Everything you know about coffee is a lie. Well, some of it's a lie, at least. Many regular coffee drinkers believe that the caffeinated beverage is extremely dehydrating, however, that's been proven false. That's right. Coffee doesn't actually dehydrate you. Crazy, right?
Jennifer Haythe, M.D., a cardiologist and internist at Columbia University told Marie Claire that “Coffee, or, specifically the caffeine in coffee, does have a diuretic effect—meaning it causes your kidneys to flush extra water through urination—but the stimulant is very mild." So, basically, what this means is that drinking coffee will make you pee a lot, but it's not technically making you dehydrated.
A study done in 2014 found that drinking coffee actually hydrated some of the participants as opposed to the popular belief that it would dehydrate them. Due to the fact that the caffeine is being consumed alongside a liquid, such as coffee or tea, the loss of liquid through urination is offset by the consummation of the beverage. The more you know.
The question that remains, though, is what is making you feel dried out and crappy if it's not your morning cup(s) of coffee? It could be a lack of exercise and balanced diet or you might not be getting enough sleep. “There are dozens of reasons why someone could feel crappy,” according to Dr. Haythe. “In a healthy body, it’s very unlikely that a few cups of coffee are the cause of your dull skin, or headaches, or overall feeling of dryness—at least, not through the mechanism of dehydration."
The moral of the story here is to make sure you're taking care of your body. If you are, you can drink as much coffee as you want! Okay, maybe not as much coffee as you want, but enough to wake you up in the morning. And then another to help make it through that afternoon meeting.