MOST OF US scoop a few spoonfuls of sugar into our daily dose of hot caffeine and think nothing of it. It’s not something we see adding to our calorie count each day.
And plenty of us are happy to reach for the coffee additives, too. More than half of American adults who drink coffee daily, and 67% of them put sugar, cream, milk, or other calorie-rich ingredients into it, according to a new analysis of 12 years of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. And of the 26% of Americans who sip tea daily, around 33% of them add flavorings and fixings.
The bad news? This daily barrage of extra gunk is loaded with energy and fat, but lacks much nutrition. Sure, you get some calcium from the dairy products (about 22mg per day), but considering you need about 1,300mg of calcium every day, that creamer in your cuppa is pretty insignificant.
