No Stupid Questions

It doesn't make sense to me that I don't like drinking water. When I lived in the desert, I would drink it all the time, but it's a habit that I've fallen out of. Strangely, I went back to the desert on a trip and immediately resumed drinking water again.

For me, I don't like the taste. I can taste the chlorine and fluroride and other stuff in the water. I have an RO system with carbon filter and then I need to have it near freezing. Even then, I need to put stuff in it like berries, cucumber or mint. I don't drink pop, sports drinks or other stuff like that. I do drink tea and coffee.

Yeah, my doctor told me that I'm dehydrated, so I'm trying.

Because their parents never taught them to.

I imagine a 1 2 punch of they are used to sugary intense flavour drinks, and their teeth are gross from them so neutral water tastes bad. Like their mouth

Had family who lived in an area known for having the highest quality tap water who refused to drink any water. One notably said "I'm not drinking what fish fuck in!"! I think they have never been truly dehydrated. I can't tell you the ecstasy of a cold glass of water when you're legit thirsty!

Former non-water drinker here.

I was addicted to caffeinated/carbonated sodas. I never had any problems drinking almost exclusively diet coke for a long time. My caffeine consumption was well over the FDA recommendation for maximum daily intake.

I would still drink water, especially when doing sports or exercise, but it wasn't my go-to for hydrating myself throughout the day.

Several times in my life, I quit drinking them, but I would always circle back around to it because I missed the taste more than anything, and I had never noticed any kind of significant health benefit to stopping.

Recently some months ago, I was having some pretty severe bladder issues. Sudden onset urge to urinate. Like going from 0-100 in a racecar, the rapid urgency was the main issue. One minute I was fine and if you asked if I needed to use the bathroom I'd say "Nah", and then 5 minutes later I'm literally dancing my way to the nearest toilet to just barely make it in time, like literally almost peeing my pants it was that bad.

Went to the doctor about this, obviously, and that was when he told me that the extreme caffeine intake is causing irritation in my bladder and diagnosed me with Overactive Bladder Syndrome. I was instructed to completely cut out caffeine from my regular drinking habits, no tea or sodas, but I could have a cup of coffee in the morning to get me going, although initially I would want to quit cold turkey to purge my system of caffeine and let my bladder settle down. So water it was. Within about a month, I started to feel more regular again and I didn't need to rush to pee as often and when I did I could hold it for longer periods of time.

Now I pretty much drink only water all the time. I take a big 54oz jug with me to work and refill it towards the end of the work day. I'll have a cup of coffee now and then in the mornings on weekdays, but I try not to make a habit of it, and I'll have a sip of a soda at the movies or something, but I don't even miss the taste of cola anymore. Occasionally I will buy the flavored waters at the grocery store just to get the carbonated experience, but I can't drink those all the time. Water is great, it just takes forever to get your brain used to the idea that not everything you put in your body needs to have flavor. It's super refreshing to get the filtered water pitcher right from the fridge, maybe pour it over a glass of ice, and drink it straight that way.

In short, chugging sodas never used to bother me at all, but I guess as I'm getting older my body is just not having that shit anymore. Just like how I can't eat straight junk food and not gain any weight like when I was a teenager, my metabolism has finally caught up with me on my soda/caffeine addiction and I had to cut that out too. I realize that I am better off now for it and I'm going to try and keep up the good habit I've started to form and keep drinking water.

I expect it's just a taste thing; water tastes fine but, like, it could taste more interesting if we added a bit of sugar or flavor to it (I was a huge justice fan).

For my own end, it was an easy way to keep my emotions/mood simulated or engaged against my depression that was low effort and easy to supply; that said, I switched entirely to water last year and, now fully comfortable drinking nothing but water and being fairly averse – previously –, I can't say the previous reasons really make that much of a difference for me, now. Maybe it's just having drank to my non-water content, already, but drinking nothing but water's been pretty great and removes low-key health fears I always had.

For me it's because I've been drinking carbonated drinks for so long that flat water is awful to drink. I know it's good for me, I know I need to stop the carb drinks. I know I'll live a longer life if I do this. But it's somewhat like an addiction for me, it's really hard to quit and move to water.

The tap water in my area tastes pretty gross. I've tried the flavored water and never really found one that was good and didn't have weird taste or drinking effects. I would do carb water but it's so expensive, more expensive than my carb drinks now. So it's hard to even find a replacement.

