Are you a coffee lover who is working to lose weight? If you’re noticing that your hard work and efforts are being stalled, the answer may lie in how you take your coffee, health experts explain. For many of us, plain black coffee really isn’t our thing, and we might stir in some creamer or sugar to help sweeten it.
Sipping on heavily sweetened, sugary and high-calorie ingredients every morning could contribute to weight gain, and we reached out to doctors, dietitians and nutritionists to learn more about this. Read on for tips, suggestions and insights from Dr. Daniel Boyer, MD, health and nutrition expert at Farr Institute, Dana Ellis Hunnes, PhD, MPH, RD, senior dietitian at UCLA medical center, Trista Best, MPH, RD, LD, registered dietitian at Balance One Supplements, and Lisa Richards, registered nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet.
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How Heavily Sweetened Coffee Can Stall Weight Loss
Many coffee consumers have a specific way they like their coffee and don’t often veer from that, Best says. “Unfortunately, for those wanting to lose weight, these coffee habits might be stalling their efforts,” he adds. Full-fat dairy creamer and refined sugar are the two coffee habits that are detrimental to weight loss, “especially for those who consume more than 1 cup a day,” she continues. These two ingredients used to lighten and sweeten coffee are “high in calories, fat, carbohydrates and are quite inflammatory.” Not only will the calories add to weight issues, she warns, but the “inflammation they cause or exacerbate can make weight loss more difficult as well.”
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Boyer concurs, and also warns that “processed coffee drinks that may hinder weight loss are creamers and those mixed with artificial sweeteners.” Caffeine with added sweeteners contains a “significant amount of artificial sugars,” he points out, and may “lead to extra calories when taken in excess.” Generally, he notes that coffee creamers also contain calories and saturated fats (2 grams of saturated fat in 1 tablespoon). “Saturated fats are linked to an increased body weight, according to research by the US National Library of medicine, particularly when mixed with added sugars,” he says.
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Hunnes agrees, stressing that many bottled, processed coffee drinks have “added sugars, sweeteners, and fats in them.” (She says to think the creams, syrups, flavors, and colorings such as caramel coloring in a bottled frappuccino, for example). “When you go to your favorite coffee shop, many of the syrups they are added contain a lot of sugar, and that can add a lot of extra calories,” he goes on, saying that you might not even realize how many extra calories a coffee drink can have “A black coffee on its own is zero calories,” Hunnes notes, but the “syrups and creams that are used, and any whipped toppings can make this zero-calorie beverage now closer to 300 or 400 calories,” she adds. “That’s practically a meal,” she says. (Yikes!)
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The Best Ways To Prepare Coffee For Weight Loss
Boyer advises that “taking black coffee—which doesn’t contain any calories—in moderation or with unsweetened plant-based sweeteners like almonds or quick oats” may be the best alternative if you are under a weight management plan. If you do want to sweeten your drink, Hunnes recommends using “non-dairy, unsweetened beverages such as soy or oat milk that are creamy but not sugary and then adding extracts like vanilla or almond and spices like cinnamon and clove.” All of these, she says, “pack a warmth and sweetness without much sugar or calories.” If you do decide to try your coffee “completely black,” Hunnes suggests a “light roast, and cold can help too.”
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Best concludes that rather than sweetening your coffee with full-fat dairy creamers and refined sugar that it’s essential to “opt for natural sweeteners and/or plant-based creamers.” Some plant-based creamers are still high in calories, fat and sugar, she demands, so it is “important to still pay attention to the nutrition label.” By opting for a plant-based creamer, you are removing dairy, which she says can lead to bloating and inflammation for many of us when consumed every morning. “Consider using honey or cinnamon to flavor your coffee rather than refined sugars,” Best recommends, similarly to Hunnes’ note. “These two ingredients are natural, anti-inflammatory, and cinnamon can help boost metabolism and stabilize blood sugar,” she says. “All of which,” Best adds, can improve “weight loss efforts and reduce bloating.” Noted!
At 4:45 pm Thursday, Carlos Sevilla and his date, Kriti Shrestha, finally secured a table for two at Masalawala & Sons. It was no easy feat. They’d been trying to snag one since September, when the Indian restaurant — with its Bengali dinner party atmosphere — first opened in a former Park Slope bakery and rapidly became one of the city’s hottest restaurants.
“When it first was about to open, reservations were a month in advance — it was slim pickings,” Park Sloper Sevilla, 37, told The Post. He found himself constantly reloading restaurant reservation site Resy — to no avail.
Dining at Masalawala & Sons is by reservations—only “unless there is any last minute cancellation,” its website alerts. But good luck scoring one at the 36-seat restaurant: the average waitlist is 600 people, a rep for the restaurant told The Post.
