A new report by Cancer Council NSW reveals that, in one sweet slurp, your daily brew may be significantly contributing to your entire daily energy, sugar and saturated fat  intakes.

"Many Australians rely on a take away coffee for their morning kick start but people might be unaware of just how much sugar, saturated fat and kilojoules they are consuming each day if they're ordering anything more than the standard flat white, cappuccino or latte," said co-author of the research and Nutrition Programs Manager at Cancer Council NSW, Clare Hughes.

The study of 564 coffee chain items (including ones from Gloria Jeans, The Coffee Club, McCafé and Michel's Patisserie), published on Tuesday, found   iced coffees and chocolate drinks were the worst offenders.

The majority had over half the daily sugar allowance in one serving.

McCafe's Coffee Kick Frappe had 19 teaspoons of sugar, for instance, while one iced coffee from The Coffee Club contained more than one and a half times the daily allowance of saturated fat.

"The guidelines recommend a maximum of 24 grams of saturated fat a day," Hughes said. "But that amount is not something we should be striving for."

The report noted that plain tea/coffee provided up to 15 per cent of our daily intake of energy, depending upon the fat content of the milk used.  Some large hot coffees however, provided almost 50 per cent of our recommended daily intake of saturated fat, while Muffin Break's chai latte had 64 per cent and The Coffee Club's regular Vienna had 83 per cent.

It is hardly a surprise that researchers' interest in what we are eating and where all the additional kilojoules are coming from has increased.

Being overweight or obese is now linked with 10 cancers, Hughes said, while 63 per cent of Australian adults are overweight or obese.

Separate research, published last week, found that poor diet accounts for as many as 7000 new cancer diagnoses each year.

Energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and drinks contribute just over one-third of our total daily energy intake.

"It is estimated that about one third of the household budget is spent on food eaten away from home," Hughes revealed, adding that our expenditure on eating out increased by 50 per cent between 2003 and 2010.

"We were seeing the rise in these coffee chains - NSW has the highest number - and we were also seeing the introduction of kilojoule labelling and seeing the kilojoule intake was concerning."

Adding a humble slice of banana bread to nibble with your fancy frappacino can spike your sugar intake even further through the golden arched roof.

"Banana bread is an innocuous name - it has fruit in it - but it can be really high in sugar and kilojoules," Hughes said.

"McDonalds banana bread had 14 teaspoons of sugar and one third of your kilojoules for the day."

If you think opting for skim milk will help lessen the calorific harm, think again.

"Choosing the skim variety of a Tim Tam iced chocolate isn't going to help," Hughes warns. "It's still similar in kilojoules to a Big Mac."

The message is to remember that drinks count too and are not simply 'snacks'.

"We're certainly not saying people should avoid coffee altogether, but adding flavours, sugars, massive portion sizes or having cream-based coffee blows it out," Hughes said, reiterating that a normal coffee with full-cream milk is fine.

She adds that being aware is important so that we can consider what we're consuming, but the research is also a call to action for the food industry.

"There is a role for the food industry in looking at portion sizes, but also the sugars and saturated fat content - they're quite high and they don't need to be."