By Olivia Avitt
Most of us can’t start the day without a cup of coffee. And although some people prefer the taste of black coffee, or have trained themselves to enjoy it, you’re probably used to sweetening it up with cream or a sweetener of choice. While coffee itself isn’t bad for you, loading it up with high sugar additives can have negative health effects. Artificial sweeteners are especially tricky, as they can be sneaky with how much sugar they actually contain. Being thoughtful and intentional about what you’re putting in your coffee, and knowing what may not be the healthiest choice, is the best way to avoid excess sugar in your diet.
What exactly happens to your body when you consume excess sugar? “Added sugar is a source of non-nutritive calories, contributing to weight gain and having no health benefit,” says Dr. Megan Mesher-Cox, an internal specialist at Dignity Health St. John Regional Medical Center, “In small amounts, the body can handle added sugar but many people are surprised to find that sugar is added to a huge number of foods including cereals, sauces, milks, and breads.” Besides that, excess sugar in the diet has been linked to a higher risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, and even cancer. Because of the way most food is prepared in the United States, you may even be getting extra sugar from foods that aren’t characteristically “sweet.” This is why it’s important to read nutrition facts closely to determine how much sugar is in the foods you purchase.
You may think that artificial sweetener is a healthier alternative, but it may not have as many benefits as you think. “With over 70% of the United States population with weights in the overweight or obese categories, I find that a majority of people want to lose weight. Artificial sweeteners have not conclusively been tied with weight loss. In fact, artificial sweeteners are 300-600 times as sweet as regular sugar and result in a strong addictive reaction in the human brain (just as sugar does),” Dr. Cox says, “If someone wants to have artificial sweeteners for weight loss, they will not help. What helps is to eliminate the sugar or sugar substitute all together.” With all this being said, artificial sweeteners can be helpful in some contexts, like if you have diabetes and want to enjoy sweet treats from time to time without major consequences.
Excess sugar of any kind can have negative effects, but they aren’t all created equal. When it comes to the worst sweetener to put in your coffee, Dr. Cox notes any sweetener that is combined with saturated fat. “This will cause a “double whammy” of inflammation in the body and can lead to multiple health problems,” she says, “For example, the inflammation in blood vessels happens from ingestion of saturated fat and also from sugar, and these together are exponentially more inflammatory. This contributes to heart disease, dementia, fatty liver disease, and diabetes.”
As far as what you can eat instead, Dr. Cox has a few recommendations. “Unsweetened plant milks, like soy, oat, cashew, and almond, are good alternatives. It can be hard to switch but after 2-3 weeks (up to 21 days) your taste buds change and it becomes your new norm.” You can also try gradually swapping overtime to adjust to the new taste. While excess sugar does come with a higher risk of health issues, you can still make adjustments without having to fully give up the coffee drinks you enjoy.