By 6 pm on a weeknight, the vibrant dining room at Masalawala & Sons is nearly full. Daniel William McKnight for NY P
Tucked into a busy, unglamorous stretch of Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue not far from the Barclays Center, the humble-seeming restaurant is helmed by James Beard award-winning chef Chintan Pandya and restaurateur Roni Mazumdar. The pair are behind the critically acclaimed Dhamaka on Delancey Street and Adda in Long Island City. Dhamaka was said to have a 1,500-name wait list a full year after opening. Now, Masalawala & Sons — decked out with tangerine-colored murals and fiery orange-and-yellow flower garlands — is experiencing a similar frenzy.
Reservations open on Resy 30 days in advance at midnight, and one savvy diner told The Post they’ve gone so far as to enlist colleagues in London to book for them. That said, four barstools are allotted for walk-ins, and the odd two-top for a weekday 5 or 5:15 pm time slot does pop up.
Masalawala & Sons currently has a 600 person waitlist, a rep for the restaurant told The Post. The restaurant has 36 seats, and four barstools are open to walk-ins, which typically have to arrive by 4:50, before the restaurant opens at 5 pm to snag a seat.Daniel William McKnight for NY P
Sevilla’s hunt for a table became a team effort; Shrestha, 31, who lives in Midtown, is now also trying, but she could only find a table open on Thanksgiving, when both already had plans.
Eventually the couple gave up trying to book online. Since Seville lives in the neighborhood, he walked by and asked for advice. Show up at 4:45 pm, he was told, 15 minutes before the restaurant opens, and he might get seated at 5. Three months after their journey began, they were sitting down for dinner at 5 on the dot.
“We were the first ones seated,” Sevilla told The Post, enthusing over the kosha mangsho, a braised lamb dish. “It was worth it. It was really good.”
The menu at Masalawala & Sons comprises standouts such as the kosha mangsho, a braised lamb dish (far left); daab chingri, prawns cooked inside of a coconut (middle); and the Ripon Street majja (front, right) bone marrow topped with shaved eggs.Adam Friedlander
Getting a table for four on Thursday represented a major victory for Park Slope anesthesiologist Erika Pence, who confessed to having been on the case since October.
“They were booked out for the month every time I tried,” Pence said, savoring his good fortune, along with the forehead vada, a dish of fermented lentil dumplings served with sweet and savory yogurt flecked with roasted cumin.
“I got an email yesterday that someone canceled for 6 pm,” she said.
Despite Masalawala’s electric atmosphere and melting-pot menu fusing Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi flavors, there’s a familiar, comfortable vibe. And that’s the point, said Mazumdar. The restaurant is intended as a tribute to the Indian homestyle cooking that his Kolkata-born father loved, and that Mazumdar grew up eating.
James Beard award-winning chef Chintan Pandya is at the helm of Masalawala & Sons with restaurateur Roni Mazumdar. Their restaurant group, Unapologetic Foods, also comprises Dhamaka, Adda, Semma and Rowdy Rooster.Daniel William McKnight for NY P
It’s the restaurant he tried to open ten years ago on the Lower East Side, which may have lasted a decade, but wound up serving a lot of chicken tikka masala and other dishes Mazumdar didn’t grow up eating. The first Masalawala closed last year; at the reboot, diners seem to be hungry for whatever the James Beard-winning Pandya is serving, familiar or not.
Shortly after 6 pm, a table of three sat attentively as a server carved fresh coconut flesh into shrimp curry, tableside. He reminded diners to scrape up every ounce of the Ripon Street majja, bone marrow in paya curry sauce, onto their fresh-fired pao Indian bread. Diners get an A+, he said,
French fusion in Boston’s Back Bay, and seafood specialties in Cambridge
Local restaurants build a following in the wake of the pandemic
Updated: 8:00 PM EST Nov 30, 2022
