. Maybe stick to a nice slice of lemon in yourwater.
6. Energy Drinks
As we mentioned above, when talking about sports drinks, you shouldn’t get yourRed Bull confused with your Lucozade Sport. While sports drinks like LucozadeSport, Powerade and Gatorade are isotonic (made for drinking during longsessions of heavy exercise) energy drinks are hypertonic (designed forpost-exercise). Hypertonic drinks are more than 10% carbohydrate - that’s a lotof sugar and salt.
Most soft drinks are hypertonic, including co*ke, Pepsi and lemonade.While they may give you an immediaterehydration sensation when you gulp them down after you’ve been exercising, allthat sugar and salt will do you no good if you haven’t been active.
7. Flavoured milk
We’ve extolled the nutritional virtues of milk above, but when you start tohead towards the flavoured varieties, then that simply means that more sugarhas been added. And we don’t need to keep banging on about why added sugar isbad for you, do we?
8. Smoothies
It’s true, sorry. You think that smoothies are all well and good because of thefruit, right? Well, depending on what’s in them, some may be good as apost-exercise protein hit and most will be full of vitamins. But, more oftenthan not, they’ll also be packed with ‘free sugars’ that are released whenfruit and veg are juiced or blended. It’s that same sweet enemy again. The samerule as fruit juice above applies - stick to one small glass a day.
We already know that your body is constantly expelling water, making youdehydrated, and these sugar-filled drinks don’t help! Find out all theways your body loses water throughout the day.
How to know when you’redehydrated
The best way to rehydrateand stay hydrated is to stave off thirst by sipping water throughout theday, little and often. If you’re exercising or it’s hot, then you should upyour intake to replace the extra fluid your body’s losing. Barring any healthissues, your body does a great job at maintaining its natural water balanceand, if you listen, it will tell when you need to drink more water. Nature’sbest indicator is the colour of your pee - it should be clear or pale yellow,anything darker means you need to rehydrate.
What are the symptoms of dehydration?
Knowing when you’re dehydrated is important, so you know when yourbody needs a little more TLC. Here are the main symptoms of dehydration,according to the NHS
- Feeling thirsty
- Dark yellow and strong-smelling urine
- Feeling tired
- Feeling dizzy or lightheaded
- A dry mouth, lips and eyes
- Urinating little, and fewer than four times aday
How does dehydration happen?
Other than not drinking enough water, there are some other waysthat dehydration can occur. Dehydration can happen more easily if you have:
- Diabetes
- Vomiting or diarrhoea
- Sweated too much afterexercising
- Drunk too much alcohol
- Been taking medicines that makeyou pee more (diuretics)
- Been in the sun too long(heatstroke)
- A high temperature of 38C ormore
It's important to know whyyou feel so thirsty, so you can avoid dehydration. Check out article onthis and make sure to discovereight ways you can drink more water.
While we’ve listedall the mosthydrating drinks, we’ll always stand by our number one choice - water.It’s only natural! While the odd little cup of all the other drinks areabsolutely fine (we love our morning coffee!), you should always remember thatyour body has its natural levels of water, salt and sugar and will work bestwhen that balance is maintained. Why create trouble by constantly adding toomuch sugar or too much salt? The problem with most drinks, other than water, isthat they contain unnatural levels of sugar and salt, while pure water has allthe healthy natural minerals you need. Some of us will also try to cut down ondairy and caffeine, so, again, water always comes out on top. We don’t thinkyou can beat it.
For deliciously crisp water to rehydrate your body, discover why having
a home water system is just like havingmineral water on tap.
