Tea and Hydration

While you may tend to worry more about hydration in the summer, it’s actually harder to stay properly hydrated in the winter. During the hot summer months the heat makes you thirsty. When you’re thirsty you get something to drink, and you are hydrated. During cold weather, you don’t tend to get thirsty as often, and so you have to remember to hydrate. There is no heat to remind you.

Ideally, you should be drinking about eight glasses of water every day. Most people probably drink about half that much during the cold winter months. If you think about it throughout the day, it’s not difficult to do. The problem is that you have to think about it.

While tea contains caffeine, which is thought to dehydrate the body, this does not seem to be a problem with tea. A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that while high doses of caffeine may indeed cause dehydration, the caffeine in tea does not come anywhere close to those levels. The study actually goes further to claim that tea may actually be a better choice for hydrating than even water.

Since a cup of tea consists of ninety-nine and a half percent water, it stands to reason that if people are drinking hot tea during the cold months, that they are basically consuming their cup of water with their tea. While you still want to drink water when you can, now you can consider tea part of your effective hydrating regime.

The best thing about hydrating with tea is that while you are getting your fluid intake, you are also getting a hefty dose of antioxidants, which offer all kinds of health benefits. So while you do not want to over imbibe in your favorite tea this winter, certainly enjoying your regular ration of tea seems like it will actually do you a lot of good.