Coffee and tea definitely count in your daily hydration tally. Many used to believe that they were dehydrating, but that myth has been debunked. The diuretic effect does not offset hydration.
After all, a cup of coffee is made almost entirely of water filtered through tasty roasted coffee beans. In fact, other popular drinks, like green tea and black tea, all count towards your daily fluid intake.
Cup-for-caffeinated-cup, coffee contains more caffeine than all varieties of tea. This means that tea is technically a bit more hydrating than coffee, especially if you opt for a naturally caffeine-free tea or a low-caffeine variety, like green tea. Decaf coffee and tea are both almost completely devoid of caffeine and would be equally hydrating as a result.
According to research, about 2-3 cups of coffee is ideal daily caffeine consumption for healthy adults, without getting to the dehydrating point. While the recommendation to drink eight 8 oz glasses of fluid per day is certainly a good starting point, adding a few cups of coffee to your tally is actually helping to hydrate you as well.
There is plenty of evidence that drinking coffee is good for your health in general. The purported benefits of being a regular coffee drinker (between three to five 8-oz cups a day) include a lower risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s diseases.
So drink up! And stay hydrated.
