It seems like everyday there is a new study telling us either that coffee is slowly killing us or making us healthier. Today’s latest study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, says drinking coffee will help extend your life span. In a study of 9 million British male and female adults, coffee drinkers had a slightly lower risk of death over 10 years (10 to 15%) than those who didn’t drink it regularly. Most of the subjects (154,000) drank two to three cups per day and 10,000 of them drank at least eight cups every day!
This study echos other recent studies that shows the positive health affects of daily coffee consumption.
Coffee can help you on those long summer days
But something people may not realize that is also beneficial when it comes to coffee, especially during these sweltering summer months, is that coffee does not dehydrate you. “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,” Jennifer Haythe, M.D., a cardiologist and internist at Columbia University told MarieClaire.com.
Actually caffeine can keep you more hydrated than other liquids because you are drinking it with a volume of fluid like iced coffee or tea. A 2014 study found that there was zero evidence of dehydration with moderate daily coffee intake.
We’re not saying you should drink a giant cup of scalding coffee after a workout instead of water or gatorade, but you can’t put all the dehydration blame on your morning grande latte.