Kunj07/openwebtext · Datasets at Hugging Face

How caffeine affects hydration

One of the reasons that drinks containing caffeine, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, cola drinks and energy drinks, have been given such a bad rap over the years is because caffeine is a diuretic when consumed in large doses (more than 500mg).

Diuretics make your body produce more urine, so not only do they have you running to the toilet more often, they also cause you to lose sodium and water. When you lose too much sodium and water you become dehydrated, and this can have an effect on a range of bodily functions from temperature control to absorption of food.

However, the amount of caffeine you get in a cuppa is unlikely to have these effects and it can actually contribute to your overall daily fluid intake.

"If you have to have more than four cups of coffee a day you may see a diuretic effect from that, but if your intake is less, then from a dehydration view you're going to be okay," says Renn.

Men's bodies need around 2.6 litres and women's around 2.1 litres of water a day, but this can be gleaned from a range of food and drinks other than water, including coffee and tea.

"Certainly you can be interspersing coffees and waters throughout the day, so you might have a bottle of water with you and be sipping on that most of the time, and then you might have a coffee in your break times," Renn says.

The good and bad sides of coffee

It's worth noting there are also other side effects associated with caffeinated drinks, which include:

rapid heart beat (palpitations)

restlessness and excitability

anxiety and irritability

trembling hands

sleeplessness.

And if you are drinking coffees with lots of milk it may affect your weight.

"Lattes and cappuccinos can make an excellent dairy-based or soy-based snack, but if you're having lots of those throughout the day, especially if you're trying to lose weight and having four milk coffees a day, it's going to impact on your calorie intake," Renn says.

However, drinking coffee can also have a range of health benefits, and has been linked to decreased risk of some cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

"Coffee is certainly not the evil we once thought it was, but it's that old adage of everything in moderation," says Renn.

For more on caffeine, it's side effects and benefits see our Caffeine fact file.0999286-da482f9fe1c40d6e90fdd41125651471.txt0000644000000000000000000000505000000000000015055 0ustar 00000000000000Squeeze on consumer spending is the worst in peacetime for a century, new research shows

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