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

According to recent research you probably could get away with drinking beer instead of water as long as it doesn’t exceed 2% ABV, as the alcohols diuretic effect is negligible at that concentration. But good luck finding any beer like that as basically all commercially available beer starts around 4% ABV.