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
Biological life itself is dependent on water due in part to its chemical properties. It is a polar solvent that plays a vital role in practically every metabolic process we know of, whether its as a solvent, a reactant, or something else altogether. There isn’t some grand reason for that- life evolved on a planet rich in water, and so water is of critical importance to earth life.
The issue with drinks like coffee and soda is the effect of the non-water ingredients they contain. Caffeine, for example, is a diuretic (it makes you pee) so you’re going to lose a lot of water that way. Could you survive? Maybe. But you’d need to drink massive amounts to keep up with the water loss.
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