The Nestlé Research Center has announced in The Journal of Nutrition that its researchers have discovered that adding milk to instant coffee "does not reduce the bioavailability of antioxidants."

Drinking instant coffee with or without milk produced the same uptake levels of coffee’s antioxidants, including caffeic acid, ferulic acid and isoferulic acid, according to the findings, which are based on a study of nine participants.

"Up until now there has been very little known about how proteins, especially from milk, influence the bioavailability and efficacy of coffee antioxidants," said Mathieu Renouf, lead researcher from Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne. "Our study is the first to show that coffee antioxidants are just as bioavailable in coffee with milk as they are in black coffee."

However, caffeic and ferulic acids uptake was lower when coffee was made with non-dairy creamer and sugar, the report found.

"Only differences in [the maximum blood concentration and the time needed to reach that maximum] for the sugar/non-dairy creamer group were observed compared with the coffee treatment, suggesting a modulation of plasma bioavailability, although the overall [blood levels achieved] remains the same compared with a classic black cup of coffee," the report said.