How do you take your coffee? If you prefer sweeter varieties like the frozen Frappuccinos or flavor-rich lattes at Starbucks, you’re not alone. However, we probably won’t be the first to tell you that these beverages are not the healthiest route to go. They can lead to bloating, spike your blood sugar levels, and even ruin your metabolism over time. Luckily, there are still ways to get your morning coffee fix without dealing with these fallbacks.
To discover the healthiest ways to drink coffee, we checked in with dietitian Dana Ellis Hunnes PhD, MPH, RD, author of Recipe For Survival. She gave us a rundown of the best coffee habits to practice every morning if you want to lead a healthy life.
Drink Your Coffee Black (Or Take It With Plant-Based Milk)
Hunnes says despite what your taste buds may prefer, when it comes to your health, the best way to take your coffee is plain old black. "Drinking coffee black will offer the most health benefits because it will have the highest concentration of polyphenols, flavanols, and phytonutrients," she explains, noting that these nutrients "may aid in promoting health, reducing inflammation, weight maintenance, and longevity." Wow! Who knew that your morning caffeine boost could actually be so good for you?
If you love to load your coffee up with sweeteners, creams, and syrups, we don't blame you; it certainly makes it taste delicious. However, Hunnes says choosing black coffee instead will save you from a good deal of inflammation caused by sugar, as well as a load of calories. In fact, black coffee contains no calories at all!
If you really can't find it in you to drink black coffee, she recommends trading your high-calorie creamers and milks for plant-based options like oat milk or soy milk. "Unsweetened varieties will be the healthiest as they do not add sugar and will therefore not add inflammatory processed sugar to the mix," she explains. Perfect!
Add Cinnamon To Your Coffee
While it's generally best to keep your coffee ingredients to a minimum, there's one addition that may be able to provide more health benefits: metabolism-boosting cinnamon! "If you add cinnamon to coffee (especially ceylon cinnamon, which is the real cinnamon), it can make coffee even healthier," Hunnes shares, noting that "cinnamon has been shown to improve insulin response."
Not only can cinnamon make this healthy beverage even healthier, but it's also a great, slightly sweet replacement for all of those high-calorie, sugary ingredients Hunnes suggests you leave out of your mug.
Benefits Of Less Ingredients In Your Coffee
We know, we know. Just cinnamon and oat milk? What about all of your favorite creamers and flavorings? But while sugar-loaded drinks from Starbucks may be tasty, there are so many benefits to choosing these healthier options instead. Hunnes explains that fancy coffee drinks "are basically a meal in a drink, and add calories, but not much health," adding that in the end, they "essentially wipe out the healthfulness of plain coffee."
Additionally, ingredient-heavy coffee beverages don't keep us full like food does, which means you're taking in an excess of calories without reaping any of the benefits of actual, nutritious food. "The fact that they are also so highly processed makes them even less healthy, by making them inflammatory, increasing IGF-1 (an inflammatory marker), and also increasing the insulin response, making us hungrier than if we hadn't had such a sweet/sugary drink." Yikes!
Luckily, when you cut back on the creamer, sugar, and syrups, and go back to the basics instead, you're choosing a healthier option that your body will thank you for. When you consider all of that, black coffee really isn't so bad!
