
People who refuse to drink water, no matter what - macbookaries
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/hydro-haters-people-who-dont-drink-water
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chousuke
What kind of water are these people drinking? I don't understand how you could
be dehydrated and hate the taste of water unless it's severely contaminated. A
glass of water when you need it is the best damn thing ever.

I'm pretty used to crazy people existing, but this one just does not compute.

~~~
esaym
I mainly only drink water, but note that not everywhere in the world can you
"drink" the water. My grandfather arrived at a US airforce base in Japan with
his family in tow. This was in 1955 or so. They had a nice house on base. But
the first time they turned on the kitchen sink, clear water came out... but
also worms.

I spent most of my teenage years in several small towns along the Texas gulf
coast. In most of these small towns, there was city supplied water, but it did
not come from some water company that had ran thousands of miles of water
mains. Instead every couple of blocks, there was a "water well" and a large
500-1000 gallon water/pressure tank which supplied water to a couple of
blocks. I was told that since we were only a couple of miles from the beach
that the wells were not that deep. I'd heard figures of "just 30ft", but not
sure if that was true. Nonetheless, that was some nasty water. I still drank
it though. Sometime in 1995 we got a brita water pitcher, it helped, but not
much. Almost no one drank the stuff.

The worst case, I was visiting a friend that had moved into deep east Texas.
The water was horrid. Almost impossible to drink. I took a shower that night,
and it couldn't even rinse the soap off of me. My first day there, I mainly
only drank beer. After going to bed late (still covered in soap), I woke up
the next morning with a partial headache and a huge thirst from having no
water the day before. I stumbled through the house to the kitchen sink. Found
a large cup, filled it to the brim. Took a big gulp. The water was cool and
quenching (or so I thought), but it was amiss. The taste, the thickness. I
couldn't do it. I started gagging heavily. Nothing came up as my stomach was
empty.. but still.. the water made a very thirsty man nearly puke. I took a
step back and looked at my other options. There was still some cheap beer
left, and there was a 2 liter bottle of diet pepsi on top of the fridge. I
can't remember what my choice was, perhaps I just passed out...

~~~
ASalazarMX
> the first time they turned on the kitchen sink, clear water came out... but
> also worms.

Whatever water tank/deposit they used had not been cleaned in ages. Surprising
considering recruits are basically free workforce.

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dwb
"Water tastes like nothing. Why would I drink nothing? What’s the point?"

The point is that water is fundamental to our survival. I just can't
understand how someone who is presumably fairly intelligent could say
something like this.

~~~
crimsonalucard
I can't understand how you can't understand this. How can someone of normal
intelligence not understand that many things contain or are made out of water
therefore the person saying that meant he/she doesn't drink pure water. He/she
probably drinks juice. This is so obvious. How can a person of normal
intelligence not be aware of this? Perhaps such a person is aware... he's just
being human and like all humans sometimes does things that are harmless and
slightly illogical.

~~~
dwb
Usually I'd be very sympathetic to this argument, but this person admits
further down they drink far too little in general. I'm not perfect by a long
shot, but I'd like to think I've got the fundamentals down.

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analogmemory
I feel like in the past this would anger me so much that people were wrong or
being dumb. Now I just feel sorry for them. They're walking Darwin award
nominees.

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Piskvorrr
The quest for more sugar in everything now bears fruit. If these people are
not addicted, nobody is.

~~~
erulabs
Exactly my thought after reading this - they don't hate the taste of water,
they hate the taste of not-sugar.

~~~
notacoward
That's way too simplistic (and judgmental). I'm not fond of plain water, but
"hates the taste of not-sugar" doesn't explain why I'd find unsweetened tea or
lemonade preferable. Yes, really. Heck, I'd find _salt_ water preferable in
terms of taste, though it's a bad idea for other reasons. What theory do you
have for why you're still a superior person?

~~~
erulabs
I'm not a superior person at all, and I never meant to imply that. But you
ought to know that unsweetened tea and unsweetened lemonade still has plenty
of sodium (or in the case of actual lemon juice added, fructose sugars (which
are not required to be listed on the labels)), which is also a flavor
enhancer. My point is that it's not water that tastes bad, it's that some
people get so used to salt and sugar in everything they eat that plain old
water tastes gross.

> I'd find salt water preferable in terms of taste

I'm absolutely sure that's true for varying levels of salt, as shown by your
preference for unsweetened tea.

Salt or sugar, they're both flavor enhancers, which was the point of my post.

Also, it's entirely possible that people who hate water live in places where a
lot of minerals and iron are in the water, which is common (and a lot of
people don't like that irony taste). Or, the reverse where people grew up in
areas _with_ a particular mineral in the water which is no longer there.
Personally, a nice ceramic filter on a Big Berkeley, put into the fridge for a
day, ooooh man I'm gonna go hydrate currently.

Edit: I should have figured from your aggressive tone that a reply wasn't
going to be productive, but after reading your bio - WOW. Feel free to let
this thread die!

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AdmiralAsshat
I feel like I could've easily been one of those people if I had been raised on
the _tap_ water from my town, which was absolutely vile (We received a non-
zero number of letters over the years from the county or federal government
proudly proclaiming, "Good news! The water in your town is _no longer_
dangerously toxic!"). However, my father hated the town water so much that he
paid for gallons of water to be delivered to our house from a cleaner source.
A poorer family might not have been able to afford that luxury, and grown up
thinking all water tasted like sewage.

I received a lot of ribbing from my friends during childhood for having a
water-cooler in our house. But our water tasted _good_.

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skizm
I've never been able to get a real answer: does sparkling water hydrate you
the same way flat water does? Also if there are "natural flavors" in the
sparking water, how does that affect hydration. I personally don't mind
drinking water, and always do during/after workouts, but prefer flavored
sparking water if the option is available. Just wondering if drinking a few
cups of that per day is the same as drinking a few cups of flat water per day.

~~~
Sileni
Per volume? Not quite, but not really measurably different. The CO2 dissolved
in the solution has to take up some small amount of space. Otherwise it's
basically identical; our bodies interact with enough CO2 in a day that you
simply aren't making a dent.

"Natural flavors" are essentially adding sugar and a couple chemicals to the
water. You can think of it as being effectively the same as drinking an
equivalent amount of H2O and taking a tablet that contained all of the
"natural flavors". No real difference in hydration, but taking in a bunch of
sugar after a workout is generally frowned upon. Go get some protein instead.

~~~
skizm
"Natural flavors" is in seltzer water with 0 sugar. It is also advertised to
have "no artificial sweeteners", which I realize might be bending the truth
somehow, but I'm pretty sure food and drink companies can't outright lie about
that stuff. From what I've gathered it doesn't affect insulin levels like the
artificial sweeteners from diet soda does, but I also can't figure out what it
actually _is_.

Side-note: sugar after a workout is the best time for sugar. You want to
replenish muscle-glycogen as soon as possible and sugar is a fast track to
that. Obviously you should opt for fruit over a Gatorade or sweets though.

~~~
verall
Be aware though, they can advertise 0 calories as long as it rounds to 0, so a
couple calories of sugar is "0 calorie natural flavor".

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module0000
Would these people refuse to drink water 200 years ago? If not, they would
most likely die. It's _almost as if_ there is some evolutionary element at
work here...bad decisions take you out of the gene pool the rest of us are
splashing around in. Unfortunately at this day in age, we find ways to keep
these humans alive, and empower them to share their suicidal preferences via
the internet.

~~~
ozim
I think 200 years ago people were mostly trying to stay away from water as
much as possible not to get sick. They were drinking beers, meads and all kind
of stuff that was somehow preprocessed. Still in a lot of places good water
from tap is not reality.

~~~
DonaldFisk
Indeed. Cholera was a serious problem. in 1854, Dr John Snow, suspecting that
contaminated water rather than "miasma" was the cause, mapped the cholera
deaths in Soho, London:
[https://www1.udel.edu/johnmack/frec682/cholera/](https://www1.udel.edu/johnmack/frec682/cholera/)

The closer to the Broad Street pump, the higher the death rate, with one
exception: the nearby brewery. The workers at the brewery drank beer instead
of water. (The water used to brew beer is boiled, killing the bacteria.)

Dr Snow had the handle removed from the pump, ending the epidemic. There's now
a pub nearby called the John Snow (in what is now called Broadwick Street),
and a kerbstone made of pink granite where the pump was.

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gumby
I thought this might be a prank article but someone commented here that they
don't like to drink water either. I had no idea.

Also: what's with the annoying gifs that don't add to the article but do move
and distract you when reading? That's one reason I thought this was a prank
article.

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empath75
I pretty much only drank soda until I was in my 30s and started to have
problems with reflux and heart palpitations from caffeine. Now I have a cup of
coffee in the morning and water the rest of the day. I can’t even drink a full
can of coke any more without feeling a little nauseous.

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calyth2018
Provided this article isn't a prank or parody...

Talk about first world problems.

Hong Kong flushes with sea water because of the lack of fresh water sources,
and these people complain about it because either the lack of taste, or the
metallic taste (from bad pipes?)

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newnewpdro
I knew someone like this, they changed after passing multiple kidney stones.

~~~
paulcole
Seems like a good startup opportunity. Break your bad habits by forcing a
small bluetooth-enabled stone through your urethra.

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sxp62000
As long as the water-haters are mixing ice cubes, tea, juice etc. in their
"waters" I think they'll be fine. I am going to assume this is a prank.
Although, if more blogs and news channels and talk shows pick this up, I
guarantee this will become a "thing" within 6 months. The internet is
exhausting sometimes.

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scotty79
I love to drink water from the tap as a kid. Then at some point I discovered
carbonated bottled water and tap water started to taste bad for me. It never
changed back. Even if I buy non-carbonated bottled water it tastes as bad as
tap water. I can easily drink tap water after it's boiled (warm or even cool).
Might be psychological.

