Why am I so thirsty?

[Smorgasbord]

I've searched the site but haven't found the answer to this perhaps obvious/ridiculous query. Why is it that you can eat a meal at a restaurant that tastes great and not overly seasoned, but the next day [or even a few hours later] you're drinking literally litres of water and you're parched like the Sahara? This happened to me after eating at an Italian resto yesterday, but has happened to me with all varieties of restaurant cuisine [I must add that it happens about 20% of the time, not all the time]. My point is, if it's the salt, it would have tasted too salty and I would have noticed- if I put even a tad more salt than normal in home-cooked meals, it practically ruins the dish with its overpowering saltiness. If it isn't the salt, then what is it? It's not the alcohol- I usually have one glass of wine, whereas I would have 2 or more glasses at home, so it's not dehydration. I'm stumped! Hounds?

[hannaone]

Quite a few people seem to get this reaction when there is more sodium content (ie the combination of salt and MSG and whatever else the resto uses). It may be that everything you ate has salt and or MSG, just below the "salty" level, but the combination from all sources pushes your sodium intake up.

[rockandroller1]

I get this with MSG too.

[Miss Needle]

A lot of restaurants add salt in different stages than what a lot of home cooks may do at home. It doesn't taste overtly salty because it's not added at the end (which I find a lot of home cooks to do), but there's a lot of salt in the dish. And the Italian restaurant may use a lot of cheeses in their food which has a lot of salt. If you put cheeses in at an earlier stage of cooking (eg. simmering tomato sauce with parmesan rinds), the cheesiness is not pungent as if you grated it towards the end. But you still get all the salt from the cheese.

If that's not it, you may be sensitive to hidden MSG. It's not only Chinese restaurants that use it. I'm not saying that they'll have a bag of Accent lying around, but it could be hidden in a lot of processed ingredients they use. Thank goodness I don't have the issues some may have with excess MSG like headaches, but after an MSG-laden meal, I need to drink a ton of water.

[Ruth Lafler]

Plus, parmesan is very high in natural MSG, so if your sauce was simmered with parmesan rinds, and then you put parmesan on top, you're getting a lot of MSG. LIke hannaone, I also get dry mouth from artificial sweeteners.

[hannaone]

Another thought is artificial or substitute sweeteners. I get a serious case of dry mouth/throat from every sweetener I have ever tried, including those derived from sugar like Splenda.

[phantomdoc]

If you were to fast for a few days you would become more aware of the high salt content of many restaurant foods. Sometimes the salt content is not obvious. In a tomato sauce that has wine and sugar added the salt will be less noticeable. I had this experience Saturday night after dinner at Grand Sichuan. I kept drinking water throughout the meal. I like to keep 2 bottles of water on my nightstand to take my bedtime medication and supplements. During the night i finished both bottles of water. After dining in a New Orleans type of restaurant I was parched for 2 days. Have you ever noticed that the most used ingredient for Emeril to season with is Salt? Sometimes 2 or 3 times in a single dish.

So it is probably the salt whether you taste it or not.

[ipsedixit]

Ditto what others have said.

It's probably some combination of salt, MSG, and the higher fat content of restaurant meals.

[Halie]

Why don't you start drinking water in addition to wine, and more throughout the day? This should solve your problem, I'd think.

[coll]

My husband's family always complains that they get totally thirsty from garlic. I never get thirsty for any reason so I can't say, but they swear that's it.

[PeterL]

Does this just happen recently or have you always had this reaction? If it's a recent phenomenon it would be a signal for diabetes. Check with your doctor.

[lynnlato]

That was my first thought. Extreme thirst is a symptom of diabetes. You may want to have your blood sugar checked just to be certain it's not a medical issue.

[cor]

My first thought when I saw this thread was diabetes as well.

[KevinB]

As someone who's been living with diabetes for 8 years, believe me, if there's a chance you've got it, the earlier you catch it, the easier it is to treat. Being a typical male, I hadn't seen my doctor from ages 40-44 except to treat some minor sports injuries. Finally, after prodding from my wife, I had a physical and that's when I found out my blood sugar was off the charts. By that time, I had probably been a diabetic for 3-4 years, and the damage had already started.

The blood test can be as simple as not eating after 10 pm one night, and seeing your doctor before 10 am the next day (no food or drink other than water). He'll prick your finger, and test a drop of your blood. You'll know within 15 seconds if you're at risk. If you are, and it's early, you can often control Type II by simply adding some exercise and making some simple changes to your diet. When you learn the consequences of diabetes: decreased vision/blindness, risk of amputation, increased risk of heart attack, etc. - believe me, it's worth it to find out. Good luck!

[rworange]

Another thought is that restaurants use way more butter/margarine than we do at home. The salt in the butter is probably a factor.

[rabaja]

Restaurants typically use unsalted butter, at least in my experience. Use of salt can be rampant in all sorts of otherways though.

[Angela Roberta]

Might you be eating more when you eat out? So even if the food doesn't taste saltier than your home cooking, you're eating more period.

My gut reaction, though, is that restaurants use a lot more salt than home cooks do. Perhaps it's a combination of the two.

[Low Country Jon]

I think it's both. Many restaurants use more salt than the typical home cook and they tend to serve bigger portion sizes, too.

[maria lorraine]

The saltiness in some food is buried beneath other flavors.

The thirstiness may not be related to salty food, and may be related to exercise (when you dine out do you work out more or longer beforehand), kidney function, type of wine you're drinking, electrolytes or diabetes.

[Passadumkeg]

Salt, garlic and too much wine (Fess up!)?

[lgss]

Sounds like this just happens when eating out. If it happens all the time, get screened for diabetes.

[Smorgasbord]

Hi all- I didn't expect so many replies, and while I'm touched that many of you brought up possible health concerns, I think I worded the headline poorly - it should have included "... when I eat at restaurants?" I want to stress that the phenomena is resto-based only, as lgss says, and I think the posters who hit on the MSG may have it. Because I don't get the classic MSG headache, I wasn't aware there were other symptoms too [FYI, a Canadian student just proved this week that MSG destroys cells in the organism that eats them; I'm sure this'll hit the news shortly]. And Passadumkeg, I fully admit to too much wine at home- but never in a restaurant, I'm usually [a] too cheap or [b] going to be driving for that! :-)

[swsidejim]

this is a question more suited for your physician, not untrained strangers on a food board. just my humble opinion.