Coffee creamer: What's really in it?

They say you are what you eat. If that's the case, I've been inspired to examine the ingredients in some of the items I eat or drink on a regular basis.

This inspiration comes from a couple of other blog posts I've read recently. Scott Kustes of Modern Forager urges us to eat real food, and Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple discusses foods that contain high fructose corn syrup.

After reading these posts, I caught myself looking at the ingredient labels of various foods around my kitchen. I feel like I do pretty well with focusing my diet on vegetables, fruits and meats. For the most part, I stay away from too much processed or high-fat foods. But in our highly-processed world, it’s hard not to let a few creep into my kitchen.

But still, these posts made me wonder if I was doing all I could to help my body be healthier. Sure, I keep the fat and carbs pretty low, but what about all that weird stuff in my foods that I can't pronounce? As Scott says, real food doesn't need an ingredient label.

So what about the ingredient labels on the foods I eat? I plan for this to be an occasional series of posts where I'll take one of the foods in my diet and try to define as many of the ingredients as I can. And then see what I can do about decreasing my intake of those foods or eliminating them altogether.

First, I'll take on coffee creamer, specifically Coffee-mate Original powdered creamer. The reason I pick this one (and here's the disclaimer so the folks at Coffee-mate don't get mad at me) is because I put it in my coffee at work, five days a week.

First let's look at the nutrition facts. As you can see in the nutrition label, which I've pulled from Coffee-mate's Web site, a serving size is 1 teaspoon, and it has 10 calories, 0.5 grams of total fat -- all of which is saturated -- and not much else in the way of nutrients.


All of this comes from the ingredients, which I will look at in the order in which they are listed.

Corn syrup solids. From Wikipedia: Corn syrup is a syrup, made using cornstarch as a feedstock, and composed mainly of glucose. … Its major use is in commercially-prepared foods as a thickener and for its moisture-retaining (humectant) properties which keep foods moist and help to maintain freshness.

I further found an entry on The Fit Shack that says corn syrup solids are manufactured from corn syrup liquid through a process that removes 97 percent of the water from the liquid.

Vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated coconut or palm kernel, hydrogenated soybean). From Wikipedia: Vegetable fats and oils are substances derived from plants that are composed of triglycerides.

As for the “partially hydrogenated” part, Wikipedia says: Triglyceride-based vegetable fats and oils can be transformed through partial or complete hydrogenation into fats and oils of higher melting point. The hydrogenation process involves "sparging" the oil at high temperature and pressure with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst, typically a powdered nickel compound. … Partial hydrogenation results in the formation of trans fats, which have increasingly been viewed as unhealthy since the 1970s.

So, by ingesting this coffee creamer, I’m drinking nickel compounds and trans fats. That doesn’t sound healthy.

Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative). If you search for this term, Wikipedia redirects you to an entry for casien: Casein (from Latin caseus "cheese") is the predominant phosphoprotein that accounts for nearly 80 percent of proteins in milk and cheese. … Casein is often listed as sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate or milk protein.

I have to wonder why a product described on Coffee-mate’s own Web site as “The original rich and deliciously creamy non-dairy creamer” has a milk derivative in it. I am not lactose-intolerant myself, but what does such a product do to people who are?

Dipotassium phosphate (moderates coffee acidity). From Wikipedia: Dipotassium phosphate -- also phosphoric acid, dipotassium salt; dipotassium hydrogen orthophosphate; potassium phosphate, dibasic -- is a highly water-soluble salt which is often used as a fertilizer, food additive and buffering agent. It is a common source of phosphorus and potassium.

So I’m putting a product that is also used as a fertilizer in my coffee? Ick!

Mono- and diglycerides (prevents oil separation). This requires a search for two different terms on Wikipedia: A monoglyceride, more correctly known as a monoacylglycerol, is a glyceride consisting of one fatty acid chain covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through an ester linkage.

A diglyceride, or a diacylglycerol (DAG), is a glyceride consisting of two fatty acid chains covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through ester linkages. … Mono- and diacylglycerols are common food additives used to blend together certain ingredients, such as oil and water, which would not otherwise blend well. … The commercial source may be either animal (cow- or hog-derived) or vegetable, derived primarily from soy bean and canola oil. They may also be synthetically produced.

So I have no idea where the mono- and diglycerides in this particular creamer came from. Are they real? Synthetic? Also, if oil and water weren’t meant to blend together, should we be forcing them to do so?

Sodium aluminosilicate. From Wikipedia: Sodium aluminosilicate, also referred to as sodium silicoaluminate, is a chemical with the formula AlNa12SiO5 and CAS 1344-00-9. It is an aluminosilicate compound with sodium cations, taking the form of a white crystalline solid.

All this definition told me is that sodium silicoaluminate is an aluminosilicate compound. No, really?! I had figured out that much from looking at the word. So I clicked on the term aluminosilicate and found this: Aluminosilicate minerals are minerals composed of aluminium, silicon, and oxygen.

I’m still not sure this tells me anything. And since I’m not sure what it is, I would rather not put it in my body.

Artificial flavor. Note that the ingredient list does not say what this artificial flavor entails. But if you type the term “artificial flavor” into Wikipedia, you are redirected to the entry on flavor, and specifically to the part about flavor creation, where you read this: Most food and beverage companies do not create their own flavors but instead employ the services of a flavor company. … The flavor creation is done by a specially trained scientist called a "flavorist." The flavorist's job combines extensive scientific knowledge of the chemical palette with artistic creativity to develop new and distinctive flavors.

Hmmm … so a flavorist has decided now my creamer should taste, and has added who-knows-what to it. So, again, I have no idea exactly what I am putting into my body.

Annatto color. From Wikipedia: Annatto, sometimes called Roucou, is a derivative of the achiote trees of tropical regions of the Americas, used to produce a red food coloring and also as a flavoring. Annatto is produced from the reddish pulp which surrounds the seed of the achiote.

This last ingredient doesn’t sound too bad. At least it comes from a natural fruit. But the entry does say it can cause allergies in some people. Personally, I can take it or leave it.

So what's my verdict after defining all of these ingredients? I'm not so sure I really need that creamer in my coffee. In fact, for the past few days, I've been leaving it out of my coffee. There is a little more bitterness to the coffee’s taste, but it's something I can get used to, especially if it means leaving these unnatural ingredients out of my body.

I consider the loss of coffee creamer a worthy sacrifice to live a healthy life.

So how do you take your coffee? Creamer? Milk? Black? Will knowing what these ingredients are change your mind about putting powdered creamer in your coffee?