Alcohol, coffee, tea, plain water, and certain medications are my worst diuretics. Coffee is one of my very worst diuretic and always nearly gives me fecal incontinence as well. I like to save coffee for special occasions when I really need the extra super power it provides, like on the very early morning of a camping or skiing trip. I probably only have time to make and drink, or to buy, coffee a couple of times a month, so it really is a shock to my system when it comes on board. I like it strong.
Now we’ve arrived at my *very* worst diuretic: plain tap water. I’ll swallow it, turn around, and head straight to the toilet; it’s that bad that it passes through immediately; it sucks. The only exception is if I’m working out, and am in a risky need of hydration, then my body actually uses the water instead of just peeing it out uselessly.
Sugar sodas go down very nicely and slowly, just like I drink them. The caffeine in them doesn’t affect me at all, probably because I’ve been drinking them since I was a toddler (wish my parents hadn’t given me that bad habit). But I should probably try to avoid the ones with caffeine after 6:00 p.m. since I have so many insomnia/Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder issues. I think the bottom line is my body is really used to me having caffeine even though it may not be used to me having coffee.
Lately I’ve noticed with alcohol that I actually kinda shiver up and dry because my body is so thirsty for any liquid that it will use it wisely rather than excrete it the way it would with a really well-hydrated person. I intentionally keep myself half-hydrated, at most of the time. So alcohol, which I drink only a few times per year, has become less of a diuretic for me but I bet if I was well-hydrated, that wouldn’t be true.
I don’t eat a lot of Italian food because it’s full of acidic tomatoes, which I’m sometimes allergic to anyway. They give me cankers in my mouth and I’m not in love with their taste nor texture.
The spices of Hispanic, Venezuelan, Indian food, etc. don’t bother me at all.
I’m not sure that any of my eating or drinking effects my incontinence whatsoever since my incontinence is always going to be there anyway because it’s a problem with the nerve between my bladder and my spinal cord being severed, then onward to my brain, and that never changes. Neurogenic Bladder should be quite simply constant but it does have periods of flux. I have more trips to the bathroom like anyone else does when I’m really anxious.
