Coffee Calories Have Jumped Nearly 40% – but Sugar Isn’t the Biggest Culprit

Key Takeaways: 

• Calories from coffee among adults in the United States rose by nearly 40% between 2003 and 2018, from 43 to 60 calories per day, even though the amount of coffee people drank stayed relatively constant at about 13 ounces per day.
  
• By 2018, non-dairy creamer had become the largest contributor to added coffee calories, at 18.5 calories per day, ahead of sugar (16 calories) and dairy milk (11 calories).
  
• Average daily intake of non-dairy creamer more than doubled over the study period, rising from 3.37 to 8 grams per day, as consumers increasingly sought plant-based or dairy alternatives.
  
  
  

A hidden rise in coffee calories

Adults in the United States are getting more calories from their daily coffee, even though the amount they drink has barely changed. Researchers at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University have identified a surprising reason for this increase: non-dairy creamer, which has overtaken both sugar and milk as the largest contributor to added calories in coffee.

The study, published online in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, examined dietary information from 30,000 American adults aged 20 and older. Between 2003 and 2018, average coffee consumption stayed relatively constant at approximately 13 ounces per day. Over the same period, however, the average number of calories consumed from coffee increased from 43 to 60 per day – a rise of nearly 40%. By 2018, the leading sources of added coffee calories were non-dairy creamer, sugar or syrup, and dairy milk.

“Coffee consumption has been associated with several health benefits. However, coffee is often accompanied by the addition of sugar and cream, which can contribute to an increased consumption of calories from added sugar and saturated fat,” said Fang Fang Zhang, senior author of the study and Neely Family Professor at the Friedman School. “The more we know about what people are consuming, the better we can understand the link between nutrition and overall health.”

How researchers tracked changes in coffee habits

To investigate how coffee habits in the United States had evolved, the research team examined eight consecutive cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), covering 2003 to 2018. This nationally representative dataset included 30,000 adults aged 20 and older, each of whom completed two 24-hour dietary recalls.

The researchers separated coffee beverages into two broad groups: non-combination beverages and those containing additional ingredients. They then classified these additions into several categories, including dairy milk, half-and-half, dairy cream, non-dairy milk, non-dairy creamer, sugar or syrup, sugar substitutes, and other ingredients such as alcohol and cocoa powder.

Some participants reported consuming pre-mixed coffee beverages or powders, which meant the researchers needed to estimate the amounts of individual ingredients these products contained. To do this, they used the USDA Food and Nutrition Database for Dietary Studies corresponding to each survey cycle, alongside linked Standard Reference codes.

Non-dairy creamer consumption more than doubled

The analysis showed that overall coffee intake, including coffee consumed without any additions, remained largely unchanged between 2003 and 2018. What did change was the amount and type of ingredients being mixed into those drinks.

In 2018, dairy milk was the most commonly added ingredient by weight, averaging 21.4 grams per day. Non-dairy creamer followed at 8.1 grams per day, while sugar accounted for 4.4 grams per day. Consumption of dairy milk, sugar and sugar substitutes showed no statistically significant changes over the study period.

Non-dairy additions, however, followed a very different pattern. Their average consumption rose from 3.65 grams per day in 2003 to 10.5 grams per day in 2018. Much of this growth came from non-dairy creamer, which increased from 3.37 to 8 grams per day. Non-dairy milk consumption also climbed sharply, rising from 0.27 to 2.45 grams per day.

Other coffee additions increased slightly as well, with an average gain of 0.5 grams per day.

Why non-dairy creamer now adds more calories than sugar

Although dairy milk remained the most common coffee addition by weight, non-dairy creamer had become the leading source of added calories by 2018.

On average, non-dairy creamer contributed 18.5 calories per day, compared with 16 calories from sugar and 11 calories from dairy milk. In 2003, non-dairy creamer had contributed just 7.71 calories per day, illustrating how dramatically its role in coffee consumption had shifted over the 15-year period.

“We found that non-dairy creamer being added to coffee has now passed both sugar and dairy for its contribution to the total energy consumed from coffee. Non-dairy creamers can be high in saturated fat, which is calorie dense. This could explain the increased calories that non-dairy creamer is contributing,” said Yongyi Pan, the study’s lead author and a PhD candidate at the Friedman School. “Even though it has been on the market since the 1950s, non-dairy creamer has increased in popularity in recent years as consumers seek plant-based or dairy alternatives.”

For healthcare professionals, these findings highlight how small, habitual additions to everyday drinks can quietly shape a person’s overall energy and saturated fat intake. Practitioners looking to strengthen their confidence in discussing dietary habits like these with the people they support may find the College of Contemporary Health’s Nutrition & Weight Management Essentials course a useful starting point.

Sleep, work hours and coffee consumption

The researchers also investigated whether coffee consumption differed among adults based on their daily routines and overall diet quality.

They found that people who slept fewer hours generally drank more coffee than those who slept longer. A similar pattern emerged among adults who worked longer hours, who tended to consume more coffee than those with shorter working schedules.

However, coffee consumption was comparable among people with higher and lower overall diet quality, suggesting that drinking more or less coffee was not strongly associated with how healthy their broader diets were.

Study limitations

The researchers acknowledged that the study relied on participants recalling what they had eaten and drunk, which can introduce measurement errors. Because food and drink consumption can vary considerably from day to day, self-reported dietary information does not always perfectly reflect people’s usual habits. The research team took steps to improve the reliability of its estimates.

Co-author Bingjie Zhou contributed to the research while pursuing a PhD at the Friedman School.

CCH insight

Everyday drinks can be an easily overlooked source of calories and saturated fat. Our Nutrition & Weight Management Essentials CPD course helps healthcare professionals build practical, evidence-informed knowledge to support people in understanding and improving their dietary habits. 

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Source: Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics