Does Healthy Coffee Creamer Exist?

If you put creamer into your coffee every morning instead of milk, well, we have some news for you: You might want to stop. Nearly all commercial coffee creamers contain partially hydrogenated oils in order to make them shelf-stable, which is a source of the dreaded trans fat, which can lead to some serious medical issues. Even if creamers claim that they contain no trans fat, that's only because they're allowed to round down to zero by the FDA. Fact of the matter is, if there's partially hydrogenated oil, there's trans fat, and it's not something you want to be consuming every morning.

Is there such a thing as healthy coffee creamer? Well, it depends. Products like Natural Bliss, which are essentially just flavored milk, don't contain partially hydrogenated oils, even though they're loaded with sugar (five grams in a tablespoon). Non-dairy creamers have, for the most part, been working to cut out hydrogenated oils, but original Coffee-Mate still contains it.

The fact of the matter is, if you can, you should just be adding milk to your coffee; it's natural and chemical-free. But if you must add creamer, check the ingredients to make sure that the word "hydrogenated" doesn't show up, and that the sugar content isn't through the roof.