How to Choose a Healthy Coffee Drink

Standing at the counter of your local coffee house can present a challenge if you're trying to watch your weight. On the one hand you want to order what you like and what tastes good. On the other hand, you may have heard that coffee drinks can have large amounts of calories in them. Follow these tips to make sure that your coffee drink doesn't have the equivalent of a day's worth of calories in it but still tastes great.

Instructions

• 1

  Order your coffee drink with skim milk and reduce the fat calories in it. Coffee drinks are made with whole milk or half and half by default. Whole milk and half and half can have very large amounts of fat in them. You can get around this obstacle by ordering your latte with skim milk instead. If you order a regular coffee, make sure you don't grab half and half or regular creamer. Look for non-dairy, fat-free creamer instead. If you simply must have the flavor of the more fatty creamers, then use part half and half and part fat-free creamer.

• 2

  Choose sugar-free flavoring syrup. If you like the taste of hazelnut or caramel then go for it. Just be careful and know that some of the flavoring syrups are sugar-free and some aren't. You can sometimes tell the difference by the color of the pumps on the bottles. You can take this sugar cutting tip a step further by using calorie-free sweeteners instead of sugar to keep your coffee drink friendly for your waistline.

• 3

  Order a small coffee drink. If you prefer to have your coffee with the full flavor of fat and sugar but still want to make it healthier for you then simply opt for a smaller size. Even a drink with a lot of calories can be made healthier by drinking less of it. Sometimes, just having the taste of the drink is enough to satisfy a craving for it without having to drink the whole thing.

• 4

  Drink your coffee through a straw to make it healthier for your teeth. If your coffee has sugar in it, every sip you take washes that sugar over your teeth. Using a straw will allow the sugar to bypass your teeth and preserve their health by sending the coffee straight to your throat to swallow.