What do cardiologists say to add to coffee?
Dr. Martin cannot tell you that. He is not a cardiologist. He can tell you what he has told patients for about 50 years, and where he parts ways with heart doctors on food.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1608If you are having a heart attack, you want a cardiologist, but when it comes to food, they don't know what they're talking about. They don't get any training in it.
In the same breath he tells his audience not to fear coffee. So here is his answer to the question people actually type in: what goes in the cup.
What should you add to coffee?
As little as possible. In an episode on a new compound found in coffee, he asked what the best way to drink it is and answered with one word: black.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1258Don't put milk in coffee. Don't put oat milk in coffee. Don't put any plant milk in coffee. Lay off that stuff. Don't touch it. If you got to put some stuff in your coffee, put cream in it.
Black first. Cream if you have to. Nothing else.
Cream or milk in coffee?
Cream, every time. His reason is sugar. Milk carries milk sugar. The cream carton he compared on air showed zero, so cream is the one he allows.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1231Don't put milk in your coffee, okay? Don't put milk in your coffee. It's too sweet. Put cream in your coffee if you have to have cream. I love my coffee black.
The full label comparison is in is cream bad for you.
What about oat milk and other plant milks?
He puts them in the same bin as milk. Talking about coffee and insulin resistance, he listed them by name.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1248Don't pollute your coffee with milk, oat milk, soy milk, garbage. Don't do that. Preferably, you drink it black.
Is sugar in coffee bad for you?
In his view, sugar is the add-in that does the most harm, because it cancels out what the coffee was doing for you.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1258Don't put sugar in coffee and then negate the benefits of it. You're negating the benefits of it.
Sweet coffee shop drinks get the same treatment. He calls those places candy stores. If the sweet tooth is the real problem, he covers it in why do I get sugar cravings after 60.
How to sweeten coffee without sugar
His first answer is not to. If you truly cannot drink it unsweetened yet, he ranks the options. Asked what the best sugar is, he said this.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1043I guess if you can get unpasteurized, a local honey, have a little bit of that, okay? I'd rather you put a little touch of that in your coffee if you need to sweeten it up than use anything artificial.
He keeps it limited, a little, not much. On stevia he has said the research looks pretty good, but he is big on no sweeteners in his own cup. He wants it black.
Is cinnamon good in coffee?
He likes cinnamon and says it is good for blood sugar. When he told listeners how to drink coffee, it was the one extra he named after cream.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 603Don't use milk, use cream if you've got to use cream. I'm telling you to try and avoid sweeteners. You want to put a little cinnamon there, okay.
Asked by a listener whether cinnamon has side effects, he said he knows of none, and added that he had patients who put a little in their coffee. He does not know what it tastes like in coffee himself. He likes his black and does not let anybody touch his coffee with anything.
Is coffee good for your heart and blood pressure?
Dr. Martin says yes. In an episode on the heart, he put coffee on his list.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 735One of the greatest antioxidants that you can take for your heart is coffee. Yes. Coffee. It's a tremendous antioxidant.
He calls an antioxidant rust-proofing for your blood vessels. In that same episode he gave the rule for the cup itself.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 735I recommend drinking coffee. Drink it black. You can add cream, not milk, no sugar. I don't negotiate.
On blood pressure, he pushes back on anyone who says coffee is bad for it.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1666Coffee's actually good for your blood pressure because of what it does to blood vessels. It protects them. It elevates nitric oxide.
When a listener said her blood pressure rises an hour after coffee, he said maybe she needs decaf, which still carries a lot of the benefits. For what he looks at in the numbers, see blood pressure in women over 60.
How many cups a day, and when?
Four is his sweet spot. Asked if coffee with meals hurts iron, he said no, and explained why he likes it with food.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1188Drinking coffee with meals is actually good. I highly recommend it because it will lower your insulin response.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1188I usually have four cups of coffee a day, which is beautiful. It's what I recommend.
After 50, regular coffee late in the day kept him up, so his afternoon and evening cups are decaf. On coffee and the gut, see can too much coffee cause leaky gut.
How to get used to black coffee
He was not born a black coffee drinker. At 12, at his grandmother's, he put about eight teaspoons of sugar in his cup. By the late 1960s he was down to half a teaspoon. Then he asked himself why he needed even that, and went cold turkey.
"Suck it up buttercup, and learn to quit putting stuff in your coffee."
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1182He told patients the same thing for years and promised them it would stick.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1258You're going to form a habit in three weeks. You're going to lose that sweet taste.
His tip: give it three weeks. After that, he says, a sweetened coffee tastes too sweet to drink.
Common questions
What is the healthiest thing to put in coffee?
Dr. Martin says nothing. He drinks it black. If you need something, he says cream, not milk, and no sugar.
Is cream or milk better in coffee?
Cream. He says milk is too sweet and tells people to put cream in their coffee if they have to have something.
Is oat milk good in coffee?
Not to him. He says don't put oat milk, soy milk or any plant milk in coffee.
What can I sweeten coffee with instead of sugar?
He would rather you skip it. If you must, he prefers a touch of unpasteurized local honey over anything artificial, and he likes cinnamon.
How many cups of coffee a day are good for you?
His sweet spot is four cups a day. He recommends having coffee with meals because he says it lowers your insulin response.
Cutting the sugar out of your cup?
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