Why is that water is needed to live as opposed to alternative liquids? If coffee is just bean-flavoured water, why couldn’t you survive by only drinking coffee? If you were lost on a desert island and had only coffee, juice or soda to drink, could you survive?

Question

Why is that water is needed to live as opposed to alternative liquids? If coffee is just bean-flavoured water, why couldn’t you survive by only drinking coffee? If you were lost on a desert island and had only coffee, juice or soda to drink, could you survive?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Because earth organisms need h2o. Drinking coffee is still drinking water, just with other stuff in it. It would work. Same with basically any other drink (or food). Almost Everything we consume has water in it.

Now, theoretically you could imagine other life forms with different composition, and they would have different needs. Ethanol based, for example. But that’s not what we have here on earth.