Diuretic foods sound like a good idea if you’re trying to lose water retention or water weight. After all, no-one wants to take pills if they can help it.

But before you decide that diuretic foods are the best way to lose water retention, please be aware that they are not a cure. At best diuretics of any kind offer temporary relief. At worst they can be addictive and in the long term can end up making your water retention much worse.

You are probably cautious about them, which is why you are searching for information on diuretic foods rather than water pills (also known as diuretic drugs). But the fact is that anything which acts as a diuretic has the same effect on your body. It interferes with the natural hormones that keep your kidneys working in a healthy, balanced way.

The most powerful diuretic foods are actually drinks: tea, coffee and alcohol. All these items force your kidneys to go on excreting water even if you are becoming dehydrated. This is one of the most harmful things for your body. Dehydration in its early stages is not always noticeable. It may make you thirsty, but if you then consume more diuretic foods (drinks) you will simply stay dehydrated.

Diuretic Foods and Dehydration

If your body is constantly dehydrated, it can affect your ability to think straight, and in particular it affects your joints and your spine. Your bones need cartilage to stop them rubbing together. Cartilage is 90 per cent water. Dehydration makes cartilage shrink, and is likely to be one of the reasons why arthritis (swollen, painful joints) is such a common disease and also why backache is so common.

One of the worst effects of dehydration is to teach your body to hold on to water in your body’s tissues – preventing it from getting to the blood where your kidneys will grab and excrete it. Your tissues are where water retention collects and produces swellings, e.g. in your face, hands, feet, legs, ankles or tummy. Your body holds on to water here, to prevent these parts of your body from getting dehydrated. The more diuretic foods you consume, the worse this problem will get over time.

Diuretic Foods: The Solution To Water Retention?

Eating the right kinds of foods is often an effective solution for water retention. But these are not diuretic foods. They do not make your kidneys work harder. Some foods like dark blue and purple berries are great because they help to start healing some of the causes of water retention. But it is the overall balance of your diet, and sometimes the foods you don’t eat, which really makes a difference to a water retention problem.

Please do explore some of the other articles on this site, which tell you more about water retention causes, and about a book called the Waterfall Diet, which contains a self-test and plenty of other helpful information.

Water retention is often a sign that you need to pay some attention to what you are eating. It could turn out to be a blessing, because if you change your diet now, rather than just try to rely on diuretic foods, you may be able to prevent worse health problems from arising in the future.

Diuretic Foods is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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1. Do You Have To Go On A Water Diet To Get Rid Of Water Retention?
2. How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention?

Water retention does not occur in the stomach itself, which is a sac in which food collects and is mixed with acid to begin digestion. However water retention can occur lower down, in the abdomen or belly, where it is sometimes described as ‘bloating’. Mild bloating is very common and usually due to digestive problems or premenstrual syndrome. The Waterfall Diet is a good treatment for these causes.

On the other hand severe abdominal water retention can be due to underlying disease.

1. Liver problems

Liver damage such as caused by alcohol abuse can lead to blood pressure problems in your abdomen, which forces water out of your blood vessels and into your abdominal cavity – the space around your abdominal organs.

2. Heart problems

Heart failure (a chronic condition where the heart gradually loses its pumping force) can also cause abdominal water retention. Because the kidneys are not stimulated to work properly, people with heart failure tend to collect severe water retention all over their body, especially in the legs and ankles.

3. Severe protein deficiency

Children in developing countries who do not get enough to eat often suffer from severe water retention in the abdomen. This is caused by not getting enough protein and is visible as a large swelling. People in the west who eat very low calorie diets for a long time and do not pay proper attention to getting anough protein may suffer from a mild version of this problem.

These three conditions can cause large amounts of water to collect in your abdomen and in severe cases you can actually feel it swishing around. If this is your problem you must get medical treatment immediately. If you have liver damage due to alcohol abuse it is essential that you stop drinking straight away.

If you consult a practitioner it may be confusing if you say you have water retention in the stomach. You should always show the practitioner where the water retention is occurring.

Water Retention Stomach is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

Related posts:

1. Bloating And Water Retention
2. Water retention, heart failure, water pills

Water retention in men is often more straightforward than it is in women since men do not have a monthly menstrual cycle.

In men, the causes of water retention can still be hormonal, but the hormone in question is more likely to be insulin. As we age our insulin can lose its effectiveness, so the body tries to compensate by producing more insulin. This happens in both men and women. High insulin levels interfere with the body’s sodium control, resulting in water retention.

