Why Cold Coffee Might Be as Bad for Health as a Muffin?

We give ourselves so much grief for having a muffin (“I’d sworn I won’t touch desserts for a week”), while we happily gulp down a full, refreshing glass of sweet, cold coffee.

Because desserts are bad, right?

And they’re easily identifiable. They look like cookies and cakes and muffins and bakes.

But what exactly is ‘dessert’? Nutritionally speaking, how would you identify a dessert?

Is Cold Coffee A Dessert?

Usually, one would say that any food which has a high concentration of calories per gm, and a large part of those calories come from sugar – means it’s a dessert! By that logic though, the muffin and the cold coffee in the picture above (both from the same cafe chain btw), are both desserts.

Why? Well because cold coffee isn’t about the coffee. It’s about flavor and pleasing your tongue.

In fact, the coffee has double the sugar than the muffin! Ouch.

Comparison of Sugar in Blueberry Muffin & Cold Coffee

That’s why we gravitate towards buying coffee from cafes and don’t like the ones we make at home. Because we don’t douse 4 tablespoons of sugar while making it! So our brains like the sugar rush it gets from these store-bought coffees and we keep buying them thinking we’re following our diets.

Importance of Nutritional & Food Tables

Tagging food as good, bad, healthy, indulgent, etc – is simplistic. It’s a generalization that weight watchers can ill-afford. So rather than vilify certain foods and exemplify others…just read the nutritional table. It has all the answers (and some very tough questions)

In case you need help understanding the ingredients on nutrition and food labels check out our latest Academy videos.

PS: Just because the coffee is basically dessert doesn’t mean you should’ve had the muffin instead!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. Why Cold Coffee is a dessert?

A. Any food which has a high concentration of calories per gm, and a large part of those calories come from sugar – means it’s a dessert. By that logic though, the cold coffee is a dessert.

Q. Why nutrition label is important?

A. Tagging food as good, bad, healthy, indulgent, etc is simplistic. So rather than vilify certain foods and exemplify others, just read the nutritional table because it has all the answers.