a patient with a UTI cannot drink whatever he likes.
some times he or she must prevent themselves from drinking those soda cans or coffee-based drinks because of the negative effects that they might bring to his or her UTI condition.
so here are the drinks that are not allowed for people with UTI.
1_ coffee
2_ tea
3_ soda
4_ whiskey
5_ wine
6_ other alcoholic beverages
drinking one or more of these drinks may compromise your UTI condition.
so my advice to people with UTI is to prevent themselves from drinking those beverages until the urinary tract infection (UTI) subsides.
and even after the UTI subsides they must not drink too much of it because in most cases if a person gets a UTI once then the probability of the UTI returning back to him or her is increased.
it’s worth mentioning that it’s not gonna mean the end of the world for you if you drink one of them when you have a UTI. but I would rather consider this article a warning or something to bring your attention to these drinks and the possible harms that they might carry to people with UTI.
you can always drink more water after you drink one of those drinks, that might compensate for some of the harms. but if you drink them carelessly you might regret it because then water will not be able to reverse the harms that you did to your UTI condition.
and for now, we will discuss each one of the bad drinks that we have included in our list individually, and tell about why are they bad for the UTI and how much harm do they carry for people with UTI.
1_ Baking soda:
some people have kidney stones that are causing them a UTI in that case baking soda (sodium bicarb) can be good for them (depending on the type of kidney stones they have) baking soda can make the urine alkaline or less acidic which can dissolve the kidney stones and make it pass with the urine by this way you will get rid of both the kidney stone and the UTI.
ps: there are some types of kidney stones that are not affected by the baking soda like uric acid kidney stones so you better know what type of kidney stone you have before taking baking soda.
if you have a UTI, then you may have had many people advising you to drink baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) saying something like: “oh you have a UTI take a spoon of baking soda and put it in a glass of water then the UTI will go away I have tried this trust me”.
if the UTI was alone (not caused by a kidney stone or some other disease) then in the best case scenario nothing will happen and the UTI will continue then you will go to the doctor eventually.
in the worst-case scenario, the UTI will get worse and develop into pyelonephritis which is kidney infection which is a lot harder to be healed.
basically what baking soda or sodium bicarb does is that it alkalinizes the urine meaning that it makes the urine more alkaline.
the urine is moderately acidic in most times or slightly alkaline. in the case of people having a UTI, the urine is already alkaline because the bacteria need an alkaline medium to grow at it’s best.
so there is no need for you to make the urine more alkaline because basically that’s just what the bacteria want.
acidity kills and harms the bacteria.
bacteria usually will try to make the urine as alkaline as they can in order for them to grow in the best conditions for them.
if you want to know if your urine is acidic or alkaline check out the banana article (it sounds funny when you say it haha).
one of your goals, when you treat the UTI, is to make your urine acidic or somewhat slightly alkaline or neutral.
but when you make it more and more alkaline by drinking baking soda you will only make things worse.
so if you have a UTI then do not drink baking soda whatsoever because that can make things worse for you, only if you have kidney stones then that’s ok but I prefer you consult your doctor before you drink it.
2_ coffee:
coffee is a drink that is based mostly on caffeine.
the main constituent of coffee is caffeine without any doubt, and that is what makes many people consume it because caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant.
people drink coffee (caffeine) because caffeine gives them some temporary stimulation to their brains to go to work or other stuff.
but caffeine has side effects and am not talking here about the long term consumption of caffeine no, I’m talking about what the caffeine will do to you after you drink it in a short amount of time.
now caffeine has many effects or side effects actually after you drink it in a short amount of time but the one that concerns the people with UTI is that caffeine has a diuretic effect.
the diuretic effect will make you want to go to the bathroom more and urinate, in this way caffeine will deplete the body from the necessary water that it needs to fight the UTI.
basically what caffeine does is that it goes to a certain region of the brain which is responsible for bringing the water to the urinary tract, and caffeine tells it to bring more water all at once.
so in a short amount of time, you will be left with less water in your body, then a little dehydration might occur which will reflect on your urinary tract because little water will reach it after the effect of caffeine.
drinking more water will definitely be of help to you but it won’t be enough especially if you drink high amounts of coffee.
