Extra cup of unsweetened coffee can help manage weight: Study

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An extra cup of coffee per day may help a drinker maintain or possibly lose weight, according to a new study.

However you like your bonus cup of joe, just make sure it is unsweetened.

Researchers in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston looked at associations between changes in coffee consumption, caffeine intake and weight changes from three large U.S. studies.

There were 48,891 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study (1986-2010), 83,464 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II (1991-2015) and 22,863 participants in the Health Professional Follow-up Study (1991-2014).

Researchers adjusted their analysis to account for variations in participant diets, including fruits, vegetables, grains, fibres, meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products.

The results, published in The America Journal of Clinical Nutrition last month, found people maintained their weight whether they consumed coffee with or without caffeine. Added milk, cream or a non-dairy whitener also didn’t have an effect.

However, sugar appeared to add a minor gain to drinkers’ waists.

“An increase in intake of unsweetened caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee was inversely associated with weight gain,” the study authors concluded. “The addition of sugar to coffee counteracted coffee’s benefit for possible weight management. On the other hand, adding cream or coffee whitener were not associated with greater weight gain.”

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Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires about their food and drink habits. Researchers divided the results into caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, and whether the drinks contained sugar, non-sweeteners or cream.

The results were analyzed in four-year increments.

Participants saw on average a .12 kilogram decrease in weight with an extra cup of unsweetened coffee over that period.

However, those who added one teaspoon of sugar to their extra brew gained .09 kilograms over the same period.