It’s not easy to find a zero-sugar coffee creamer made without the risky low-calorie sweeteners sucralose and acesulfame potassium, but we’ve rounded up a handful of better options that use stevia extract or allulose instead. 

This article comes from Nutrition Action. We don’t accept any paid advertising or corporate or government donations. Any products we recommend have been vetted by our staff and are not advertisements by the manufacturers. They’re just healthy foods we think you’d like to know about! 

How much sugar is in sweetened coffee creamer? 

Every tablespoon of a typical flavored, sweetened liquid coffee creamer like Coffee-Mate, International Delight, or Chobani can add 4 to 6 grams of sugar and 30 to 40 empty calories to your cup. And many coffee mugs hold more than 12 ounces of liquid, so you may be pouring in more than one—or two—tablespoons of creamer. 

Are powdered creamers better? Don’t bet on it. Take a canister of Coffee-Mate French Vanilla. The “serving size” is a mere (non-heaping) ½ teaspoon, which has 10 calories and 1 gram of added sugar. That may not sound like much, but it means the creamer is half sugar by weight. And a real-world serving size could easily mean teaspoon after teaspoon of creamer.

Which sweeteners are in zero-sugar coffee creamers? 

If you want to start your day with a caffeine kick, but without a sugar high, you’ve got options. Big creamer brands like International Delight and Coffee-Mate now churn out liquid flavors in “Zero Sugar” bottles with just 10 to 20 calories per tablespoon.

The downside: Both companies sweeten their Zeros with sucralose and acesulfame potassium, which we rate as “avoid” in our Chemical Cuisine Food Additive Safety Ratings because they may pose a cancer risk. 

On the upside, a new crop of zero-added-sugar creamers from Silk, Natural Bliss (made by Coffee-Mate), and Chobani shun sucralose and acesulfame potassium in favor of safer low-calorie sweeteners: 

• Silk Zero Sugar Vanilla Cinnamon Oat Creamer is a winner. The new plant-based creamer, which has just 10 calories, zero sugar, and zero saturated fat per tablespoon, gets its sweetness from stevia extract and its great taste from its creamy oatmilk base.
• Natural Bliss Zero Added Sugar and Chobani Zero Sugar Creamers are a mix of dairy milk and cream, which bumps the saturated fat up to 1 gram and the calories to 20 per tablespoon, but that still beats the calories (and sugar) of regular sweetened creamers. 

Like Silk, Natural Bliss and Chobani sweeten their creamers with stevia extract. Chobani also adds a little allulose, which is safe. It’s a naturally occurring sugar that our bodies don’t completely digest and absorb, so it may cause GI troubles in sensitive people who consume too much at one time. That’s why we rate allulose as “certain people should avoid.”

In one study, allulose led to diarrhea, bloating, or abdominal pain in some people after they consumed 35 grams, but not 27 grams, in a drink. That’s just one study—and it didn’t test people with irritable bowel syndrome or children. But it’s reassuring, given the tiny amount of allulose in the Chobani creamers. A tablespoon of Chobani Zero Sugar Creamer has less than 1 gram. (How do we know? Nutrition Facts labels count allulose in the grams of total carbohydrates, but not sugar. And Chobani has “<1 g” carbs per 1 Tbs. serving.)

How zero-sugar coffee creamers taste

How do foods made with stevia or allulose taste compared to those made with sugar? Like with any low-cal sweetener, the answer is up to you. Some people detect an aftertaste from stevia, for example, but others don’t.

If your taste buds prefer sugar, hunt for a healthy plant-based creamer that adds less sugar. Two to try: Silk Original Soy Creamer and Elmhurst Cashew or Oat Creamer (flavored varieties), each with just 1 gram of added sugar per tablespoon. 

More ways to lower the sugar from your creamer

Zero-sugar Silk, Chobani, and Natural Bliss creamers have it all: different flavors, creaminess, sweetness. But maybe you don’t need it all. In that case, you have more options: 

1. Unsweetened creamer. Try an unsweetened creamer from plant-based brands like Califia or Nut Pods. Califia’s Unsweetened Almond and Unsweetened Oat Creamers are unflavored, while Nut Pods offers almond-coconut-based creamers in flavors ranging from Hazelnut to Toasted Marshmallow. Want some sweetness? Do it yourself so you can control the added sugar (every non-heaping half-teaspoon dip into the sugar bowl adds 2 grams).
2. Plant-based “barista milk.” A tablespoon of Oatly Barista Edition Oatmilk has less than a gram of added sugar.
3. Stevia drops. Truvia sells tiny bottles of zero-sugar liquid stevia with added vanilla or caramel natural flavors. (For creaminess, just add a splash of milk to your cup.)