Anything but cold coffee
Cold coffee in the morning is easy to buy, because it wakes you up and tastes good. Jan, who treats himself to a cold latte every morning before school, agrees. The 14-year-old is not alone in his preference, as teenagers are one of the main target groups for mixed coffee drinks.
Coffee is actually a drink for adults. Ordering a coffee in a restaurant is not common for children and teenagers. It's a different story with cold coffee from the supermarket. Enriched with milk and lots of sugar, the bitter flavour of coffee is drowned out so that it also tastes good to the younger population. Studies have shown that these coffee drinks are bought most often by young people and that children are also increasingly choosing such products. While pure milk is being consumed less and less - down 27 per cent between 2004 and 2015 - milk mix products, including coffee drinks, are becoming increasingly popular.
Coffee for dessert
Pure coffee has no calories. It has long been claimed that it dehydrates the body, but this has since been disproved. Coffee can therefore be counted as part of your daily fluid intake.
As soon as coffee is enriched with milk and sugar, the energy content increases rapidly. The calorie-free drink becomes a beverage that can be counted as a snack or even a dessert. A latte from the chiller cabinet sweetened with sugar provides 180 calories per 230 millilitres, which is equivalent to about three rows of chocolate or four apples.
It is mainly the added sugar that provides these calories. A cold coffee drink with milk and sugar contains just under five sugar cubes. Hardly anyone would drink a coffee with that much sugar. The problem is the same as with all sweetened drinks: they provide a lot of energy or calories, but there is no satiety, which means that the energy-rich drink is also eaten and the daily balance is usually too high as a result.
However, there are also products on the market that are completely unsweetened, which tend to appeal to the adult population due to their bitter flavour. Other products are enriched with artificial sweeteners and therefore contain fewer calories. Artificial sweeteners have a much stronger sweetening power than sugar. This is why less of it is usually added to the products, which also has an effect on the calorie count. Nevertheless, sweeteners are not without controversy and there are repeated studies that point to health risks.
In addition to the high sugar content, cold coffee drinks also contain caffeine. Various plants contain the natural chemical compound caffeine, such as coffee and cocoa beans, tea leaves, guarana berries and cola nuts. When products containing caffeine are consumed, the nervous system is stimulated and, depending on the amount of caffeine, alertness can be increased or feelings of tiredness can be suppressed. This effect is one of the reasons why young people drink coffee.
Caffeine stimulant
The EU Food Safety Authority classifies up to 3 milligrams of caffeine per kilogramme of body weight as safe for both adults and children. A woman weighing 60 kilograms can therefore tolerate around 180 milligrams of caffeine per day, which is equivalent to one Red Bull and two espressos. For a child weighing 40 kilograms, the maximum dose is already reached with one 230 millilitre cold coffee drink.
Even if this amount of caffeine can be considered safe, the recommendations on caffeine for children and adolescents differ. Some studies indicate that caffeine can also lead to nervousness and hyperactivity in children. It has also been shown that increased caffeine consumption has a negative effect on sleep quality. However, it must be said here that the majority of caffeine does not come from coffee, but from cola drinks. The limit of tolerance appears to be very individual for both adults and children.
As with most recommendations on the subject of eating and drinking, the quantity is decisive. Mixed coffee drinks can be enjoyed now and again without a guilty conscience. However, consuming them several times a day as a substitute for water is not only a burden on your wallet, but also on your health. To-go drinks also create a mountain of packaging waste, which is a heavy burden on the environment. Did you know that it takes around 140 litres of water to produce one cup of coffee? Coffee is a luxury beverage and should be consumed as such.
Parents live before
If you are a coffee lover yourself and indulge in a cup every now and then, your child will have noticed and may want to try it too. Prohibitions often have the opposite effect or lead to your child secretly sipping their coffee cup. The following tips may be helpful for you as parents:
- Frühstücken ist das A und O: Planen Sie am Morgen genügend Zeit ein, damit das Frühstück noch zu Hause stattfinden kann und nicht jeden Morgen eine schnelle Alternative unterwegs gewählt werden muss.
- Wenn Sie zu To-go-Getränken greifen, sollten Sie versuchen, diese in Ruhe zu trinken, auch wenns gerade hektisch zugeht. Dadurch ist das Genussgefühl grösser und hält länger an.
- Kalter Kaffee kann auch selbst hergestellt werden: Kaffee am Vorabend machen, über Nacht abkühlen lassen, am Morgen mit Milch und je nach Bedarf mit wenig Zucker süssen.
- Grundsätzlich sollte für alle Familienmitglieder Wasser den grössten Anteil der Flüssigkeitszufuhr ausmachen. Stellen Sie zu Hause eine Wasserkaraffe auf den Tisch, damit es immer verfügbar ist, für unterwegs eignet sich eine wiederverwendbare Flasche, die Sie immer wieder mit Wasser auffüllen können.
Also interesting:
- What a can of Red Bull does to your child's body
Energy drinks are very popular with young people. The caffeinated, acidic and calorific drinks are said to boost performance and banish tiredness at parties. Researchers consider more than two doses per day to be problematic. And warn of long-term damage.