Wait until they get kidney stones from being chronically dehydrated

I drink it now...on town water lol. Growing up outside of town proper in my area it did not taste good and left you more thirsty than when you started drinking it. The water was hard enough taking a shower felt like washing down with iron wool and if you stayed in more than five minutes you came out peeling. I was actually amazed the first time I lived in a town center on town water and the water didn't make my skin feel raw lol. I was floored when I lived in a beach town and not only was the water mild, something in the area made the water taste slightly sweet and enjoyable to drink instead of "somewhat metallic from old pipes, but inoffensive cause it's thirst quenching instead of thirst exacerbating".

The water in some USA cities does taste terrible. Some rural and city water is unsafe to drink. Grow up in one of those places, and one may hate it.

The pipes in my residence are at least 60 years old, made of metal, and the resulting water tastes a bit suspect. I get water from the grocery store and put it in the water cooler. Costs about $10-20ish for 20 gallons, but probably far safer than what the tap provides.

Replacing all of the pipes would cost $19,000+. 😨

I drink as much water as I can handle at work so I can go take a leak and have my phone out and not risk getting in trouble with the boss. I don't eat breakfast or lunch. Since starting work 3 months ago I lost 30lbs. I'll eat anything for dinner and I haven't been trying to lose any weight.

I will add that moving to first shift after over a decade of second shift has been hard on my system and I've vomited in the mornings before work more often than not. It's like clockwork. I have learned that I've got a window of about 4 hours after work during which I can eat. Sticking to that keeps morning nausea at bay thanks to an empty stomach in the morning.

Anyways water is great. The other guy at work brings cases of bottled water which I try to understand. The water quality here is quite good and a majority of my water at work comes out of the tap. I have no complains and I wouldn't spend a dime more than I am now for what I get in addition to microplastics.

Eating and drinking are almost entirely habit. I would say the main driver is parents not teaching kids to just fucking drink water. You don't need something with fizz, color or flavor. Water's been keeping humans alive forever.

People who don't drink water make me unnaturally irritated. It's just so crazy. "I don't breathe air because don't really like the taste".

I know I sound like an asshole. It shouldn't matter to me what you do. It's your body and your life.

Still...c'mon, like what? It's water. It brings life. It's the original thirst quencher. It's what your body needs. Just drink it.

For my fiance it's due to autism, we live in annars with amazing water quality and I drink it without issues. She can't handle the flavour sometimes though, she gets nauseous. The solution is to add sugar free flavouring to the water. Works pretty well and she actually drinks enough water now.

Like what? The toilet water?

Sometime in my 20s I just switched to water only. It wasn't even a conscious decision really. Wasn't like one day I woke up and was like I'm just going to drink water now. Just one day I'd realize that you have been like 2 years since I drank any soft drink. So I tried drinking some Dr pepper which I loved. It was disgusting. I had someone try to see if there was something wrong with it and they said it tasted perfectly normal. And it's been that way for a long time now. I've tried little sips of new soft drinks that have come out that my friends like... And none of them taste good to me. Just room temp water, perfect.

I used to use mio to add a little flavor every now and then, but switch to Crystal light. I found the flavors to be more consistently good.

Basically they're people who got caught in the food industries propaganda.

They might consciously know they need regular water, but their body is now craving sugar with every sip. If it's missing, it feels wrong.

Sugar needs to be much more regulated, especially for kids... Adults may be responsible enough to handle it but without regulation the industry will run wild and make everyone addicted.

Living off flavored drinks and craving that sugar is stimulation you don’t get from plain water.

I don't like the taste of pure water. Filtered, bottled, doesn't matter. It tastes bitter and metallic and it always takes effort to choke down.

I keep a bottle of unsweetened juice and use a splash of that to add the bare minimum of flavor I need to be able to enjoy drinking it at home, and when I'm out and about I just drink it and suffer.

I wondered this for a long while, but I've realized that I'm in a pretty privileged position. Where I live (the Netherlands) the tap water is not only drinkable, it's actually almost indistinguishable from mineral water. Certainly for me at least. I'm not much of a traveller, but when I was in Oostende in Belgium I remember the tap water was absolutely vile. It was (or at least tasted like) desalinated seawater. Instead of hydrating and refreshing it tasted stale and salty. If that was the only water I knew I probably would be drinking more refreshing stuff like ice tea or cola all day as well. When I got back to the Netherlands my first glass of tap water tasted like heaven.

water? like out of the toilet??