This water retention is not always visible. It can just look like you’ve put on a bit of weight, but this weight is water as well as fat.

Men and oestrogen (estrogen)

High levels of the hormone oestrogen can also cause water retention. Just as testosterone is found in both men and women, so is oestrogen, although it plays a more important role in women’s bodies.

Oestrogen can be produced by body fat, so overweight men are more likely to have higher oestrogen levels. Many of today’s pollutants such as PCBs also have an oestrogenic effect, and men can be affected by this too.

Other causes of water retention in men

It may surprise you to know this, but you can suffer from both dehydration and water retention at the same time.

Dehydration is a common cause of water retention. When it is dehydrated the body learns to hold on to water in order to prevent damage to its vital tissues. Men are more at risk of dehydration than women because they are more likely to do manual work which increases sweating, or very active sports such as football. Men also tend to drink more alcohol, which has an extremely dehydrating effect.

Other drinks which cause dehydration are tea and coffee. Like alcohol all these drinks stimulate the kidneys to remove more water from the blood.

Most people need to drink much more water than is their custom. The minimum for men is two litres a day – more if you are physically active.

Water Retention In Men is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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I have been retaining water and gaining weight because of it on and off for the last two years. My main problem, is not only the swelling and weight gain, but also my shortness of breath. I can barely walk 20 feet without nearly gasping for breath. I have been to Pulmonologist, Cardiologist, and both say everything looks OK in their prospective categories. What could be causing this severe shortness of breath that seems to have come along with the water/fluid retention.

Answer

When the tissues of your body are waterlogged with water retention, it is much harder to absorb oxygen. This makes your body want to breath faster, to get more oxygen that way instead.

The Waterfall Diet works best for water retention of unknown cause, which seems to be the case with you. The paperback version is more informative, and is available from Amazon websites (see panel opposite).

Water Retention and Breathing Problems is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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I have old blood clots in both lower legs. Scans have showed that my body has performed by passes around them. That I’ll never get rid of them. I’m on blood thinner and water pills since Sept 2009. I’ve lost 35 lbs through dieting, I drink lots of water, use very little salt and am very active with volunteering for 20 yrs now. Exercise some, can walk on treadmill slowly, bounce on rebounder and on feet while volunteering – but sit at the computer a lot every day. I have a semi stiff knee that was broken in car accident 55 yrs ago.  I never get rid of the water retention in legs and they are always swollen. Dr said I’d just have to live with it. I’ll be 79yrs in Sept and healthy otherwise and don’t take any other meds. Don’t take pain pills either – don’t need them.  I hope this diet wll help me.

Answer

The exercise you are getting sounds good – exercise is important to help the leg veins. Drinking water is good too. If you have been given water pills for water retention in relation to heart, kidneys or high blood pressure then they may be useful, otherwise they could be doing more harm than good (see this post on water retention and diuretics).

The first part of the Waterfall Diet is a test that you perform on yourself to see if any specific foods are contributing to your water retention. It also recommends many foods that can help to strengthen the veins in your legs. In the legs the blood has to travel upwards, fighting against gravity. When the leg veins are weak, blood may collect in the lower legs and ankles, and water tends to leak out of them, causing swelling.

The

Water Retention In Legs is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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Carolyn Burris from Laguna Beach, California is a real person, with real before and after pictures. Here is the story of how she lost almost 20 pounds of water retention in just two months.

“I began the Waterfall Diet program in earnest beginning of August, 2009.  It is towards the end of September now and I have literally peed out almost 20 pounds worth of water retention. I lost 10 pounds in the first 3 weeks. I hope to drop another 5-10 pounds. I am fairly sure all my excess weight was water retention as I have always been a decent eater. Now I am a healthy eater.  I eat plenty of foods and don’t get hungry.”

“I also joined a gym and a trainer helps with exercise. It has been 15 years since I have been in the gym. I love it but I know it is the Waterfall Diet that is making the difference.”

“When a gym trainer weighed me in before I started the Waterfall Diet, I was just short of 173 pounds. Today I weighed myself at 154. I have lost almost 4 inches of water retention from my belly. I couldn’t be happier. So many pieces of information in your book have fit for me. I feel for so many who try to lose weight and struggle and work out so darn hard. This way was easy and only took 2 months. Thank you so much Linda.”

