You probably pour your morning coffee the same way you have for years.
Maybe black, maybe with a splash of something to soften the edge. The habit itself has barely changed, but what goes into the mug has.
Americans now take in about 60 calories a day from coffee. In the mid-2000s that figure was closer to 43. The jump is nearly 40 percent, even though the average cup has not grown bigger.
A new Tufts University analysis points to the reason, and it isn't sugar.
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The study appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics on October 19, 2026. It drew on dietary data from 30,000 US adults across eight cycles of the national NHANES nutrition survey.
By 2018 non-dairy creamer had overtaken both sugar and dairy milk as the biggest driver of calories added to American coffee.
The surprise finding about creamer and sugar
Non-dairy creamer intake more than doubled across the study window. By 2018 the average American was pouring about 8 grams a day into coffee.
By then, creamer was adding more calories to the average cup than either sugar or dairy milk.
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Added to coffee | Calories per day (2018) |
|---|---|
Non-dairy creamer | 18.5 Also read: Yoga vs. Pilates: which one does more for your body, per clinical research |
Sugar | 16 |
Dairy milk | 11 Also read: Millions take fish oil for brain health: A two-year trial found zero benefit |
Lead author Yongyi Pan is a PhD candidate at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts.
She told the Tufts newsroom that creamer "has now passed both sugar and dairy for its contribution to the total energy consumed from coffee."
Why creamer is calorie dense
Most non-dairy creamers are built on refined vegetable oils, often coconut or palm. Both are high in saturated fat, the kind doctors watch most closely for heart health.
Pan added, "Non-dairy creamers can be high in saturated fat, which is calorie dense." She said that likely explains the extra calories now coming from creamer.
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The researchers also noted that many drinkers do not think of creamer as food in the same way they do sugar or milk. A splash here, a pump of a flavored version there, and the extra calories never land in anyone's mental tally.
What to swap in instead
A few simple swaps help pull the calories back out.
Plain unsweetened dairy milk, unsweetened soy or oat drinks, and drinking coffee black are the quickest options.
Flavored creamers tend to carry the most saturated fat, so switching to a plain version is a straightforward first step. If you drink several cups a day, the math stacks up fast.
The American Heart Association recommends keeping saturated fat below about 6 percent of daily calories. On a standard diet that works out to roughly 13 grams a day.
A generous pour from a coconut-based creamer, repeated across the morning, can take a sizable bite out of that budget before breakfast is over.
This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.