Does Drinking Coffee Make You Dehydrated?
By: Tim Ebl
Tags: Food And Drink, Coffee, Fitness, Healthy Lifestyle, Lifestyle

We’ve all heard it. Drinking coffee is bad for you. Drinking coffee makes you lose liquid because you pee too much, and then you’ll be dehydrated. Don’t drink so much coffee!

But where did this idea come from? It sounds like a baseless rumor found on Farcebook. Someone didn’t like coffee, and they just started their one-person propaganda campaign to turn the world against the brown-tinted water of life.

Did someone you know put the fear of Joe in you?

I don’t like relying on old wives’ tales. (Is that even a thing? What about old husbands and their tales of disrepute? I think the old husband’s stories might be more unreliable than anyone’s.)

If you’re like me, you’ve been drinking a few cups of Joe every morning regardless of what “they” say. The good news is that you don’t have to feel guilty about it. Coffee doesn’t dehydrate you, and I’m going to tell you why. I even went and found some facts to prove it.

Let’s look at why coffee isn’t the devil’s brew after all.

A Daily Coffee Habit

Do you have a cup of Joe on the go right now? I do. I have it right here in my favorite mug.

I drink a pot of coffee a day. It’s about 8 cups of freshly brewed brown elixir.

I’m not alone in my habit. All around the world, people start their day drinking water tinted brown with special plant juice.

You might not brew it yourself. Maybe you get yours from Starbucks, or Tim Horton’s, or Dunkin' Donuts.

“I like coffee because it gives me the illusion that I might be awake.” — Lewis Black

You could have a big insulated carafe of coffee in the lunchroom at work, or pick it up at a gas station. There are so many places we get our daily fix from.

But maybe you heard that it wasn’t good for you. Did someone you know put the fear of Joe in you?

I’ve been warned that my coffee habit will dehydrate my body and ruin my health. That caffeine is destroying my insides. The health police will come and take away my birthday because I drink too much coffee.

Should you worry about wrecking your body? Are you dehydrating yourself by peeing out all of that fluid? Are your caffeine levels astronomical and dangerous?

What is in that coffee anyway?

Will you end up living in a van, down by the river, if you don’t smarten up and cut the Joe? Stick around and we’ll find out.

Coffee is Mostly Water

If you brew your own coffee, you know that the main ingredient is water.

A regular coffee maker like my 20-year-old Black and Decker heats water and drips it onto coffee grounds. Soluble plant matter from the grounds tints the water brown with its special plant juice. We have coffee, folks! And it’s almost 99% water.

One of the greatest things about coffee is the beautiful aroma released while it brews. Morning routines around the globe rely on the tantalizing smell of fresh-brewed java.

“To me, the smell of fresh-made coffee is one of the greatest inventions.” — Hugh Jackman

One average cup of Joe contains up to 90 mg of caffeine. There are also substances like 2-Ethylphenol, quinic acid, antioxidants and more. This combination of chemicals gives you the flavor and caffeine jolt that coffee addicts are looking for.

What’s a Safe Level of Caffeine?

Let’s go with government recommendations. Health professionals get a bad rap, but I believe they have our best interests at heart.

The FDA recommends less than 400 mg of caffeine a day. They tell us that toxic effects occur at levels of 1200 mg a day or more.

“I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.” — Steven Wright

If you drink 4 cups of coffee, each one containing around 90 mg of caffeine, then you are only getting 360 mg. This is well below the government recommendations.

Compare this with the massive dose a person gets from one dangerous energy drink. If anyone needs to worry about getting too much caffeine, it’s energy drinkers!

Does Coffee Make You Dehydrated?

This is the big concern we all hear. Coffee makes you pee too much.

It is a mild diuretic. Your body flushes out some water and sodium after drinking it. you will lose a bit of water. And we definitely want to stay hydrated.

But guess what! The amount lost is lower than the amount going in. Some experts say that there’s a net gain of fluids equivalent to 50% of the volume of coffee you drink.

In other words, drink 1 cup of coffee and your body keeps at least half a cup it didn’t have before.

Coffee is hydrating.

Take a look at this study, where they found “no evidence of dehydration with moderate daily coffee intake” :

“These data suggest that coffee, when consumed in moderation by caffeine habituated males provides similar hydrating qualities to water.” — Sophie C Killer , Andrew K Blannin , Asker E Jeukendrup

If you are a caffeine habituated male, you are probably hydrated by coffee. We can extrapolate that all human beings get some hydration from coffee. It has strange effects on toddlers, though, so be careful!

Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D. backs this up at The Mayo Clinic. She said “while caffeinated drinks may have a mild diuretic effect — meaning that they may cause the need to urinate — they don’t appear to increase the risk of dehydration.”

Common sense tells you this. Do you really think you lose a full cup of fluid every time you down a cup of coffee? You know you don’t. Otherwise, going on a coffee bender Monday morning would put you in the emergency room with a case of dying.

Adding Junk to Your Coffee Could Still Make it Evil

So having a couple of cups of Joe won’t overload you on caffeine, and you won’t get dehydrated either. Hold the phone though, we aren’t out of the coffee forest yet!

Do you put a bunch of junk in that cup, like sugar and cream and booze? Then maybe you are loading up on stuff you really shouldn’t.

Around 35% of North Americans drink their coffee black. That means the rest of you are crudding it up with all kinds of pollution.

“When I wake up in the morning, I just can’t get started until I’ve had that first, piping hot pot of coffee. Oh, I’ve tried other enemas.” — Emo Philips

Keep all that yuck out of your perfectly good java. Don’t add sugar, dairy, whipped topping, and booze to every cup you throw down the hatch.

Once in a while is no big deal. But 4 cups of coffee with cream and sugar can add up fast. Think about how much work you will need to go through to burn off the extra calories. And what is all that sugar doing to your body?

Forget about how hard coffee is on you. Worry about the white sugar devil and leave my buddy Joe alone.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Don’t throw away the Joe. Coffee in moderation is okay.

One cup of coffee is under around 90 mg of caffeine, FDA recommends less than 400 mg/ day

Studies show that coffee can be hydrating

The real culprit can be the junk you put in it!

Your friend Joe helps you get through Monday and all the other days ending with Y

I’m not going to worry about my coffee habit. If anyone gives you a hard time about your Joe, send them my way! We can meet for a hot beverage and talk it out.