Healthiest Coffee Creamers and Sweeteners

We do love our coffee, don't we? The average American drinks two cups per day. And most of us have our own variations on that beverage. The options are as unique as every American. Creamy sweet, black, chocolatey, with syrups, or even with butter. And hen we look at getting healthy and making better choices, this beverage tops the list of places where we need to make adjustments. And it's worth it because coffee itself is a healthy choice— it's the additions that get us into trouble most of the time. So how do we keep it healthy while loving this beverage?

Healthiest Coffee Creamers

Many of us began our coffee habits by pouring in lavish servings of cream and sugar to take away the bitterness. Over the years, we might have become fond of certain coffee creamer brands, from flavored and sweetened to no-refrigeration-needed options. 

The problem with some coffee creamers is the long list of unhealthy ingredients like carrageenan, a thickening agent that may result in stomach trouble, fillers like cellulose gum, and emulsifiers, such as polysorbate 6. The resulting mixtures might look and even taste like cream, but they don’t benefit our bodies — and for some, they may cause untold trouble.

Instead, consider one of the healthier coffee creamer options: 

• Vegan Creamers: Non-dairy coffee creamers without flavoring may provide that luxurious feeling of real cream without saturated fat or sugar. Consider trying plant-based, non-dairy options include almond, oat, and soy-based creamers.
• Certified Organic Whole Milk or Cream: Some of us may not want to give up our beloved cream in our coffee. The healthiest choice in such cases? Look for certified organic whole milk or cream and skip the processed creamers altogether. Opt for a whole-food creamer with no additives. 
• Coconut Milk: This beverage may provide the creamy feeling of real cream with none of the artificial ingredients. Canned coconut milk offers the same convenience as other options at a lower cost, too. Give it a shake and you're ready to go.
•  Butter: A bit of the best butter (specifically, salt-free, grass-fed butter or even clarified butter (ghee) may result in a buttery rich beverage and lots of people swear by it. Also known as Bulletproof Coffee, it may be worth checking out if you're not trying to watch your fats.

Healthiest Coffee Sweeteners

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine, and coffee, go down! But although it’s a common choice, sugar isn’t the healthiest if we want to be totally real with ourselves.

Here are some better ways to sweeten your coffee:

• Cinnamon: We love cinnamon in apple pie, but coffee? Well, yes. A dash of cinnamon in coffee adds a spicy sweetness with zero calories and the scent as it wafts up is divine.
• Honey: Here’s the buzz about honey: It’s a natural sweetener that may help us reduce our daily sugar intake but go easy. It's not something to use in unlimited amounts.
• Monk Fruit Extract: While calorie-free, this extract contains 300 to 400 times the sweetening power of cane sugar. Result: Our blood sugar levels stay stable, and our teeth healthy. 
• Vanilla Extract: Rather than stirring in sugar-sweetened vanilla syrup, consider vanilla extract. Just a drop may give your coffee an enhanced, richly sweet flavor. 

Whether we opt for a spoonful of honey, a dash of oat-based creamer, or a sprinkle of cinnamon, we have many healthy options for enhancing our morning coffee without breaking out the creamers or syrups full of multiple ingredients. Experimenting with the coffee creamers and sweeteners listed above may even make us feel like we’ve become our own baristas. And when all else fails, some of our editors swear that you can learn to drink it black and love it if you just commit to doing so for a month. No matter how you like it, bring on the java joy!

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