Study says coffee creamers are driving up coffee calories more than sugar

Americans drank about the same amount of coffee between 2003 and 2018, but the calorie content of those beverages increased. Tufts University researchers found that the main reason was greater use of nondairy creamer.

That finding puts a number on a shift that would be difficult to detect by counting cups alone. Average daily energy from coffee drinks climbed from roughly 43 calories to 60 calories, while coffee intake remained close to 13 fluid ounces, or about 384 milliliters, per day.

The research, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, examined eight waves of a U.S. national health and nutrition survey. It drew on responses from 30,459 adults age 20 and older, using different population samples over time.

Participants were asked to recall everything they consumed on two separate days. The researchers used those reports to distinguish plain coffee from drinks with add-ins such as milk, cream, syrup or sugar substitutes.

Premixed beverages and coffee powders were harder to assess because respondents may have reported the finished drink without knowing the exact ingredients. To estimate those products, the researchers relied on federal food composition databases.

By the end of the study period, dairy milk was still the most common coffee addition by weight. But nondairy creamer contributed the most calories, averaging about 18.5 calories per day, compared with about 16 from sugar and syrup and 11 from dairy milk.

At the start of the period, calories from nondairy creamer were about eight per day. Over time, creamer consumption increased, while intake of dairy milk and sugar or sugar substitutes showed no clear shift.

Average nondairy creamer intake rose from about 3.4 grams a day to 8 grams during the survey span.

The researchers also distinguished nondairy milk from nondairy creamer. Use of both went up, but creamer accounted for the larger share of the calorie increase, underscoring the value of separating those products when tracking coffee habits.

These figures reflect population averages, not the calories in any single cup. The total for any individual drink depends on the product used, how it is prepared and how much is added.

The survey data also depended on people remembering what they ate and drank, and the analysis stops in 2018. As a result, the study cannot show whether the same pattern continued as coffee habits and products changed afterward.

Overall, the findings show why nutrition surveys need to measure what is added to coffee as well as how much coffee people drink. In this case, ingredient changes were enough to raise calorie totals even without a matching increase in coffee consumption.

If you are interested in this topic, please read articles about Caffeine Could Help Reduce Body Fat and Diabetes Risk, and The Complicated Relationship Between Coffee and Diabetes.

For more information, please see articles about Can You Drink Coffee If You Have High Blood Pressure, and Coffee Could Boost Healthy Aging in Women Study Finds.

Source: Tufts University.