Americans are adding more calories to their coffee

A new study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reveals that Americans are increasing the calorie content of their coffee, despite consuming roughly the same amount over the past few years. Researchers analyzed dietary data from 30,000 US adults aged 20 and older between 2003 and 2018. While total coffee consumption remained stable, the energy consumed increased from 43 kcal/day to 60 kcal/day.

The primary contributors to this calorie increase were non-dairy creamer, sugar or syrup, and dairy milk.

Fang Fang Zhang, the senior author and a professor at Tufts University, emphasized that while coffee consumption has health benefits, the addition of sugar and cream can lead to increased calorie intake from added sugars and saturated fat. The study found that non-dairy creamer, sugar, and dairy milk were the most common coffee additions by calories in 2018.

Notably, non-dairy creamer consumption grew from 3.37 g/day to 8 g/day between 2003 and 2018, surpassing sugar and dairy milk in contributing to the total energy consumed from coffee.

Yongyi Pan, the study's lead author, explained that although non-dairy creamer has been available since the 1950s, its popularity has surged in recent years due to the demand for plant-based or dairy-free alternatives. Despite its long history, non-dairy creamer has become a significant source of calories in coffee, with 18.5 kcal/day added in 2018. Pan noted that non-dairy creamer can be high in saturated fat, which is calorie-dense, potentially explaining the increase in calorie intake from this ingredient.

The researchers also discovered that adults with fewer hours of sleep or longer working hours consumed more coffee compared to those with more sleep or shorter working hours. However, coffee consumption was similar among individuals with high and low diet quality. The study acknowledges that self-reported recall data may have measurement errors due to daily variations in food intake, but efforts were made to improve the estimates.