16 lbs of Water Retention
Testimonial from Alison in Ozark, Missouri

“Happy to report have now lost 16 lbs!…in 25 days! I only started the diet on 30th August. I’m again referencing your original book about the Waterfall diet with recipes and such, and this time around, have become more adventurous with food preparation. Have downloaded your low carb and additional recipe suggestions.”

23 lbs of Water Retention
Testimonial from Lucy in New Jersey

“Well, I bought the book on the Waterfall Diet and so far I have lost 23 pounds because I started out at 188 and now I am 165. I am still losing slowly but before it was impossible for me to lose weight.”

“I am very happy that I found this diet. It is not really starving yourself but eating foods that are right for you. Yesterday I was at the doctor’s office for a blood test which I have to take every three months. I found out that my blood pressure was 112/72, the nurse told me that reading is excellent, my normal reading use to be 120/80.  I am so happy now I know the causes of water retention for me and why I was unable to lose weight.”

More Comments

“Thanks to your book I now understand what my problem is – water retention! After 60 tests I still couldnt get to the bottom of why my legs felt separate from the rest of my body (my upper half is quite sinewy!).”

“Dear Linda I have recently downloaded your 2 books, the Waterfall Diet and Treat Yourself with Nutritional Therapy. I’m very excited to have found the first one as I have had water retention most of my life and there hasn’t been one doctor who has pinpointed it like you did. I started the diet this past Monday and already feel better. Thank you very much for this positive information.”

“I’ve signed up for your newsletter. Looking 4ward to more info to learn from. Linda’s writing is so inspirational and practical!”

“Loved the book!”

“Your Nutritional Health Bible is one of my bibles”.

“I have had this weight problem for the last 3 years. The facts mentioned in your book about water retention exactly fits my problems. Hence I was confident that my weight issues was due to water retention. In one year I had put on 15 kgs.  I tried all sorts of exercise  diet programmes  but nothing changed my weight. In the first one week after I started the waterfall diet I lost about 5 kgs. ”

“I love you Linda. My feet were swollen for 10 years before I read your book. Thank you so much. God bless you.”

“I never thought foods can make a difference to powerful and stubborn hormones, but this book has changed my perception on food nutrition for ever. Your diet does help to lose water retention weight and I would recommend your book like no other!!!! I put on water retention after my miscarriage and until now could not lose it. MILLION THANK YOUs Linda and wishing you all the best. Hope xxx”

“Linda, I just want to thank you for helping me to lose weight. I have religiously been working out since last October with barely any results in weight loss. I began at 170lbs. After drinking Acai Berry juice, I loss 7 but once again I plateaud. Leaving the 160s had been the hardest thing I ever did. When my doctor told me the amount of water I could be retaining could be caused by HRT, I googled how I could get rid of it. The Waterfall Diet came up. I ordered the book I think two weeks later and the pounds have shed like crazy. I feel healthier and don’t have to take my blood pressure pills everyday. My 30th High School Reunion is this weekend and I’m looking fabulous at 141 pounds. Thanks so much! PS I have sent a letter to Oprah requesting that she put you on her show.”

Download Low-Carb Dieting and the Waterfall Diet (E-guide). Includes full instructions for the Waterfall Diet.
Linda’s Flat Stomach Secrets. (Her latest book.) Includes help with both water retention, bloating and belly fat.

Water Retention | Testimonials is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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Most of us have been brought up to believe that a health problem should be treated with a tablet. This is fine if you have a disease caused by bacteria, since antibiotic tablets will make it go away quite quickly. If you have a headache, an aspirin tablet can also provide a quick cure.

But the truth is that most of today’s problems are not temporary conditions like infections or headaches. They are chronic or long-term problems like water retention, chronic fatigue, PMS or eczema. There are tablets available for these conditions, but they are not cures. They only provide temporary relief.

Meanwhile, the metabolic imbalance in your body which is causing the chronic condition, is still there in the background, and usually gets worse in time.

I don’t know anyone who is happy with the results of taking water retention tablets unless they have been prescribed them for a heart or kidney condition. In fact I get messages all the time from desperate people who have been buying water retention tablets and finding that the more they take the worse their water retention gets, so the more pills they have to take to get the temporary relief.