REFINED FRENCH AIR WITH A TWIST. TUCKED AWAY IN BOSTON’S BACK BAY IS A PASSPORT TO PARIS. NO PLANE REQUIRED. WE WANTED A SPACE WHERE YOU WILL FEEL WELCOME. YOU COME IN HERE AND IT IS WARM. NICE AND — ARE THE PROPRIETORS OF CAP FACE ABOLISHED. — OF CAFE SAUVAGE. ANTOINE STARTED A CAREER IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY, WORKING HIS WAY UP IN THE SOUTH END, THEN CAMBRIDGE IS CO-LED –COLLETT. HE VENTURED OUT ON HIS OWN AND OPEN THE CAFE WITH HIS WIFE WHO WORKS IN DIGITAL MARKETING. WE WILL TAKE OUR KNOWLEDGE AND PUT IT TOGETHER. SO WE ARE JUST TRYING TO PLAY WITH THE FRENCH DISHES AND THEN TRYING TO ADD SOME EXPERIENCE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. WE HAVE A CROQUE BY DOM. IT COMES WITH A CLASSIC SAUCE BUT WITH A LESS TRADITIONAL LAYER OF MUSTARD INSIDE THE TOASTED BRIOCHE BREAD. IT IS A DIFFERENT VERSION THEN YOU CAN FIND. THE MENU INCLUDES A NOD TO HER WEST AFRICAN ROOTS. MY MOM IS FROM THE CONGO. OF ROASTED CHICKEN IS MY MOM’S RECIPE. THE MARINATED CHICKEN IS SERVED WITH PLAN TEENS AND RICE AND TOP WITH CRISPY SHALLOTS. EVERYBODY SHOULD TRY IT ONCE IN THEIR LIFE. A MORE RECENT ROUGHEST STAPLE, AVOCADO TOAST COMES WITH A GARNISH OF PICKLED MUSTARD SEED AND A HARLEM BOILED A — HARD-BOILED EGG. THE FUSION FARE HAS BEEN A WELCOME ADDITION TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD. SINCE IT OPENED IN OCTOBER OF 2021. WHEN WE FIRST OPENED, ALL OF THE NEIGHBORS SHOWED UP FOR US AND THEY WERE LIKE WE ARE SO HAPPY YOU ARE HERE. THE FRENCH WORD FOR IT WILD, THE DECOR IS SOPHISTICATED, YET SOFT LIKE THE GREEN VELVET SOFAS. I THINK THE RESTAURANT IS ELEGANT BUT CASUAL AT THE SAME TIME. A WILD IDEA DEVELOPED FROM A DREAM INTO REALITY WITH COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT. WE REALLY WANTED TO BE THE GOOD NEIGHBOR RESTAURANT. IT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE TO HAVE THOSE PEOPLE BEING LIKE OK, WE WERE WAITING FOR YOU. THE OWNERS OF SOMERVILLE’S FIELD AND VINE RESTAURANT AND REBEL REBEL WINE BAR HAVE A NEW JOINT VENTURE. IT’S A NEIGHBORHOOD BAR THAT HAPPENS TO SERVE NATURAL WIND AND PESKY CARRION FOOD. THE CO-OWNERS OPENED DEAR ANNIE IN CAMBRIDGE IN NOVEMBER 2020 ONE. IT IS WHATEVER YOU WANTED TO BE. IT IS JUST A FAMILIAR SOUNDING NAME. HERE, THE COZY COMMUNAL DINING AREA FEELS LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED INTO SOMEONE’S HOME, WHERE THE WIND BEING POURED IS ALL NATURAL. WITHOUT ANY MANIPULATION, A LOT OF THE GRAPES ARE ALLOWED TO BE THEMSELVES WITHOUT FUSS. THE CAREFULLY CURATED WINE LIST IS COMPLICATED BY A MORE SUSTAINABLE LOCALLY SOURCED SEAFOOD MENU. BECAUSE IT IS A WINE BAR WE GO WITH SMALLER OPTIONS. ONE OF THOSE SIGNATURE SNACKS IS A SEASONAL NOT ATTENDED FISH REPAIRED AND PRESERVED IN ALL OF OIL. WE HAVE HAD OCTOPUS, BLUEFISH, MACKEREL, COD. MUSCLES. NOW ON THE MENU A SMOKED SPANISH MACKEREL. GARNISHED WITH PICKLED MUSTARD SEEDS WHICH GIVES IT AN INTERESTING BARBECUE FLAVOR. THEY ALSO OFFER AC DOG AND AN AQUATIC TAKE ON A HOT DOG. SEAFOOD SAUSAGE. WE USE SHRIMP, SCALLOPS AND WHITEFISH. THERE IS ALSO A CRUNCHY SALAD AND A ROTATING SELECTION OF SMALLBATCH CHEESES, SERVED ALONGSIDE THE MENUS CORNERSTONE, HOUSE MADE BREAD. WE BEG A LOT OF SOURDOUGH IN-HOUSE. IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO VISIT, MAKE SURE TO KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED. THERE IS NO SIGN IT WITH THE DEER ANY NAME. ONLY THIS SET OF NEON PEEPERS IN THE WINDOW. WHEN WE ARE CLOSED, THE EYES WILL BE SHUT AND WHEN WE ARE OPEN, THEY ARE OPEN. AND SOMETIMES YOU HAVE THEM A WINKING, WHICH MEANS THAT WE ARE OPEN EARLIER. AND THIS YEAR DEAR ANNIE WAS NAMED ONE OF THE 50 BEST NEW RESTAURANTS BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND BON APPETIT. SINCE WE VISITED THE CAFE THEY HAVE TOLD US THAT THE
French fusion in Boston’s Back Bay, and seafood specialties in Cambridge
Local restaurants build a following in the wake of the pandemic
Updated: 8:00 PM EST Nov 30, 2022
There’s a restaurant tucked into Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood that offers a passport to Paris – no plane required. Cafe Sauvage features a chic French fusion menu courtesy of its Parisian proprietors — husband and wife — Antoine and Anaïs Lambert. The owners of Somerville’s Field and Vine restaurant and Rebel Rebel wine bar have a joint venture: Dear Annie. Co-owners Andrew Brady and Lauren Friel opened the Cambridge eatery in November 2021 – offering cozy, communal dining with a more sustainable, locally sourced seafood menu and an all-natural wine list.
