Coffee Drinker - half&half or skim milk

I'm a coffee drinker, don't even try to get me to give it up!  I generally use a tablespoon of half & half in my coffee (18 calories/1.5 fat grams) and I have 3 cups a day (all before 9:00 a.m.).  Is it better to use skim milk or half & half?  Obviously half & half provides a creamier coffee than skim milk but is half & half really BAD for you?  Should I switch to skim milk in my coffee?  What does everyone else do?  I guess what I need to know is, is the fat in half & half a "good fat"? 

I used to love the creamy taste too, but kept on hearing that using skim milk is so much better, so I switched...

Now, I can't stand cream in my coffee anymore and LOVE skim milk lattes!!!

I like half and half, but I consider it an indulgence.  I typically use either fat free/sugar free coffee mate, or unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Have you tried the no fat 1/2 and 1/2?  I have used it in recipes and in coffee and hardly notice a difference.  But I usually use 1% milk in my coffee.  It is such a small amount that I really don't think it matters.  That is one simple pleasure I can't do without!

I think you should use skim. Sorry but 1/2 and 1/2 is yuck! Probably be a bit difficult to switch over direct to skim so maybe go to full fat, then lowfat, then 1% and then on to skim. If you make it gradual you'll notice the change less.
The last few months I've gone back to drinking my coffee black and I like it! But when I was back home on holiday I had my coffee with skim milk. Cream and 1/2 and 1/2 are not used in Australia for coffee, it's always milk... I hate seeing those little blobs of fat floating around in my coffee :( and I don't think there's anything "Good" about dairy fat.

I used to adore half and half in my coffee (milk just wouldn't do, and skim milk--blech!)--I finally came to the realization that I'd prefer to spend my calories on other things, so I just started drinking my coffee black. It has to be *good* coffee, mind you, but I actually prefer good black coffee to so-so coffee with half and half (good coffee with half and half just seems like overkill--I love it without, so I don't even feel the need to go there).  I don't think 3 tablespoons of half and half are going to make or break you--if you can manage your calorie/fat "budget" with an extra 54 cals/4.5 grams of fat per day, I say there's no reason to give up what you love.  I think it's important to savor the good things--we're all trying to make good, sustainable changes in how we live our lives--not simply trying to rob ourselves of the little pleasures in the name of "healthy living."

Half and half is not a "good fat" but at 3 tbs a day I don't think you're doing any serious damage (if the rest of your diet is reasonable.)

I agree with soph.  I also love coffee and love half&half in it.  I also drink coffee black and love good black coffee, but half&half is something I consider a special treat.  Sometimes, I just want a creamy coffee, and when that urge strikes, skim milk does not do it for me.  Actually, skim does not do anything for me, but I digress . . .

Half&half contains more sat. fat than skim, and more calories, obviously, but also keep in mind that you're likely going to have to use more skim, possibly significantly more, to get close to the same effect without feeling deprived or jipped, if you really love your rich, creamy coffee. 

I don't think 3T of half/half a day is going to do you in.  If you're not getting a lot of saturated fat from other sources, and if you can fit the calories in, and if you feel this is something you really need to keep to maintain balance in your diet (and your sanity), then go for it.  It doesn't have to be all or nothing, and IMO, it should not be that.  That isn't sustainable long-term, at least for most people.

As for the fat-free half&half, if you decide that you really want or need to switch to skim or lowfat, you might try the FF half/half first.  I tried it myself awhile back and found that, for me personally, the difference wasn't worth the few calories and the couple of fat grams a day I might have saved myself.  BUT, it might help you transition if you eventually decide that you need to.  You can also try mixing a lower fat milk product with a much smaller amount of half&half to "wean" yourself off, if you feel you need or want to.

Again, I don't think your current consumption of the half/half is a problem, unless you're concerned about sat. fat, or unless you are going over your calories every day to have it, which I don't get the impression from your post that you are.   All things in moderation.  ;-)

I take mine black.

fat free 1/2 & 1/2

Normally I take mine black, but once in a while for a treat I'll take half-and-half.

