Did you know that coffee is the second most highly consumed beverage in the world next to water? I didn’t know that until relatively recently, but I guess it’s no surprise. People LOVE their coffee! From a health perspective, there’s quite a bit of talk about avoiding juices and sodas, but there are also some rumblings now about coffee being too high in calories.

Well, the truth is that coffee without additives is pretty much zero calories! Check out the nutritional information to your left brought to you by the USDA! Yes, an 8 ounce cup of coffee is actually as low as two calories (due to a small amount of protein and mono-unsaturated oils from the coffee bean).

So, what is this really all about? It’s about additives. What are you adding to your coffee? It could be a number of things:

• Milk
• Sugar (Refined, Raw, Flavored Syrup)
• Creamer (Plain or possibly even Flavored)

These few items can certainly make a huge difference in your caloric intake from coffee! For example, check out the number of calories on some of the favorite coffee drinks at Starbucks:

Cappucino – 140 calories
Caffè Latte – 220 calories
Caffè Mocha – 290 calories (without whip cream), 360 (with whip cream) calories
Caffè Vanilla Frappucino Blended Coffee w/ whip cream, 430 calories (one of my wife’s guilty pleasure! Ouch!)
Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha w/ whip cream, 560 calories

And check out this quick video to learn more:

There are several ways that you can minimize the caloric intake from your coffee beverages.

1. Add skim milk or lowfat cream instead of whole milk/cream
2. Reduce your serving size
3. Use artificial sweeteners such as Equal, Splenda, or Sweet and Low (however, you do want to minimize your intake of these as well!)
4. Skip the whipped cream and flavored syrups on your coffee drinks
5. If you just HAVE to have the loaded high calorie coffee drink, be sure to drink them only occasionally (just as you would do with a super high fat high calorie dessert)

Let’s face it – not everyone likes to drink black coffee straight with no additives at all. Fortunately there exists an awesome healthy coffee that is:

• Low acid
• Relatively low in calories
• Has Ganoderma (Reishi) mushroom extracts that have a number of health benefits
• High in anti-oxidants and trace nutrients
  
• Tastes great!