This will be another regular part of my blog!
Today’s Fact or Fiction?
Caffeine and Dehydration.
We all know we need to drink more fluids but we’ve all been told that caffeinated beverages don’t count in our total fluid intake because caffeine is a diuretic and therefore caffeinated beverages dehydrate us.
Fiction.
We all know we need to drink more fluids but we’ve all been told that caffeinated beverages don’t count in our total fluid intake because caffeine is a diuretic and therefore caffeinated beverages dehydrate us.
Fiction.
According to a literature review done by Lawrence Armstrong, hydration expert and professor at the University of Connecticut, caffeine is a very mild diuretic but does not lead to dehydration. In fact, its diuretic effect is the same as that of water.
Other studies and reviews of the literature have come to the same conclusion:
Other studies and reviews of the literature have come to the same conclusion:
caffeinated beverages can contribute to total fluid intake.
However, at intakes above 575mg, caffeine does becomes a diuretic. That’s about 4 cups of generic brewed coffee.
http://www.ific.org/foodinsight/2002/ja/caffdehydnbfi402.cfm
Caffeine. Nutrition Action Health Letter. Centre for Science in the Public Interest. March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html
However, at intakes above 575mg, caffeine does becomes a diuretic. That’s about 4 cups of generic brewed coffee.
http://www.ific.org/foodinsight/2002/ja/caffdehydnbfi402.cfm
Caffeine. Nutrition Action Health Letter. Centre for Science in the Public Interest. March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html
1 comment:
I do not understand the referenced article at all. Why would pee volume over a day matter? I thought that the point was that caffeine uses water to process it, after which it is excreted. Water is not a diuretic because it does not use other water to get rid of it, it uses the water that it is getting rid of. Take like a post workout drink and snack. If you eat a certain amount of carbs and the correct volume of water to absorb those carbs then to me, if caffeine is NOT a diuretic, then you could drink the same volume of caffeinated coffee and absorb the same number of carbs. Does this make sense?
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