Drinking Coffee Without Sugar Can Help in Weight Loss, Is It True?
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Jakarta – Many people love to enjoy drinking coffee as well. But recently, there's a trend about drink a coffee without sugar can help in weight loss. Is it true? Well, here is to know.
A study recently published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has now found that drinking unsweetened coffee was associated with a small amount of weight loss, while adding sugar to coffee was associated with some weight gain.
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The results indicate that drinking unsweetened coffee might benefit weight management. However, they should be replicated with future research to confirm the findings.
For this research, the authors wanted to see if drinking coffee contributed to weight loss. They also wanted to examine how adding cream, sugar, or non-dairy whitener to the coffee influenced the health outcome.
This research examined data from three major health studies: the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. This allowed researchers access to a large amount of data and participants.
They then selected participants for their analysis who met certain inclusion criteria.
For example, they chose not to include certain participants who had missing data or already had cancer, heart disease, or diabetes at baseline. In total, they included just over 155,000 participants in their analysis.
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Researchers were able to look at data from food frequency questionnaires that participants filled out at baseline and then every four years.
Participants answered how often they consumed coffee, decaffeinated or regular, and how much cream, sugar, or non-dairy whitener they added.
Researchers did not examine adding fat-free creamer or whitener or adding milk.
They then also looked at the weight changes that occurred every four years. They accounted for several covariates, including the consumption of certain foods, alcohol intake, physical activity, and medical conditions.
The researchers found that drinking 1 cup of coffee daily, whether decaf or regular, was associated with a loss of 0.12 kilograms (kg) of body weight over 4 years.
In contrast, adding one teaspoon of sugar daily was associated with 0.09 kg of weight gain over 4 years. Researchers found that their associations were stronger among participants with a higher BMI and younger age.
They also found that adding whitener or cream was not associated with any significant weight gain.
“Our results may be particularly relevant as an effective weight management strategy among people with overweight and obesity as the observed weight gain associated with adding sugar was higher in these participants," the authors concluded.
"The findings raise questions of a potentially even more detrimental impact on weight by commercial coffee drinks with higher amounts of added sugar,"
However, it is essential to note the overall modest contribution of coffee on weight, either with or without sugar.
