Does adding cream AND sugar to coffee do something ‘bad’ to your body?
On a road trip a few years ago my mother, sister and I (all reasonable college educated adults) stopped at a roadside Denny’s for breakfast in the middle of the night. As I have at every Denny’s visit since I was 14, I asked for "plenty of cream and sugar," at which point my mother chastises me and says, "Didn’t you know that’s bad for you?’
My sister and I both shoot incredulous looks of disbelief to my mother.
"You NEVER add both cream and sugar to your coffee."
"And why is that, Mom?"
(pauses, looks up and away)
"It does … things … to your intestines."
Now my mother may be a college educated adult but she tends to believe whatever she hears and the more ludicrous and out of convention that thing may be, the more likely she is to believe it.
Generally, I chalk this sort of thing up either to her regular recreational drug use since the Johnson administration or a small stroke she had a few years ago. But I must say that mom was perfectly lucid at this particular juncture.
So answer me my questions three:
A.) Where the hell did she get such a crazy ass idea? (and don’t say ‘the Internet.’ The last time I saw my mother operate a computer it was the size of a Smart Car, had a four inch screen and had less computing power than my digital kitchen scale.)
2.) Maybe mom wasn’t crazy and there’s something to adding cream and sugar to coffee that makes it bad for you. (or is crazy but not about this)
III.) If there is the slightest bit of credibility to this idea, why isn’t it everywhere? This is the perfect sort of paranoid rambling that could put Starbucks out of the fancy coffee business forever (if true.)
I await your response.
Let me be clear: I know cream and sugar have calories, fat, et cetera and and in general not something you would want to consume a large amount of.
Mom’s claim was that the –specific combination– of milk/cream (IDK if she meant dairy or non-dairy creamer) with sugar combines in to some sort of new and unspecified very bad thing that would wreak untold harm on your body that consuming either seperately could not and would not do.
"Milk, or sugar, but not both. Black is better."
Which –may– be true. But only due to the tiny amounts of calories, fat, etc. and NOT because the combination of milk AND sugar in the body does something bad.
…. Or does it??
THAT’S the question.
It doesn’t do things to your intestines, but it is really bad for the body. Using both in combination, or by itself, is bad anyway.
EDIT: You can eat all three together, it won’t do anything out of whack to you. It will just give you a sugar crash and leave you really hungry.











2 Responses to “Does adding cream AND sugar to coffee do something ‘bad’ to your body?”
Aug 12th at 5:01 pm By: Nurse Practitioner 32 years
Sugar has a lot of empty calories. Cream has calories and saturated fat. Coffee has caffiene. An abundance of any of the above is not good for you, but the amount you would get in a cup of coffee is insignificant. Make Mom happy and just drink water.
References :
Aug 12th at 5:06 pm By: ImBack
It doesn’t do things to your intestines, but it is really bad for the body. Using both in combination, or by itself, is bad anyway.
EDIT: You can eat all three together, it won’t do anything out of whack to you. It will just give you a sugar crash and leave you really hungry.
References :
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