Almost every food you eat contains some water, but fruits and vegetables lead the pack, with many clocking in above 90% water by weight. About 20% of your total daily water intake typically comes from food rather than drinks, which means your plate matters more for hydration than most people realize.
Fruits and Vegetables With the Most Water
Cucumbers and iceberg lettuce top the list at 96% water, making them essentially crunchy drinks. Close behind are celery, radishes, and watercress at 95%. Tomatoes and zucchini come in at 94%, followed by romaine lettuce at the same level. Portobello mushrooms and okra sit at 93%.
Watermelon and strawberries both contain 92% water, along with broccoli and bell peppers. Spinach reaches 91%, while kale and kiwi round out the high performers at 90%. Cantaloupe and honeydew hover around 90% as well. To put these numbers in perspective, a single large cucumber weighing around 300 grams delivers roughly 288 grams of water, nearly the equivalent of a standard glass.
These foods do more than just deliver water. Spinach, for example, is rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, and potassium. Those minerals, especially potassium, help your cells absorb and retain fluid more effectively than plain water alone. This is why eating produce-heavy meals can leave you feeling more steadily hydrated than simply drinking the same volume of liquid.
Meat, Dairy, and Other Protein Sources
Fruits and vegetables get the most attention for water content, but protein foods carry a surprising amount of moisture too. Raw muscle tissue is approximately 75% water, with the remaining 25% split between protein, fat, and minerals. White meat chicken with the skin on contains about 69% water when raw, dropping to around 61% after cooking as heat drives moisture out.
Fish tends to run even higher than poultry in its raw state, with lean white fish often exceeding 80% water. Eggs fall in a similar range, and yogurt can reach 85% or more depending on the style. Even cheese, which feels like a solid, dense food, can contain 30 to 50% water in softer varieties like mozzarella or cottage cheese.
Soups, Broths, and Liquid-Based Meals
Soups are an obvious source of food-based water, but they may offer a hydration advantage beyond their liquid content. Warm soups stimulate mucous clearance and enhance nasal airflow, which is part of why chicken soup has long been a go-to during colds. A small study found that drinking hot chicken soup by sip increased nasal mucus velocity by 2.3 millimeters per minute over baseline, significantly more than hot or cold water alone.
Broth-based soups also contain dissolved sodium and potassium from the ingredients, which helps your body absorb the water more efficiently. Your small intestine moves water across its lining by following sodium: when sodium is absorbed into intestinal cells and pumped into the spaces between them, it creates an osmotic pull that draws water along with it and into your bloodstream. Foods with a natural balance of salt and water, like soup, work with this system rather than flooding it with plain liquid.
How Cooking Changes Water Content
The way you prepare food significantly affects how much water ends up on your plate. Boiling immerses food in water at high temperatures, which might sound hydrating, but it actually causes vegetables to lose structure and leach both water and nutrients into the cooking liquid (which you then pour down the drain). Steaming and microwaving, by contrast, use less direct water contact and lower effective temperatures, helping vegetables retain more of their original moisture and nutrients like vitamin C.
Roasting and grilling drive moisture out through evaporation. That 69% water in raw chicken drops to 61% after cooking, a loss of roughly 12% of its original water. Vegetables lose even more dramatically when roasted at high heat. If hydration is a priority, raw preparations, steaming, and stir-frying with added liquid will preserve the most water in your food.
Foods That Contribute Almost No Water
At the opposite end of the spectrum, nuts and seeds contain remarkably little moisture, ranging from about 1.5% to 9.5% water. Crackers, dried cereals, pretzels, and jerky are similarly dry. Oils contain zero water. These foods aren’t “bad,” but they contribute almost nothing to your fluid intake, and salty versions can actually increase your body’s water needs.
This contrast matters for daily planning. A snack of crackers and peanut butter delivers virtually no hydration, while the same calorie count from watermelon slices and strawberries provides a full cup of water or more.
How Much Water You Actually Need From Food
Current guidelines from the National Academy of Medicine recommend a total water intake of about 3.7 liters per day for men and 2.7 liters for women, from all sources combined. That includes drinking water, other beverages, and food. With food typically supplying around 20% of that total, you’re looking at roughly 500 to 750 milliliters (about 2 to 3 cups) coming from what you eat on an average day.
People who eat large amounts of fruits, vegetables, and soups can push that food-based contribution well above 20%. A diet built around salads, fresh fruit, yogurt, and broth-based meals could easily deliver a liter or more of water before you take a single sip from a glass. On the other hand, someone eating mostly bread, rice, nuts, and dried snacks may get less than 10% of their water from food, putting more pressure on beverages to close the gap.