because the coffee will make the water go out at a higher pace, meaning that more water will be pushed out with the urine at a single time when you urinate.
so the coffee will not give a chance for the water to work its effect on the bacteria that caused you the UTI.
water can kill the bacteria or impede it’s growth at least. more about the effect of water on the UTI bacteria is in the what to drink for uti article.
water is very healthy for the people who suffer from UTI.
on the other hand, caffeine has proven to have an irritant effect on the bladder and the urinary tract in general.
irritation to the inner walls of the bladder or the ureter or the kidneys is the last thing that you wanna have when you have a UTI because basically that’s already what the bacteria is doing.
so from that one must conclude that coffee is bad for the UTI in a degree that makes you need not to drink it during all the time period that the UTI is still in your body. but after you treat the UTI you can drink coffee but only with moderate amounts and drink more water after that.
a great option for you is to switch to decaf coffee instead of regular coffee, which will also contain caffeine but in very lesser amounts.
I have found that Folger’s decaf coffee contains the smallest amount of caffeine among the other decaff coffee brands.
Starbucks, mcCafe, kirkland and other decaf coffees are also low on caffeine but still, Folger’s decaf coffee is the lowest on caffeine so it’s healthier for UTI patients.
purchase or see the price of Folger’s classic decaf coffee on Amazon.
3_ tea:
tea is always served with sugar.
that’s about the main reason why I have put tea in this list.
the sugar that is used to sweeten the tea is usually the fortified sugar which is the normal white sugar that we always put in our cup of tea.
that sugar is very bad for the UTI.
it can be used by the UTI bacteria as a source of food in the bladder or the urinary tract in general. artificial sugar is one of the direct reasons for the formation of kidney stones in some people.
kidney stones are always associated with causing UTI.
ps: coffee is also served with sugar, but some people drink it without sugar so. more information about the bad effects of sugar on the UTI is in the tips to prevent uti article.
tea also contains caffeine just like coffee but to a lesser extent than coffee (tea is about four times less caffeinated than coffee) but still, it’s a reasonable amount to be feared when you drink tea.
if you can drink a cup of tea with very few amounts of sugar and only in separate periods of time then it’s ok. but other than that you will be exposing yourself to the dangers of a worsened UTI case.
4_ soda or Fizzy Drinks or soft drinks:
in any size, shape or form soda cannot be of help to you if you have a UTI.
soda beverages whether they were Pepsi, coca-cola, or seven up or anything else that has soda in it can cause a lot of irritation to the urinary tract in general.
in addition to the irritation they cause, soda beverages are responsible for another thing that might affect the UTI negatively. drinking soda beverages will increase to a large extent the possibility of you getting kidney stones.
a study done by the US national library of medicine suggested that drinking soda beverages like Pepsi, coca-cola, seven up and others will increase the possibility of kidney stones by 23% which is very dangerous.
kidney stones and UTI are interconnected diseases meaning if someone has a kidney stone he is sure to have some degree of UTI with it. that’s because kidney stones cause wounds and scratches to the inner walls of the urinary tract which attract bacteria.
in addition to that, soda beverages contain a lot of sugars, not just the white sugar that we use in our everyday life but also contain other types of more complicated sugars.
so the body will need more water to neutralize those sugars and this will deplete the urinary tract from the necessary water for its health. though soda beverages also contain water but it’s like seawater the more you drink from it the more thirsty you will get.
because the amount of water lost by your body on the sugars neutralization process will be much more than the amount of water entering your body from these fizzy drinks cans.
so at the end of this segment, we can reach a conclusion that soda drinks or soft drinks or fizzy drinks can affect the UTI negatively in many ways. either by irritation to the urinary tract or by the high sugary content that it has or by its ability to form kidney stones in the body and by its other bad effects on the body in general.
we can reach a conclusion that soda drinks or soft drinks are very bad for the people who suffer from UTI and for healthy people as well.
soda beverages or soft drinks are bad to a degree that I will advise anyone who has a UTI not to drink any type of these drinks during the course of the treatment and also after the UTI have been healed.
