Scientists: Coffee May Unexpectedly Be 40% Higher In Calories

• 1.11.2026, 15:19

And sugar has nothing to do with it.

Researchers found that the calorie content of coffee has increased by 40%. However, it is not the sugar that adds the most extra calories, but the non-dairy creamer.

This is reported by Science Daily.

The research team analyzed data from eight consecutive cycles of the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) covering the years 2003–2018. The representative sample included 30,000 adults aged 20 and older. Each participant provided information about everything they ate and drank over the course of a day.

The researchers divided coffee beverages into two main groups—plain and with additives:

milk tea

a mixture of milk and cream

dairy cream

plant-based milk

plant-based coffee cream

sugar and syrups

sugar substitutes

alcohol

cocoa powder

Although regular milk remained the most common coffee additive, by 2018 plant-based cream had become the main source of extra calories in the beverage.

On average, plant-based cream contributed 18.5 calories per day, while sugar contributed 16 calories and regular milk contributed 11 calories.

“We found that plant-based cream added to coffee has now surpassed both sugar and dairy products in terms of its contribution to the total calorie content of coffee. Plant-based cream can contain a lot of saturated fats, which have a high energy content,” said Yongi Pan, the study’s lead author and a graduate student at the Friedman School (Boston, USA).