9 Reasons To Think Twice Before Using Coffee Creamer Again

For many people, coffee creamer is a must-have pantry staple. This food item seamlessly replicates cream or half-and-half and often includes added flavors to give it a more delicious taste. As a bonus, you can use coffee creamer in loads of ways that don't involve coffee. But all that ease can come at a cost. Coffee creamer is far from the healthiest food item out there, and its texture and flavor are provided by certain ingredients that could have more of an impact than you think.

Some of these ingredients — like corn syrup, sugar, and vegetable oils — make its nutritional makeup distinct from regular dairy products and can raise its fat and sugar content. Certain additions also add a silky-smooth texture, but these ingredients, such as carrageenan, come with their own health considerations. It's not just liquid coffee creamers that have questionable ingredients in them, either: Powdered creamers can often contain solidified versions of these items. These can pose just as much of a concern as liquid creamers. For this article, we focused on breaking down these individual ingredients to discuss how they can contribute to poorer health outcomes, using scientific studies to do so.

One of the main advantages of coffee creamer is its texture. Liquid coffee creamers have a silky consistency that helps to give bulk to your coffee. These liquid creamers also stay smooth, even at room temperature. This texture, however, is partly created by thickeners and emulsifiers like carrageenan, which can prove more trouble than they're worth.

Carrageenan has long been a controversial ingredient, and its inclusion in many processed foods has caused concern for health professionals due to its potential ability to cause inflammation. Unfortunately, the evidence for this is still incomplete, which has raised worries about its long-term use. Some studies, such as a 2021 one published in Nutrients, have pointed out that several animal trials have seen a link between carrageenan and inflammation, as well as inflammatory bowel disease. But this study also points out how patchy the research is at the moment. The study states that, until more data is available, it's best to limit your exposure to carrageenan as much as possible — which may mean you need to skip the store-bought stuff, and make unbeatable coffee creamer at home instead.

Fats come in many shapes and sizes, and trans fats are pretty much the worst type out there. These fats are known to have a detrimental impact on cholesterol by simultaneously lowering the good type and raising the bad type. The issue, too, is that there are two different types of trans fats, those that come from natural sources and those that are industrially made (which are more harmful). And, as a 2021 study published in the journal Foods points out, it's difficult to tell which is which when it comes to what's in your food.

And guess what? Trans fats are often in coffee creamers, folks, and you may not even realize it. Unfortunately, certain coffee creamers can contain oil types that supply trans fats in low quantities. If they contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fats, though, manufacturers are totally at liberty to round the number of trans fats present down, meaning that you won't know if you're consuming them or not. Luckily, these quantities are so small that if you're only having a drop now and again, it shouldn't be much of a problem. However, if you're drinking loads of coffee creamer, these things can add up, so it's always best to try and consume as little as possible.

Coffee creamers, like many foods, are things that you should be consuming fairly moderately, due to their calorie content. Many coffee creamers contain around 35 calories per tablespoon serving. This is a relatively small amount. If you stick to the serving size, this makes up a small amount of your daily caloric intake every day. Consume too much of it, though, and you could be raising your calories a little more than usual.

The cumulative effect of this can be an increase in weight, which may impact your health long-term. Weight gain has been found to contribute to a range of chronic health conditions, like high blood pressure, diabetes, gallstones, heart disease, and cancer, according to research published in Eat for Life: The Food and Nutrition Board's Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Disease. Having said this, it's of course important not to fully govern your life and diet by calorie intake, and a small amount of coffee creamer daily may not have a huge impact.

Because coffee creamer is used in such small quantities, it may not seem like a big deal that it doesn't have many vitamins or minerals. However, every little helps — and swapping your regular milk for coffee creamer may leave you lacking essential nutrients. Many coffee creamers don't bother putting any vitamin or mineral information on their nutritional labels, simply because there just isn't much there. Indeed, Nestlé Coffee Mate Coconut Creme Liquid Coffee Creamer points out that vitamins and minerals are lacking, stating that it's "not a significant source" of several nutrients like vitamin D or calcium.

Milk, on the other hand, is pretty nutrient-rich, thanks to being fortified. Vitamin D is frequently added to cow's milk in the United States, with these milks also commonly fortified with calcium. Losing out on these nutrients can have a big impact. Both vitamin D and calcium contribute to good bone health. Vitamin D also bolsters your immune system, per a 2008 study published in Current Rheumatology Reports. If you know you get adequate levels of vitamin D and calcium elsewhere in your diet, you may not miss it from the milk in your morning coffee. If you don't, however, you may need to consider how your coffee creamer fix may be affecting this.

When determining why you should think twice before using coffee creamer, we first looked at individual ingredients or aspects of the food that could be considered unhealthy. Coffee creamers are classified as ultra-processed foods, which are defined as such — not just because they have added sugar or fat — but because they contain additional ingredients like flavorings, thickeners, and emulsifiers. Consuming ultra-processed foods regularly can contribute to poorer health outcomes. These foods, when eaten in greater quantities, can impact your cardiovascular system, mental health, and risk of mortality, according to a 2024 study published in The BMJ.

We wanted to look beyond the fact that coffee creamers are ultra-processed and examine exactly how each ingredient can affect health individually. As such, we looked at the ingredients typically included in coffee creamers in more detail, as well as scientific studies that assessed how these ingredients may impact the body. It's important to remember that drinking coffee creamer occasionally, or once or twice, will likely not significantly affect your health. However, it's equally important to be aware of how regular, high consumption of this humble food could have an influence in the long term, especially when combined with a less nutritious diet.