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

Related posts:

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

Some types of water retention occur when water and protein leak from your blood into your tissues. The protein may stay in the tissues, where it becomes a focus for attracting water retention.

If you take diuretics, your kidneys will work harder, and will extract more water from your blood. Some water may leave your tissues, but the protein will draw it back again, leaving your blood dehydrated. Your body will then learn to hold on to water in order to protect itself from dehydration. This holding on makes water retention worse.

You can read more about this in the Waterfall Diet book.

How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

Related posts:

1. Are Diuretics The Best Medicine To Treat Water Retention?
2. Water Retention And Water Pills
3. Natural Diuretics

Some well-known causes of water retention include heart or kidney problems. These are due to a reduced ability of the heart or kidneys to do their job, and can cause severe swelling of the legs and ankles.

Weak circulation in the leg veins is probably the most common cause of water retention in legs and ankles. This occurs in pregnancy and causes swellings like those shown in the video. In older people this problem may also result in varicose veins.

A blockage or congestion of the lymphatic system can cause a type of water retention known as lymphoedema (lymphedema), which is common after some types of surgery, for instance. People who spend a lot of time immobile, e.g. those in hospital beds, wheelchairs, or on long-haul flights, even “couch potatoes” can develop water retention because without regular movement, it is difficult for your lymphatic system to drain excess fluid out of your tissues.

Premenstrual water retention is also common, and is caused by the hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle.

Salt

One of the main causes of water retention is eating too much salty food. The main component of salt is sodium, which the body dilutes with water if too much of it is present. Salt makes you thirsty, and your body will hold on to this water. Reducing the amount of salt in your diet will help you to release a little water retention but not usually more than about 2 lbs in weight. Even a relatively salty diet, although it can be harmful in many ways, will not normally cause gross water retention.

Lesser-known Causes

Hormones and Medicines

High levels of certain hormones can also make your body hold on to water. These include insulin, which is needed to process sugar; cortisone, which is produced when you are under stress; and the female hormones oestrogen (estrogen) and progesterone. The water-retaining effect is caused by the effects which these hormones have on sodium levels in your body, and on the hormones which govern how your kidneys work. Certain prescribed medicines such as the contraceptive pill and some painkillers can affect levels of these hormones.

Water retention which is caused by hormones can be spread around the body but often affects your tummy most of all. Women can also get water retention in the breasts, which causes breast tenderness and swelling.

Wastes and Toxins

Cellulite, which mostly affects women’s thighs, is a form of fat complexed with retained water. Sometimes it holds so much water that it is swollen and painful to the touch. Metabolic wastes and toxins such as pesticides which the body cannot easily release tend to be stored in this fat. It is thought the causes of the water retention in cellulite are either irritation and swelling due to these toxins, or results from the body’s attempt to dilute them.

Low-Calorie Diets

If you have water retention you are very likely to be overweight. But overweight people tend to go on a low-calorie diet. A low-calorie diet will unfortunately not get rid of water retention – it can actually make it worse, especially if you eat less than 1,200 Calories a day for months or years. This is because you may not have enough protein in your blood to draw excess water out of your tissues. This type of water retention can cause generalised puffiness but if severe can give you a swollen tummy.

Histamine

Histamine causes water retention leading to bloating and tummy swelling. If you have ever been stung by an insect or developed an itchy red lump after a mosquito bite, you will be familiar with the effects of histamine. Histamine widens the joins between the cells which line your smallest blood vessels, known as your capillaries. This makes them leak both water and protein into your “tissue spaces” – the area surrounding the cells of tissues such as flesh, organs and intestines. If the protein cannot be removed from your tissue spaces, it will stay there, attracting water.

Poor digestion and taking antibiotics can cause changes in your intestines which lead to a lot of histamine being produced in this area. Sometimes eating yoghurt and probiotics can help to reduce this problem, but if it has been going on for some time these measures may not be effective on their own.

Drinking less fluid will not cure water retention. One of the causes of water retention is dehydration due to not drinking enough water.

Many types of water retention can respond to dietary measures. The Waterfall Diet has been designed by British nutritionist Linda Lazarides to help release excess water weight as quickly as possible. It can also help to treat health problems associated with water retention, such as swollen legs, arthritis, high blood pressure and PMS. (More information.)

Causes Of Water Retention is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

Related posts:

1. How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention?

Setting aside the diseases which can cause really gross water retention (these are mostly diseases of the heart, kidneys and liver), it is quite common  to retain up to 10 lbs of water weight. (That means excessive or abnormal water retention, not the water that needs to be in your body to prevent dehydration.) Occasionally a few individuals can hold up to 20 lbs of water retention.

How Much Water Weight Can You Have In Your Body? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

Related posts:

1. Do You Have To Go On A Water Diet To Get Rid Of Water Retention?
2. Why Do I Lose A Lot Of Water Weight On A Low-carb Diet And Gain It Back Again Afterwards?
3. Salt And Water Retention

Some people confuse the Waterfall Diet with a ‘water diet’. However they are not the same thing at all. A water diet means that you eat nothing and drink only water.

On the other hand the Waterfall Diet allows you to consume a wide variety of foods and drinks.

A water diet might temporarily get rid of water retention in some people but it would not have a lasting effect. That’s because when you start to eat again you don’t know which foods you should continue avoiding in order to prevent the water retention from returning.

The Waterfall Diet actually helps you to identify those foods, which is why it works so well.

Drinking more water

It is true that if you become dehydrated because you don’t drink enough water, your body could learn to hold on to water.  This can lead to developing water retention.  When you are dehydrated you produce less of the hormone that your kidneys need in order to excrete water. Dehydration is one of the causes of water retention.

Do You Have To Go On A Water Diet To Get Rid Of Water Retention? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

No related posts.