5_ whiskey:
according to the national kidney foundation, alcohol, in general, can affect your kidneys badly and that’s with the chronic long term consumption of alcohol.
and they have stated why is that, saying that alcohol has a dehydrating effect on the body which will, in turn, reflect on the kidneys causing it many problems and disturbances.
and in the case of whiskey, I would add to what they say (based on my own personal experience) that whiskey has a very strong dehydrating effect on the body and also an irritating effect on the bladder as well.
dehydration and irritation to the bladder go hand by hand as two of the main causes of UTI (along with other factors of course).
dehydration from whiskey can aggravate the UTI to a large extent, basically because the dehydration from whiskey will be very strong.
dehydration is the most feared effect of the whiskey on the UTI.
because the dehydration of whiskey is pretty much severe you must try to drink a lot of water before, with, and after drinking whiskey. but even that won’t be enough especially if you drink heavily and worse if you are a chronic alcohol drinker.
now the effects of the dehydration that whiskey imposes on the UTI should be quite obvious to everyone.
dehydration will ease the mission of the bacteria of sticking to the inner walls of the bladder or other parts of the urinary tract because there is little water to flush them out.
also, the presence of water will increase the size of the environment on the bacteria making it harder for them to find food.
while in the case of dehydration it will be easier for the UTI bacteria to find food inside the urinary tract.
so the final judgment on whiskey will be that it’s bad on the UTI, I recommend for the person who has a UTI not to drink any kind of whiskey during the whole course of treatment for the UTI.
and to drink small to moderate amounts of whiskey after the UTI has been treated successfully or never to drink whiskey again which is better.
6_ wine:
wine is made by the fermentation of the sugar that is in the grape juice and turning it into ethanol which is alcohol.
that means that wine should have little amounts of sugar and yup that’s true, of course, that may vary depending on the type of wine, but generally, that’s the case.
but we shouldn’t worry about the sugar in wine nor about the short term effects of wine because as I understood from my research wine could have positive effects on health in general and also on the UTI.
also, wine has been found to reduce the possibility of kidney stones with both short and long term use. but where does the problem lye?
the problem is with the chronic consumption of wine because it’s associated with causing a variety of liver diseases.
having a liver disease will put extra weight on the kidney because if the function of the liver is somewhat decreased the organ that’s gonna replace the liver is gonna be the kidney mostly.
this will add an extra weight on the kidney which can expose it to many dangers because it’s gonna have to do some functions that the liver used to do.
this will expose the kidney to many diseases like kidney failure, Nephrotoxicity, and the one that concerns us in this discussion which is the UTI.
so drinking wine excessively and chronically is not a good thing for the UTI and may be one of the factors that lead to UTI even if you don’t have one.
so generally speaking drinking wine from time to time is not a bad thing for the UTI but drinking it every day can prove to be very damaging to you if you have a UTI.
also drinking wine chronically is not a good thing for your health in general even if you do not have a UTI.
7_ other alcoholic beverages:
from what have been shown to us about the harms of alcohol to the UTI. we can conclude that except for beer all of the alcoholic beverages are not good for the UTI.
beer is about 90% water that’s why it’s not in this list but on the contrary beer is good for the UTI.
do you wanna know more about why beer is good for the uti go to the best drinks for uti article.
other alcoholic drinks are about 40 to 50 maybe 20 percent alcohol which a very high concentration for the people who have UTI.
alcohol has a drying effect on the body which is in the case of people suffering from UTI that can be very harmful.
the urinary tract (especially the bladder) of the UTI infected people need every drop of water it can have in order to defeat the UTI or at least cope with it.
and when you come drinking that alcohol you will decrease the amount of water in your bladder or urinary tract which is not good news for your UTI condition.
more to that drinking alcohol in the long term can cause many liver problems like liver cirrhosis and other diseases because basically alcohol is processed in the liver.
with time this processing of alcohol can be tiring to the liver which in the end surrenders to diseases.
this is very bad in general and also very bad for the UTI because the kidneys now will do what the liver used to do and as we said earlier this will put extra weigh on the kidney.
this will eventually lead to kidney diseases and one of them is UTI.
ps: heavy long term consumption of beer can also be harmful to the liver so in any case keep a moderate consumption of beer.
__________________________________________________
that was my list of the 7 drinks or beverages that you cannot drink when you have a UTI. I hope that you stay away from them. thank you and goodbye.