 |
| Extra calories in Coffee and Tea. Courtesy of Julie McMahon |
People drinking coffee and tea with
add-ins add 69 and 43 extra calories respectively to their daily intake. These
additional calories come from additives (sugar and saturated fats) that have no
nutritive values according to a study published in Public Health. [1]
Researchers from University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and department of Public Health, UC San Diego analyzed
data over 12 years (2001-2012) from National health and Nutritional Examination
Survey (NHANES) from 13,185 adults who drank coffee and 6,125 adults who drank
tea in 24-hours prior to the survey.
Coffee and tea are the most widely
consumed beverages in US. Over 160 million people in US consume coffee or tea.
Adults consume them on regular basis and many people like to perk up the flavor
by adding cream, flavored syrup, sugar or other calorie dense additives.
About 2/3 of 51% coffee drinkers and 1/3
of the 26% tea drinkers put
some sort of add-ins to their drink. Milk product add a little Calcium to the drink
but it should not be the reason to add milk to the morning joe. (average 22 mg
per day of 1,000 to 1,300 mg RDA).
The daily intake of extra calorie
seems very small but in long run they pile up and put on extra pounds. Some
people drink more than 5 cups of coffee and tea daily, which adds up more
calories to the daily diet.
Ruopeng
An, kinesiology
and community health professor who conducted the study
said “Our findings indicate that a lot of coffee and tea drinkers regularly use
caloric add-ins to improve the flavor of their beverages, but possibly without
fully realizing or taking into consideration its caloric and nutritional
implications.”
