Coffee Creamer Alternatives for Fatty Liver

I was recently asked by one of this blog’s readers what is the best coffee creamer alternative for fatty liver. And since coffee is such an important part of our daily routine, I decided to create an article and hopefully help those who can’t have their coffee without coffee creamer and present some alternatives that are liver-friendly.

First things first, though! When drinking coffee, the best way to have it is without adding any creamer at all!

Drink it unsweetened if possible (if not, add as little honey as possible). You can also add some regular milk (low fat, ideally) to it if you want to. But that would be about it. The fewer things you add to your coffee, the better it is.

But some people are used to adding creamer to their coffee – and have been doing so for decades maybe, which makes it really difficult to simply stop using it.

In that case, we have to look for some coffee creamer alternatives that are safe for the liver. At the same time, we’ll always have this goal in mind: educate our taste buds to stop needing it… eventually

Why is coffee creamer bad for non alcoholic fatty liver?

Although there are many brands out there and things vary more or less from a brand to another, we can safely say that coffee creamer is bad for those suffering from a fatty liver (and not healthy in general).

Usually, coffee creamers are highly processed and made with hydrogenated oils (probably the unhealthiest oils out there), lots of sugar and various flavors, most of which artificial. Many also use additives that are not liver friendly, like carrageenan (which comes with a ton of health warnings).

But the additives and chemicals are not the only problem regular coffee creamers have: they also come with a ton of carbs (in some cases 60% sugar), and also a ton of fat (around 30%).

So we can say that coffee creamers are usually a mixture of fat and sugar – both extremely bad for a fatty liver. Tasty, yes… but unhealthy.

Best fatty liver-friendly alternatives to coffee creamers

There are two main things that coffee creamers do to our coffee: a change of taste and a change of texture by adding that yummy creaminess.

Unfortunately, there are not many alternatives available to offer both the texture AND the flavor of most coffee creamers, so we’ll have to compromise a bit.

My recommendation, when trying to find an alternative to make your morning coffee friendlier towards your liver, is to use something that gives a similar texture (simply because we have more options here).

Here is what you can use:

– unsweetened coconut cream like this one (affiliate link)
– unsweetened evaporated milk like this one (affiliate link)
– unsweetened condensed milk

I personally use, sparingly though, this brand of condensed milk in my coffee. It is sweetened with healthier sugar alternatives – stevia and sucralose. The latter is not the best sugar alternative out there, but as a treat I think it doesn’t do much harm.

All these alternatives will offer the same creaminess that coffee creamers do, but without the added sugar and additives. However, they are still relatively high in fat, so use as little as possible.

The rule of thumb here would be to use less than you normally would and reduce the quantities to a minimum over time.

So if you were adding 3 teaspoons of creamer to your coffee, for example, switch to 2 of condensed milk.

After 2 weeks or so, switch to just one, then use as little as possible moving forward – ideally until you can drink your coffee without any.

Or at least work your way down until you can accept your morning coffee with just added milk (low fat, ideally).

This would drop the added fat contents from around 9% (or even more) to just 1.5%. And these amounts do add up, helping you lose weight and be healthier overall!

What about the coffee creamer flavors?

The recommendations above only cover the creaminess – if that’s not enough, you should do something about flavor: the coconut cream already has a bit of extra flavor, but you can try adding real cinnamon (read about it here), or real vanilla or cocoa powder to the mix in order to get some extra flavors.

It really depends on what you like – you might or might not be able to find a replacement here and your coffee might not taste as it did when all those artificial flavors were used.

You can also add a bit of real, organic honey to sweeten your coffee. Most people are getting used (because of all the syrups and additives) to drink extremely sweet coffee, and it will take a while to adjust.

Add a maximum of half a teaspoon of honey to a large cup and work it down until you add just 1/4 of a teaspoon.

Ideally, you should drink your coffee black (or at least unsweetened), but I wasn’t able to do that. However, 1/4 of a teaspoon of honey per day is not the end of the world as long as you eat healthy otherwise.

All I can say is that now, when I try eating something sweet (store-brought), I simply can’t understand how people can do it: everything store-brought is and feels like there’s way too much sugar added.

Before being diagnosed and completely changing my way of living, I was eating those cakes and pastries and candies and I was sometimes complaining that they weren’t sweet enough! That was crazy!

So what I am saying here is that you will be able to switch to eating healthy and LOVE it in the end. The same goes with your coffee creamer: it takes a bit to adjust, but it is doable and healthier for sure.

Just give it time and take things slower where a drastic change is impossible: but make it your goal to always eat (and drink, in this case) as healthy as possible.

Look for the alternatives, accept that they are not going to offer 100% the same experience, but embrace them as a welcome change to get your life back on track and become healthy once more!