Please don’t become one of these people. If you have checked with your doctor and he has given the all-clear to your heart and kidneys, then your water retention is simply being caused by a metabolic imbalance. Metabolic imbalances are very common these days, and are caused by eating and drinking too many of the wrong things and not enough of the right ones.

The Waterfall Diet book or E-guide (see column on right) provides the information you need to get rid of your metabolic imbalance and permanently relieve your water retention problem. It tells you what to eat and drink, what to avoid or ration, and includes a self-test so that you can check whether there are any foods that are particularly bad for you.

Water Retention Tablets is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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3. Are Diuretics The Best Medicine To Treat Water Retention?

Reader # 1

I am 63 years old and suffer from what I believe is lymphoedema. My legs and stomach are very swollen with water retention.  One leg was stripped of varicose veins 30 years ago. The past two years I have been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease, high blood pressure, thyroid abnormality, severe arthritis, vitamin D deficiency, severe swelling of my legs and stomach (255 pounds when three years ago I was 178 pounds). I am taking five medications and a low dosage asprin daily but my swelling persists. I walk two miles daily and do light weights or swim four times per week for 45 minutes. Your column is interesting and I need help.

Reader # 2

Can anything be done to improve on hereditary lymphodema? Is there any tests that can confirm this?  What exactly is the cause?  It started in puberty but now my ankles and legs are really big.  I am 30 and not over weight.

Answer

Exercise is very important to help prevent the congestion of the lymphatic system which causes lymphoedema type water retention. I cannot say that the Waterfall Diet will be the answer to what looks on the surface to be a complex medical case, but it sometimes is, so it’s well worth you reading the paperback edition to get the information. It has a section on lymphoedema and if you decide to give the diet a go (on an experimental basis) it could help your water retention and improve your general health.

Hereditary lymphoedema is quite rare. Parts of the lymphatic system become blocked, so massage is important, among other things. We have to remember also that a genetic disorder does not mean a condition cannot be improved with diet and nutrition. Some abnormal genes simply cause the body to require more of certain nutrients than other people. Problems relating to deficiencies of  those nutrients can then arise but can go away if you make healthy changes to your diet or (in some cases) take the right nutritional supplements.

It is not just genes which are hereditary. Eating habits are too, so if the family diet is lacking in some way, the resulting health problems can seem to be inherited.

Lymphoedema (lymphedema) is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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I have been prescribed so many drugs that cause water retention and yet no potassium loss and I still lose it because I sweat so much when I exercise.  Therefore, next time exercise time comes around I’m so burnt out and hurting I can’t do any more usually for a week.  Then I’m given cymbalta which is causing more weight gain.  I at least got the doctor to reduce the dosage to the smallest and lost about five pounds in two to three days.  He said the drug wasn’t causing it, but after he finally looked down at my chart he saw I had gained ten pounds in less than two weeks. Will the Waterfall Diet counteract this side effect of the blood pressure drugs and cholesterol drugs and cymbalta?

Answer

The Waterfall Diet might be too much for you to cope with at the moment if you have been prescribed cymbalta. What I would suggest is that you get yourself on a really healthy eating regime: lots of fresh fruit and vegetables every day, fish and lean white meat, olive oil and try to avoid sugary foods and drinks and deep-fried food. Hopefully this will give you more energy and help to reduce your blood pressure so that your doctor may be able to reduce your medication. Once you have got to this stage you may want to read the waterfall diet book but it is a good idea for you to get used to healthy eating habits first.

Can you lose water retention when you’re taking many medications? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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I’ve been very stressed and my body feels bloated and sore all over. I am retaining a lot of water. Can this be caused by stress?

Answer

In the short term the direct cause of your bloating and water retention is probably not stress. That means if you have only been under stress recently then there is probably some other cause.

But if you have been under stress for several months, then yes, this can cause hormonal changes in your body which can increase the size of your waistline and also makes you more prone to water retention.

Stress makes you release a hormone called cortisol. If you are constantly producing too much cortisol due to stress, you will be likely to put weight on mostly around your middle. Some people with stress-related weight gain have a very large middle and quite thin arms and legs.

If you have only been under stress recently, then you may be eating a worse diet than usual, and your digestion may be bad. Bad digestion tends to cause bloating and gas.

If you are consuming a lot of soft drinks and convenience foods, these can be high in sodium, which could account for the water retention.

You can find more information about all this in my book Linda’s Flat Stomach Secrets available from Amazon.

Can stress cause bloating or water retention? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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