~~~
Scoundreller
Heating tap water will quickly drive off the chlorine.

~~~
QuercusMax
Or running through a very simple and cheap carbon filter, which also takes out
a lot of other off-flavors.

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apo
Looking for clues that this is parody, here's a candidate ("Big Water"):

 _She’s been carted off in an ambulance after fainting at the gym, after
suffering a panic attack and after experiencing extreme exhaustion from a
minor cold — but she says she still won’t fall for Big Water’s scare tactics.
“Even if there are absolutely no other options [besides water], I usually just
opt to not drink anything,” she tells me._

Replace "drink water" with "minimize greenhouse gas emissions," "exercise,"
"eat less junk," etc.

Basically, the world is full of people determined to sabotage their own lives.

~~~
crimsonalucard
Big water is real though. It's the bottled water industry.

------
vinylkey
I'm a pretty non-picky eater, but I feel like I can usually empathize with
other people's picky eating habits. Not drinking water however, is something
that I just can't wrap my mind around.

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foxyv
I was like this for a while until we got an RO unit with a water polisher. Tap
water tastes like chlorinated algae and bottled water is just bottled tap
water unless you get something expensive. Carbon filters like Brita don't
really help that much with the taste. I ended up drinking mostly flavored
water like crystal light and Mio.

RO water changed all that. It is delicious! Put a jug of RO water in the
fridge and it's the best thing ever.

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citizen_e

      All these people I could look up were American, which I don't think is a coincidence. There's been a lot said about Americans lack of food culture, and I think this is a symptom of that.
      Just as some people eat fast food every day, these people always opt for the unhealthier alternative when it comes to their drinks. A strong food culture and tradition would go a long way towards teaching people to enjoy foods which are actually good for their bodies.

------
0--__-_-__--0
This doesn't seem that weird.

From what I understand it's very rare to drink water in Chinese culture
because it was historically necessary to boil it. You drink tea, booze and
soup, but not water. If someone with first hand experience can chime in on
this I'd appreciate it.

Same in historical Europe and America - alcoholic beverages were preferred
over water for health reasons.

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Raphmedia
Is it really that surprising that people who are raised on soda won't take up
water once they reach adulthood? Imagine the same situation but with regular
food. Would you switch to the healthier but totally tasteless and bland
alternative? I doubt it -- I know I wouldn't. I would keep eating steaks and
vegetables over a tasteless mush.

~~~
friendly_chap
Arguable steak and vegetables are some of the healthiest food you can eat, if
they are high quality...

~~~
Raphmedia
So are milk and vegetables juice (to a degree). I'm sure you can convince
those people to drop soda and energy drinks. It's the move to water that is
probably a hard sell.

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negzero7
After giving up diet soda I also hated drinking water because I found that, as
backwards as it sounds, it gave me dry mouth and actually made me feel
dehydrated. I drank it anyways but I discovered adding a tiny pinch of salt to
it made those symptoms disappear and I don't mind drinking water any more.

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v8engine
This is the first thing it reminded me of: ProZD's product review of drinking
water. It's quite funny.
[https://youtu.be/4ZK8Z8hulFg](https://youtu.be/4ZK8Z8hulFg)

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zwieback
These people seem mental but when I grew up in Germany (born '66) nobody drank
tap water. It was either sparkling water or some other kind of drink. Maybe
it's changed now, not sure.

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crimsonalucard
I get it. It's like why eat bread when you can eat a sandwich? Water is still
entering there bodies... I don't find this to be that incomprehensible as some
people here do.

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threatofrain
These people -- do they hate water, or do they find it too boring?

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stcredzero
I briefly dated a woman like that. I met her in an Aikido class. (She was
quite advanced in Judo.) Sometimes I really liked the way she smelled.
Sometimes I really didn't.

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ASalazarMX
So may stories about tap water being undrinkable. Why not filter and/or boil
it? You can make gallons of perfectly drinkable water easily.

~~~
notacoward
A lot of the people you're talking to won't even throw a prepared meal in the
oven instead of having one delivered. Boiling water is definitely not going to
be on the to-do list.

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JTbane
Reading this made me thirsty, no lie.

~~~
robotron
Yeah, I just downed my entire bottle.

------
scandox
Had a colleague like this: coffee and stout only. Nothing else. Never drank
water.

~~~
citizen_e
my dude

------
panzagl
Purity Of Essence

------
erobbins
My people. I can't stand drinking plain water. I need some kind of taste.

I end up drinking a LOT of iced tea, and G2 gatorade when I'm exercising.

