I usually just drink black coffee, although I occasionally add some sweetness. A dash of simple syrup, a little brown sugar, or even a tablespoon of hot cocoa mix. However, there is one item that I will ALWAYS avoid: coffee creamer.
It is widely adored nationwide; you can find it in every cafeteria, bodega, and office refrigerator. However, that does not imply that it is healthy for you or your morning brew. Consider these reasons before contaminating your coffee with coffee creamer’s milky fingers:
- The cream isn’t in it. That’s right, creamer for coffee doesn’t include any. In actuality, it doesn’t have any dairy at all. It just has a white color to cheer you up. Most creamers are made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, water, and corn syrup. The mixture of ingredients is specifically designed to hit all the desired milky-sweet flavors.
- It is laden with chemicals. Insane combinations of thickeners and preservatives are also found in creamers. Carrageenan and cellulose gum, two thickeners, give the creamer the rich, luxurious texture we associate with dairy products. Creamer bottles may be kept in the workplace fridge without rotting for a lot longer than any self-respecting carton of cream ever could, thanks to preservatives like butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). What’s incorrect about that? Because our body hasn’t had enough time to process these substances, it causes our system to become overstimulated. Preservatives like BHA and BHT can harm the reproductive system, and thickeners like carrageenan have been linked to inflammation and digestive problems.
- Creamers may contain a lot of sugar. Creamers typically include a lot of added sugar unless you get the sugar-free type (more on that below). Some well-known brands have five grams of sugar per tablespoon or 10% of the daily recommended amount. In addition, very few people use a single tablespoon of creamer at a time. More likely, you’re adding roughly 30% of the sugar you consume daily to your coffee at nine in the morning.
- And it increases your desire for sugar. When you eat a lot of sugar in the morning, your blood sugar levels go through the roof, making you susceptible to sugar cravings for the rest of the day. In addition, your baseline of fullness and contentment will rise if you start the day with a lot of sugar. As a result, your chances of experiencing cravings will be substantially higher. The outcome? By midday, you’ll probably grab a beverage or a candy bar from the vending machine.
- Creamers without sugar are even worse. You can say, “It’s fine. I don’t have to worry about ANY of THAT because I use sugar-free creamer. Reconsider your position. In the world of processed goods, the term “sugar-free” simply refers to the use of artificial sweeteners by the manufacturers in place of corn syrup to produce the sweet flavor. It should come as no surprise that artificial sweeteners can adversely affect your body over time, such as lowering the number of beneficial bacteria in your gut and raising your risk of Type 2 diabetes. Being sugar-free is rarely a free pass from punishment.
- It is really difficult to consume in moderation. Our nation depends on coffee. Most of us consume it daily, occasionally more than once. If you regularly use creamer with your coffee, all those chemicals and extra sugar will accumulate significantly over time.
- There are further choices! There are several alternatives to using chemical-laden creamer to lighten coffee. Try using real cream. Alternatively, try oat or almond milk if you’d rather avoid dairy. Finally, add some brown sugar or simple syrup to your coffee to make it sweeter to your taste. True, much like creamer, these alternatives contain either sugar or fat. However, they have concise and recognized ingredient lists, so you always know what you’re putting in your body. Let’s face it: worrying about a strange chemical in your morning coffee is the last thing you must do with everything else you have going on.
Learn more: 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Eat Microwave Popcorn