Coffee 'facts': the truth unfiltered

Whether at breakfast, at the office or chatting with your bestie, you really can’t go wrong with a cup of coffee. Coffee makes you beautiful, it helps reduce stress at work and has a beneficial effect on your health. Or that’s what they say, anyway! We put the five biggest myths under the microscope in our big fact-check.

Myth no. 1: Coffee depletes the body of water

“Coffee does not dehydrate. Otherwise I’d be dust by now.” Even Franz Kafka was aware of the myth, which is possibly the most persistent one of them all. Contrary to popular opinion, coffee does not automatically deplete the body of water. While caffeine admittedly does have a diuretic effect in the short term, regular coffee drinkers will find that their body gets used to it ‒ and after a while the diuretic effect of caffeine subsides.

Studies have even shown that coffee can count towards your fluid levels. So what are you waiting for? Treat yourself to a little cup of coffee!

Myth no. 2: Coffee promotes health

It is said to reduce the risk of diabetes and have a beneficial effect on asthma. At the same time it also raises the blood pressure and can even keep you awake. So of course people wonder: is coffee good for you, or not? The answer is pretty straightforward: Everything in moderation!

Anything over three cups a day isn’t exactly ideal for your health. Unpleasant symptoms such as anxiety, a racing heart and poor sleep are the consequences. If you follow the three-cups rule, however, coffee can actually have a positive impact on your health.

By the way: According to a study, plant drinks in coffee also have positive effects on health. Learn more in this article.

Myth no. 3: Coffee is addictive

You simply can’t start the day without your morning brew. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you’re addicted! Coffee is not a drug in the classic sense of the word i.e. you have to keep upping your dosage. It’s more a case of you simply getting used to something. For this reason, it’s not unheard of for heavy coffee drinkers to feel a few slight withdrawal effects when they go cold-turkey. As a rule, this is usually just a faint headache or tiredness, which will disappear after a couple of days.

Myth no. 4: Coffee helps reduce stress at work

Everybody knows the feeling. The phone’s ringing non-stop, you inbox is full to bursting, and the next meeting is coming up fast. So it’s a quick dash to the office kitchen to slurp down a nice hot coffee. Not only does it help fight stress, it also helps us perform better. Sorry! If only it were that easy.

Caffeine contributes to the production of the stress hormone adrenalin, thus ramping up stress levels.

And coffee isn’t a miracle cure for fatigue either. It may work in the short term as a energy fix, but long term it has quite the opposite effect. Signs of tiredness and exhaustion are the result!

Myth no. 5: (Cold) coffee makes you beautiful

There’s a German saying that goes: “Drink coffee cold and never look old.” Any truth to it? Don’t we all wish that were true. But to answer this question properly, we have to travel back in time all the way to the Baroque era. The ideal of beauty back then: noble pale skin. Faces were made up to look whiter, with accentuated lips.

The problem, however, was that cosmetics back then were of far worse quality than they are today. So make-up would run when the steam from a hot coffee hit the person’s face. The solution was as simple as it was effective: in high society, they began drinking their coffee cold!

The jury is still out on whether or not (cold) coffee really does make you beautiful. However, some studies have confirmed that coffee contains antioxidants that prevent dangerous radicals from penetrating our body’s cells. In consequence, coffee seems to provide a protective effect against skin aging. Now that’s a real miracle cure!