It is not harmful if we taste a drop of our own urine, since whatever is in it, is already in our body. The taste of urine varies from watery to slightly biter, sour and even sugary. Normal urine is usually salty and somehow bitter. A sweet tasting urine may be the first sign we have of diabetes.
The yellow is a bit more bitter tasting, and the clear is more watered down tasting.
Fact: Doctors used to smell and even taste urine to diagnose all sorts of diseases. Doctors often take urine samples to diagnose their patients. But before we had modern lab tests, physicians would have to visually examine, smell, and even taste their patients' pee to analyze it.
Diabetes insipidus is so named because the large volume of urine that is excreted is tasteless, or “insipid,” rather than sweet, as is the case in diabetes mellitus, in which the urine may contain large quantities of glucose.
High sodium levels in the urine could indicate: Use of water pills. Too much salt in your diet. Low function of the adrenal glands, which are in your kidneys.
In 1674, Thomas Willis (1621-1675) first differentiated diabetes from other causes of polyuria by the sweet taste (quasi melle) of diabetic urine and suggested that the sweetness first appears in the blood.
When kidneys are failing, the increased concentration and accumulation of substances in urine lead to a darker color which may be brown, red or purple. The color change is due to abnormal protein or sugar, high levels of red and white blood cells, and high numbers of tube-shaped particles called cellular casts.
Urine may smell sweet if it contains extra glucose, a type of sugar. Sweet smelling urine often stems from diabetes, but dehydration, a yeast infection, or a genetic condition known as maple syrup urine disease can also cause it. Urine can reveal a lot about someone's health.
Pale or transparent yellow urine
Diabetes insipidus is a condition in which the body produces excess urine. It can cause people to pass large quantities of light-colored urine every time they urinate. It can also cause people to feel very thirsty, leading them to drink fluids frequently.
Diabetes: Its Beginnings
Centuries later, people known as "water tasters" diagnosed diabetes by tasting the urine of people suspected to have it. If urine tasted sweet, diabetes was diagnosed. To acknowledge this feature, in 1675 the word "mellitus," meaning honey, was added to the name "diabetes," meaning siphon.
The earliest documented diagnosis of the disease was during the middle ages when Chinese, Indian and Egyptian scientists tested the urine of people thought to have diabetes by tasting it for a sweet distinctive taste.
Early Days: The Urine Taste Test
They consulted intricately designed urine flavor charts that described the sight, smell and taste of urine. The one disease that they diagnosed correctly was diabetes because of the sweet taste of a patient's urine.
The (very-simplified) science is: too much salt draws water out of your cells through the process of osmosis. That said, it is possible to drink your urine without ill effects. A healthy person who's fully hydrated likely wouldn't be harmed by a couple cups of his own clear cocktail (not golden at this point).
Dr. Newton says a pigment called urochrome, or urobilin, causes the yellow color in urine. Your kidneys filter out this byproduct from your bloodstream and it exits your body in urine. The more fluids you drink, the lighter the color of the pigment in your urine. The less you drink, the stronger the color.
When you're healthy and hydrated, your urine should fall somewhere between colorless and the color of light straw and honey. When you don't consume enough fluids, your urine becomes more concentrated and turns a darker yellow or amber color.
Urine is mostly waste products and water and normally has a mild smell and a light yellow color. If you have more waste than water in your urine, it can smell more strongly. In most cases, a strong smell isn't a sign of disease.
And some medicines can give urine vivid tones, such as orange or greenish-blue. An unusual urine color also can be a sign of a health problem. For instance, some urinary tract infections can turn urine milky white. Kidney stones, some cancers and other diseases sometimes make urine look red due to blood.
At-home sodium tests are available and require either a urine or blood sample. A home sodium urine test comprises a container, a test strip, and a set of illustrated instructions. The procedure includes collecting fresh urine in the container and then briefly dipping the test strip into the urine.
It generally takes around 8-10 glasses of water to flush how much sodium is in your body. Additionally, adding certain ingredients such as lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, green tea and baking soda to your glass can help reduce how much salt remains after sleeping.
Hydration is extremely important. Consuming sufficient water can help your body remove excess sodium from your body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, daily fluid intake recommendations vary by age, sex, pregnancy and breastfeeding status.