Is Coffee suitable for diet?

Coffee is the perfect beverage for diet - as long as it's plain.

Coffee is known to be recommended for those on a diet, as it not only has no calories but also speeds up metabolism, making the body burn off unnecessary calories faster and more efficiently. However, despite the popular perception, coffee does not have zero calories, but it does have really few, which, given its reasonable consumption, are really negligible.

 

How many calories our coffee has?

Coffee calories are derived from the oils found in the coffee bean, which can be more pronounced depending on the variety and degree of roasting and of course the extraction method. However, an espresso (60 ml) contains no more than 3-5 calories, while for a cup of filter coffee, the calories are almost double, but always staying below 10-12. Equally negligible are the instant coffee calories, equivalent to almost zero espresso calories.

However, there is one point to pay attention to when eating our diet. As we said, coffee calories are due to the oils of the coffee beans. Despite their low calorie value, there are medical studies that blame coffee oils for raising blood cholesterol levels. Therefore, if we have a problem with our cholesterol or if we are on a special diet, we should be very careful. In this case, we prefer espresso or filter coffee filtered with paper, as these are the methods that hold coffee oils most effectively. On the contrary, both French Press and paperless drippers and cold brew can produce richer coffee, but leave all the oil in our mug, which may not be caloric load, but it may affect our cholesterol.

What increases the calories in our coffee?

Of course, all of the above relate only to plain coffee, without the addition of other accompaniments. There is no accompanying coffee that does not raise its caloric load too much. Some supplements may be more "painless", such as milk, and others may be calorie bombs, such as sugar, syrups or whipped cream.

So, while a double espresso has no more than ten calories, for a cappuccino, the calories go up to 100, just by adding milk. Things get even worse in Latte, where milk is significantly higher - while it is worth noting that low-fat milk is usually avoided as it does not produce good foam milk.

Of course, it is unnecessary to refer to other ingredients such as sugar, coffee syrups, whipped cream and chocolate. Indicatively, a spoonful of sugar has about 40 calories, while the corresponding load is multiplied by ready syrups. Whipped cream on the other hand not only has a lot of calories, but it also has fats, which puts even more on our diet.

How can we keep our coffee calories low?

Drinking Our Coffee Plain: The simplest solution is the most obvious. Pure coffee has a negligible calorie load and is suitable for any diet. If we are afraid of the bitter taste of plain coffee, we can thoroughly care about cleaning our machine so that we have cleaner cups and of course choose sweet pies, 100% Arabica blends, which are characterized by natural sweetness.

Using Stevia Instead of Sugar: Stevia sweeteners have multiple sweeteners than sugar, and almost zero calories, while their low glycemic index makes them suitable for diabetics. If we do not want to get rid of the sweet taste in our coffee, replacing sugar with Stevia is the best choice we can have.

Replacing Milk with Almond Milk: Almond milk has almost half the calories of (whole) cow's milk, so if we ever need milk in our coffee, we can try it. Of course, it's not easy to make foam with almond milk, and the taste is quite different.

Limiting coffees - "overproduction": Certainly, iced coffee with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, ice cream or alcohol is appealing and tasty, but it is particularly detrimental to nutrition, with its calories being more than just a piece of cake. We do not need to completely eliminate these coffees from our diet, but it is good to treat them as desserts rather than as coffees. Better to keep it for more special occasions or - why not - for our cheat day.

 

Coffee is a valuable dietary companion - it's enjoyable, it speeds up metabolism and fills us with energy. Let's respect it and don't fill it with unnecessary calories!