Does coffee really dehydrate you?

Coffee is a favorite morning drink for most Americans, but Does your Joe cup spoil your hydration?

Through online and daily life forums, you may hear people advise coffee drinkers to take a glass of water before or immediately after having their morning infusion. The objective is to avoid any dehydration induced by coffee.

Adding an additional glass of water cannot hurt – and this will certainly help you get closer to your daily hydration goals. But the experts say that the fear that coffee cause dehydration is, in most cases, unfounded.

The idea that coffee is dehydrating is a myth, although for a long time.

In 1928, researchers published a study concluding that Coffee had a diuretic effect, Make participants urinate more. This is something that most coffee drinkers have probably known themselves.

But it is not limited to coffee –Any kind of caffeinated drink, including tea, energy drinks or soft drinks, can make people urine more, Julie Stefanski, Med, RDN, editor-in-chief of Foods & Nutrition in Goodheart-Willcox and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Health.

It is therefore logical that people can assume that drinking caffeinated drinks like coffee would leave their bodies more dehydrated than when they started.

However, although coffee works like a diuretics, its effects are not particularly durable.

Even almost 100 years ago, researchers discovered that Regular consumption of coffee could help people develop tolerance for these diuretic effects. And this finding has been reproduced several times over the years that have followed.

In 2005, the researchers asked male participants to consume caffeine for six days, then divide them into high groups, low and no caffeine for five additional days. All participants had similar urine production throughout the test.

Likewise, a 2014 study scored 50 male coffee drinkers – over three days, participants drank four cups of coffee or water daily (in addition to standardized water consumption). The results have shown no difference in hydration status among participants.

When you consume caffeine – whether from coffee or any other caffeinated drink – this affects how your kidneys treat both salt and water, said Theresa Gentile, MS, RD, a dietitian based in Brooklyn and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

More specifically, caffeine filters the more liquid kidneys, prevents them from reabsoring normal quantities of sodium and can even disturb certain signals between the liver and the kidneys, gentile said Health. All of this means “losing more urine and salt,” she said.

But since your body adapts to caffeine over time, these effects are largely disappearing, said Gentile.

Once this happens, Moderate caffeine intake should not cause dehydration – in fact, coffee is mainly water and will even count for your daily fluid needs, She explained.

You should not encounter any problem with dehydration if your caffeine consumption remains consistent, but Whenever you consume more caffeine than your body is used to, expect more trips to the toilet, Nice added.

In particular, she explained, very high quantities of caffeine – think of five cups or more strong coffee or several energy drinks – can “cause a stronger diuretic effect”, even for regular coffee drinkers. At this point, or each time you considerably increase your daily caffeine contribution, You could be at risk of dehydration, Said nice.

For most adults, Limit caffeine consumption to 400 milligrams per day– out of two to three cups of 12 ounce coffee – is a quantity “not generally associated with negative effects”, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For most people, staying under this limit should not lead to hydration problems, added Gentile.

Beyond this threshold, however, higher doses could increase your risk of dehydration, as well as:

But with regard to coffee consumption, what is healthy is different for each person. “There is a great variation in the two people sensitive to the effects of caffeine and how quickly they eliminate it from the body,” according to the FDA.

So, if you are a new coffee drinker (maybe the advertisements for pumpkin spices have finally arrived), your body may not be used for caffeine. It is intelligent to start with a smaller dose – maybe 50 to 100 milligrams – and see how your body reacts, Gentile has recommended.

More, Whenever you drink caffeine, it is important to pay attention to your body and make sure you are well hydrated.

“A general rule which is often taught to athletes is that You should pee at least every three to four hours and the urine must be light or light yellow, “ Joseph Vassalotti, MD, Clinical Professor of Nephrology at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine and chief of the National Kidney Foundation, said Health.

Any darker or less frequent urination – coupled with other symptoms of dehydration such as headaches, dry lips, muscle cramps or dizziness – can mean that it is time to put coffee and have a glass of water.