If you can fit it into your calorie budget, and you aren't getting an overdose of saturated fat from other sources, I say go for the half-and-half.  Life's too short sometimes :)

Thanks everyone for your replies.  Think I'll save the half & half for special days, weekends possibly and do skim milk on the other days or try to wean myself off the dairy portion of my coffee altogether.  I used to drink it black, not sure what caused me to change. 

they make fat free half and half which is just as good as the regualr and tastes alot better then skim in your coffee. I use cofee mate fat free frenchvanilla and it is low in calories, they also make a regualr fat free cream check it out. I tried the skim milk, its ok but it has more calories then the fat free coffee mate.

I find that the lower the fat content of my creamer, the more of it I use. I would only use a tablespoon of half and half, but it takes a good 1/4 cup of skim milk to work for me. So maybe it comes out equal in the end? I currently use 1% milk, just because it's what we keep in the house, and I can use a bit less than I would if it were skim.

I don't intend to switch to black coffee (unless it is really good), so I'll live with a few extra calories.

The people at dunkin donuts hate me because I always order a coffee with part skim milk and part whole milk because they don't have 1% or 2%. I think its great. I used to be a cream girl but I foudn that I could ween myself off of it pretty easily. Now some days I can opt for skim milk and never ever EVER feel guilty about it.

Black is the easiest way to drink coffee. No fuss no muss no mater where you are.

^and you get to enjoy the taste of the coffee, not the cream stuff.  yuck.  Go back to black!

I would rather give up my left pinky toe than my half and half, I use fat free 2tbsp a day.  Once has to think that without little indulgences like this what is the use.

I just looked up what's in fat free half and half.

Ingredients: Nonfat milk, milk*, corn syrup solids, artificial color**, sugar, dipotassium phosphate, sodium citrate, mono and diglycerides*, carageenan, natural and artifical flavors, vitamin A palmitate.

Yuck.   That doesn't seem like a nutritional improvement over a little bit of saturated fat!

I usually put whole milk in my coffee, and use real half and half for a treat. 

Here are a few quotes from Edgar Cayce's readings concerning adding adulterants to coffee:

1770-1
    Are there any particular foods I should not eat?
    Do not use milk or cream IN coffee, tea or the like, for these also produce activities which become combative within the assimilating forces of the body. 

275-45
(Q)  Is the chemical reaction of raw milk in coffee the same as cream in coffee in relation to the digestion in the stomach?
(A)  Well, this depends - to be sure - upon the activity of the system at the time.  Cream, to be sure, is less hard, or  more easily digested and produces LESS of that hard to be assimilated by portions of the system.  But in coffee it is PREFERABLE for the body to use neither cream nor milk.  Of course, cream is less harmful - and of course carries more food value, of a different nature.  But there is a portion in same that becomes gradually hard upon the activity of the juices from the pancreas and spleen to the activities upon the system through the lacteals in their absorbing from digestion.

1073-1
    Coffee or tea should preferably be without milk or cream, for again we find that the combination of the acids - or the tannic forces, the chicory, or the properties there are the food values to the digestive forces - becomes disturbing, when combined outside of the body.  However, if milk and coffee are taken at the same meal - but not combined before they are taken - the gastric juices flowing from even the salivary glands in the mouth so taking these CHANGE the activity so that the food values of both are taken by the system, in the activity through the alimentary canal.

1224-3
    Coffee may be used if desired, but NOT with milk or cream in same! for this is hard upon the heart, as well as the digestion.  If a little sugar is desired, it is very well, but no milk or cream in the coffee.

983-1
    While the food values in the milk or cream may be considered of an equal value alone, when used together they form a condition in the lactic juices of the stomach itself that does not make for the proper eliminations carried on through the whole of the alimentary canal.

---------------

So real cream, heavy cream preferably, would be better, and one would tend to use less, as has been already mentioned.

But drinking coffee black is best.

 

 

I say go for half and half or heavy cream. Can anyone really provide evidence that saturated fat is horrible for you?