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
Coffee, juice, and soda are not “other liquids” in the way that, say, cooking oil is. Those are all just water with stuff in it. However, in some cases, like coffee, the other stuff in the water causes your body to produce more urine, which can make it so, on net, you lose water. Whether or not the diuretic effects of coffee are enough to completely cancel out the water you gain I can’t say (though I doubt it). You probably could survive (i.e. not die of dehydration) by just drinking coffee. The same definitely goes for juice (which is mostly just water + sugar) or soda (same thing with CO2 mixed in).
Latest Answers