Coffee Concoctions

The following is an excerpt from Fighting the Freshman Fifteen printed with permission from the author Robyn Flipse.

Not so very long ago, coffee was the drug of choice on college campuses. Many struggling freshmen had their first taste of the bitter grind the night before midterms and quickly learned this legal stimulant was available 24/7. The stronger the brew, the quicker the buzz, so lighteners and sweeteners were clearly optional. Today you can add enough to a simple cup of coffee to turn it into a three-course meal.

Milk It

Let’s start with the blond option. Light cream or half-and-half are the standard coffee lighteners in better restaurants, diners, and popular coffee chains. They supply 30 calories per tablespoon or single little creamer container. Depending on how big that coffee container is and how light you like your brew and how many refills you get, the cream in your morning coffee alone can up to 200 calories in no time at all.

In most places where cream is served there is also the option of getting whole milk, at a savings of 20 calories per tablespoon. Now this is something worth considering, and here’s why: If you’re currently using 6 tablespoons (about 1/3 cup) of half-and-half in that 24-ounce takeout in the morning, you could save 120 calories a day, or 840 per week, or an astounding 43,680 calories a year, by switching to whole milk. There’s no denying that this would go a long way toward preventing the freshman fifteen. And we are only talking about that first cup of coffee of the day.

If you want to reap even bigger caloric savings, brew your own and lighten it with low-fat milk. Or you can go to a self-serve coffee counter, where you will find 2%, 1%, and fat-free milk, as well as lactose-free milk, fat-free internationally flavored creamers, nondairy creamers, and soy milk. Now we’re talking choice. But in every case, you must remember, they lighten the coffee, not your figure.

Coffee Tip: Use nonfat powdered milk for your home brew and you’ll get no fat, fewer calories, and lots of calcium from a milk product that doesn’t go sour!

Sweeteners

The next assault on that cup of coffee comes with the sweetener you choose. If it’s sugar, you’re adding 15 calories per teaspoon or single sugar packet. And it makes absolutely no difference if it’s white, brown, or raw. If you use one of the artificial sweeteners, they average 4 calories per packet, mostly from the other powdery ingredients used to disperse

Now, if you don’t think this little bit of sweetness is worth worrying about, try this: Hold on to all of your empty sugar or sweetener packets for a day to see how many you’ve used. Now multiply the number of packets by the calories per packet, then multiply it by 7 days a week, then by 52 weeks per year. Now what do you think?

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