Coffee Is Now Officially Healthy

Good news! Coffee is healthy! Now, anyone who has been a Sprudge reader any time over the last decade-plus already knows this to be true, but it takes some longer than others to come to the same conclusion. This includes the US Food & Drug Administration (what’s left of it after the RFK’ing of the organization anyway). The FDA decided in December that coffee can be labelled as “healthy”, and that ruling officially took effect yesterday, April 28th. So get ready for a whole lot of “healthy” coffee to start flooding the market.

It was originally scheduled to take effect on February 25th, but was postponed due to a “memorandum from the President, entitled ‘Regulatory Freeze Pending Review’ with respect to reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy applicable to rules that have been published in the Federal Register but have not taken effect.” But it ultimately got the go-ahead and can now be labelled as healthy.

In order to meet the criteria, the coffee must contain fewer than five calories per 12 ounce serving. The National Coffee Association notes that “the calorie content of 12 ounces of brewed coffee is 3.55 calories.” Which means that you’re probably going to start seeing healthy claims adorning coffee bags and RTD cold brew cans and just about whatever else companies can slap it on.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Coffee is, in fact, a healthy beverage and labelling it as such may help put to rest any lingering sentiments to the contrary. But given that some brands already rely on dubious claims to promote their coffee—things about their coffee not having fungus or mycotoxins or acrylamide or whatever it is—it’s hard to believe that this new label won’t also be used to nefarious ends.

So if you see a coffee all of a sudden promising a whole lot on the healthful front, just know that it’s not the coffee that changed. It’s the way it can be marketed.

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.