Q & A: Urine

Q: How can pee still be light yellow when a person that drinks a lot of coffee? Or lots of Pepsi?

A: Coffee is mostly water, so even though it’s a diuretic (meaning it can make you urinate more), it still contributes a significant amount of fluid to the body ☕💧

Urine colour mainly depends on how concentrated it is. The yellow colour comes from a pigment called urochrome. When there’s plenty of water in the urine, that pigment gets diluted, making the urine appear pale yellow or almost clear.

So someone who drinks a lot of coffee can still have light yellow urine because:

• Coffee contains a lot of water
• Their overall fluid intake may be high
• Their kidneys are balancing hydration effectively
• Regular coffee drinkers often develop some tolerance to caffeine’s diuretic effect

A few other things can affect urine colour too:

• Vitamins, especially B vitamins, can make urine bright neon yellow
• Dehydration makes urine darker amber
• Certain foods and medications can change colour

Light yellow urine is generally considered a normal sign of decent hydration 👍

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model