Almost everybody makes it a habit to drink at least a cup of coffee a day. Perhaps for some, it is a good way of starting a busy day or a preferred snack while doing business in the side. But according to a new research, people may need to taper their daily consumption of coffee, as a cup of it can already give more than an adult's recommended daily intake.
A study from Cancer Council NSW reveals just how unhealthy drinking coffee several times a day is, and that people may have been underestimating the amounts of sugar and fat that they acquire from doing so. Well, this apparently does not alarm most people. But as shown, in just one trip to a coffee shop, a person may already be consuming his or her entire daily intake of sugar and fat, as written in the press release.
Exactly 564 menu items across five popular Australian coffee chains including Gloria Jeans, The Coffee Club, McCafé, Muffin Break and Michel's Patiserrie, were assessed by the researchers. Energy, sugar, and saturated fat content were measured, and were then compared to the recommended daily allowance set by health experts.
After series of analyses, about 54 percent of all cold refreshments such as iced coffees and chocolate drinks had more than half of the recommended daily sugar' allowance in just one serving. One McCafé's Coffee Kick Frappe, for example, had 19 teaspoons of sugar - about 86 percent of the required daily intake of a person. Moreover, some beverages also have high saturated fat content such as that of Coffee Club's iced coffee which contains 39 grams - 63 percent more than what is required in a day.
"With Australians spending a third of their weekly food budgets eating at cafés, restaurants and fast food outlets, and 63 percent of Australian adults overweight or obese, it's more important than ever to have access to healthy options," says co-author Clare Hughes, a nutrition programs manager, as quoted by ScienceAlert.
Having all these findings, the researchers stressed on the resolution that aside from people making their best choices for coffee drinks, cafés should also resort to reformulating their menus. In that way, customers only get what is healthy without having to worry if they have consumed too much of what is enough.
The study appears in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics.