Non-Dairy Creamers Are Secretly Adding Calories To Your Morning Coffee

Reaching for that non-dairy creamer could be making your daily cup of joe worse for your health, a new study says.

Although people drink about the same amount of coffee each day, those cups have become increasingly calorie-heavy, researchers reported Oct. 19 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The average person drinks about 13 ounces of coffee per day, but the calories in coffee increased from 43 to 60 per day. Non-dairy creamers in particular are adding to the calories found in Americans’ average cup of coffee, researchers found.

“We found that non-dairy creamer being added to coffee has now passed both sugar and dairy for its contribution to the total energy consumed from coffee,” lead researcher Yongyi Pan said in a news release. She is a doctoral candidate in nutrition science and policy at Tufts University in Boston. 

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 2003 to 2018 gathered by the National Health and Nutrition Survey of 30,000 adults 20 and older. The federal nutrition poll asked participants to provide two 24-hour diet recalls, including coffee beverages and anything they stirred into their cups.

Results showed that the most common coffee additions by 2018 were dairy milk, non-dairy creamer and sugar.

Consumption of non-dairy additions like syrup and creamers in particular rose dramatically, from an average of 3.6 grams per day in 2003 to 10.5  grams in 2018. Non-dairy creamer rose from 3.4 grams per day to 8 grams, and non-dairy milk from 0.3 grams to 2.5 grams.

“Coffee consumption has been associated with several health benefits. However, coffee is often accompanied by the addition of sugar and cream, which can contribute to an increased consumption of calories from added sugar and saturated fat,” senior researcher Dr. Fang Zhang, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University, said in a news release.

By 2018, non-dairy creamer added nearly 19 calories to the average cup of coffee. Sugar weighed in at 16 calories and milk brought in 11 calories daily. In comparison, the overall average calorie count from non-dairy creamer in 2003 was 7 calories per day. 

“Non-dairy creamers can be high in saturated fat, which is calorie dense. This could explain the increased calories that non-dairy creamer is contributing,” Pan said. “Even though it has been on the market since the 1950s, non-dairy creamer has increased in popularity in recent years as consumers seek plant-based or dairy alternatives.”

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on the health benefits of coffee.

SOURCE: Tufts University, news release, Oct. 20, 2026