This cozy, caffeinated drink most of us sleep-deprived students can’t live without tends to get a bad rap. Does that mean it’s bad? NOPE- let me explain a bit more.
Coffee is incredibly low calorie- 8 ounces (your standard mug full), to be exact, has about 2 calories. But, chances are, you don’t drink it black. You’ve heard it hundreds of times, but it’s the milk and sugar that add up, especially with the specialty drinks, as much as we love them. To put it into perspective, eating an extra 500 calories (just a hundred calories more than a few of the Starbucks seasonal favorites) a day means gaining one pound a week. One grande iced white chocolate mocha may not seem too bad, but it’ll add a couple hundred unnecessary calories. My suggestion: Ask for almond milk (I know it’s extra, but it cuts down calories significantly), don’t order the largest size, and skip the whipped cream; doing those three things alone makes that iced white chocolate mocha go from 420 calories to 190 calories!!!
Coffee’s caffeine content changes based on how it’s roasted, brewed, etc., but most of it doesn’t exceed 165 mg per 8 ounce serving (a normal mug size). A lot of studies have researched caffeine intake, and the majority of them put 400 mg as the cap; anything less per day hasn’t been linked to anything negative. However, anything over that has been linked to insomnia, gastrointestinal problems, and a few other things (so… 3 mug fulls might be where you want to stop, if you’re a coffee-all-day kinda person).
Shall we talk about the good things in coffee? There are tons. It has lots of antioxidants, more per serving than most fruits and veggies, in fact. Along with those, it has anticarcinogens, which is fancy-talk for cancer-fighting compounds. These little beans are packed with the good stuff!
Long story short, keep enjoying your cuppa coffee *insert sigh of relief*; you can argue whether or not it’s an addiction, but it’s better than most of the other drink choices. Sip on, friends!
*P.S. – If you’ve already tried out Tate St. Coffee and/or Coffeeology and aren’t sure where else to go for a good cup o’ joe close by, check out the People’s Perk or Common Grounds!*