Most Americans – including more than 70% of adults – regularly drink coffee. What they may not know is that the drink could help them lose weight, depending on how they make or order it.
According to a study published earlier this month in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “an increase in intake of unsweetened caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee was inversely associated with weight gain.”
However, adding just a teaspoon of sugar to coffee was associated with a four-year weight gain of less than a pound.
“The addition of sugar to coffee counteracted coffee’s benefit for possible weight management,” said the study. “On the other hand, adding cream or coffee whitener were not associated with greater weight gain.”
To conduct the study, researchers used data from three large prospective cohorts. These were the Nurses’ Health Study (1986 to 2010), the Nurses’ Health Study II (1991 to 2015) and Health Professional Follow-up Study (1991 to 2014).
“We applied multivariable linear regression models with robust variance estimators to assess the association of changes in coffee habits within each four-year interval with concurrent weight changes,” said the study authors. “Results across the three cohorts were pooled using inverse-variance weights.”
Nearly one in three American adults are overweight and nearly two in five have obesity, per the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. According to the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, maintaining a healthy weight can help reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems and certain cancers.
A 2016 study found that 154 million adults, or 75% of the U.S. population reported drinking coffee and nearly half reported drinking coffee daily. Data revealed by the National Coffee Association in 2020 showed that even more (62%) drank coffee daily and that one in seven drank coffee every week.
Weight loss isn’t the only potential health benefit of drinking a daily cup of joe. Previous studies have shown that it can improve liver health and that drinking two cups of coffee daily has been associated with lowering the risk of strokes and heart attacks.