5 tricks to make your coffee a little healthier

If you're anything like the average person, you can't give up your coffee. But it's time to up your coffee game

You’ve probably tried several times switching to green tea and cutting down on caffeine, but a life without coffee seems plain horrendous.

One of the main reasons to get out of bed in the morning is the promise of freshly made coffee. Without this, we’re all unproductive monsters who find agony in the chilling sounds of incoming emails.

This is coffee addiction.

But rather than torturing ourselves with giving up our sanity-saver, we decided to seek out ways to “pimp” that morning cuppa with nutrition instead. Our sister site, Recipes+ conducted the experiment. And they found that not only was it a success, but they discovered ways to make coffee tastier than ever! Here’s how.

Say bye bye to refined sugar

If you’re keen to cut down on your daily refined sugar intake, trialing a substitute in your coffee could be a great option.

Our favourite substitutes:

Agave Nectar

Honey

Maple Syrup

Cinnamon

Go dairy-free

Another way to add some oomph to your coffee is by ditching dairy. Try switching out your regular milk for almond milk, coconut milk or vanilla-flavoured soy milk.

Find out how easy it is to make your own dairy-free nut milks here.

Nut milks are a delicious dairy-free change.

Moderation is key

Reserve your coffees for the morning and try to switch to tea after 2pm. For the first few days it may feel like you’re climbing the mountain of doom on no energy, but that feeling will clear up in no time. Like most things, coffee only becomes unhealthy when we have too much of it.

There’s no need to ditch coffee completely.

Combine your coffee and protein shakes

You are about to read the secret to actually being excited for your 7am sweat session: add a cup of coffee to your protein shake. That’s right!

Go for organic

Start paying attention to where your coffee comes from. Like most foods, the quality and taste of coffee is heavily influenced by how it was produced and where it was grown. A coffee bean that was sprayed with an ocean of pesticides won’t taste as spectacular as the one that was grown in a seaside Colombian village, protected by a flock of parrots and nurtured by the sound of waves. Try to go for organic coffee brands.

Feature photograph by : Jasmine Poole/bauersyndication.com.au

This article originally appeared on foodtolove.com.au