Monday, November 14, 2011

Coffee: Calories, Nutrition and Add-ons

Coffee is a marvelous discovery. And Americans love their coffee, drinking about 400 millions cups of the stuff every day. But we aren't satisfied with just coffee. We add milk, cream, half & half, soy milk, sugar, syrups and all sorts of other nonsense to it to the point that its own mother wouldn't recognize it.

So this begs a few questions: How many calories are in coffee? Is coffee good for you? What about all the accessories?

 According to the USDA, a 6 oz. cup of black coffee has a measly 2 calories.

Whether or not coffee is good for you is largely dependent on you. Coffee is famous, of course, for it's caffeine content but it has so much more to offer. The complex combination of hundreds of compounds contained in coffee means that it can produce many different outcomes when used by different people with different health conditions. The Harvard School of Public Health reports that research suggests coffee may be beneficial for the prevention of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's Disease, liver cancer, cirrhosis and heart disease.

Fun Fact
Coffee beans contain a chemical called 
cafestol which can greatly 
increase your levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol. 
Brewing coffee through a paper filter reduces
the amount of cafestol
that gets transferred to your cup. 

So, what about the add-ons? 

I made you a gift. It's a chart.

Coffee Nutrition




One More Fact
Cinnamon makes a delicious addition 
to your coffee without
adding calories or anything else.
and lower blood pressure.