Foods With the Most Water, Ranked From Lettuce to Almonds

A cucumber is 95 % water by weight. Eat a whole one and you have taken in almost 290 ml (10 oz), close to a full glass.

Food counts toward your water, as our guide to what counts toward your water intake explains. This page shows which foods carry the most, using USDA's own measurements, and what a day of meals can add.

Which Foods Have the Most Water?

Raw vegetables and fruit lead the list. Per USDA FoodData Central, iceberg lettuce is 95.6 % water, celery 95.4 %, cucumber 95.2 % and zucchini 94.8 %. Watermelon (91.5 %), strawberries (91.0 %) and cantaloupe (90.2 %) top the fruit.

Soup made with water comes close at 94.2 %, and the cooked grains and dry foods sit far below.

The tables below give each food's water per 100 g (3.5 oz), then the water in one USDA portion. One gram of water is about 1 ml, so 95 g of water per 100 g means a 100 g serving holds about 95 ml. The FDC ID lets you look up any row on the USDA site.

Vegetables

Spinach shows why the portion matters. It is 91 % water, but a cup of raw leaves weighs only 30 g, so it adds just 27 ml.

Fruit

Soup, Milk and Yogurt

Milk is a drink, so it already goes into your log as fluid. Soup sits on the line between food and drink; total water vs drinking water covers how to count it.

How Much Water Is in Watermelon?

Watermelon is 91.5 % water by weight. One USDA wedge, about a sixteenth of a melon at 286 g (10 oz), holds about 262 ml (8.8 oz) of water. That is about one 250 ml glass, which makes a wedge of watermelon one of the easiest ways to add water on a hot afternoon.

A cup of diced watermelon (152 g) gives you about 139 ml (4.7 oz), a little over half a glass.

Which Foods Add Almost No Water?

Dry foods add very little. Per USDA data, white bread is 36.4 % water, saltine crackers 5.1 % and almonds 4.4 %. A slice of bread brings about 11 ml, and a 1 oz handful of almonds (23 nuts) about 1 ml.

Cooked rice (68.4 %) and pasta (62.1 %) hold more, because they soak up water as they cook.

On a day of toast, crackers and nuts, your glass has to do nearly all the work. That is the day to keep a bottle on your desk.

How Much Water Can Food Add to Your Day?

Anywhere from a few hundred ml to well over a liter, depending on what you eat. In US survey data, food gave people about 19 % of their total water, the National Academies report. For the women's total of 2.7 L, that comes to about 500 ml from food.

Your plate can sit far above or below that average. Here are two days built only from the foods in the tables above.

A Day of Fruit, Salad and Soup

A Day of Bread, Crackers and Pasta

Should Food Count Toward Your Water Goal?

Food counts toward your total water, but Glubbo's goal counts drinks only. The US National Academies include fruit, vegetables and other foods in total water, which is why their total figures sit above the drinks figures.

We keep food out of your log for a practical reason: nobody weighs their salad, so treat food as a buffer instead.

On a fruit-and-soup day you may feel fine a glass short of your goal, and on a dry day you may need a glass more. The water intake calculator gives you the drinks goal to start from.

Easy Ways to Eat More Water

Harvard Health points to salads, fruit and applesauce as foods that bring fluid with them. These swaps add water without changing what you drink:

• Swap a 15 g pack of crackers for a cup of strawberries: about 137 ml more water.
• Add a side salad of 2 cups lettuce and a tomato to lunch: about 254 ml.
• Start dinner with a cup of soup: about 234 ml.
• Keep cut watermelon or cantaloupe in the fridge for the 3 pm slump.

Drinks still do most of the work. For coffee, tea and the rest of your glass, see whether coffee counts as water.