Tanya’s Tasty Tips: Java Drive
Stopping at Starbucks for a morning Latte? Need that afternoon Ice Cappuccino to get you through the day? Whether you realize it or not, those early-morning and mid afternoon caffeine boosters may be adding on lots of extra calories and fat to your diet that are causing your waistline to expand. The good news is, you don’t have to cut out all of your favorite coffee drinks. Here’s a list of the best and worst options to satisfy your caffeine needs.
Tanya’s Tips:
1) Ask for skim milk. Nonfat milk has zero grams of fat and 80 calories per cup compared to 5 grams of fat and 120 calories in reduced fat milk. A lot of coffee houses use whole milk if you don’t request differently, adding 150 calories and 8 grams of fat.
2) Use sugar-free syrup. Two pumps of the regular syrups that are used in any of the flavored drinks contain about 40 calories vs. 20 calories for sugar-free syrups.
3) Skip the whip. Whipped cream adds about 120 calories and 12 grams of fat (most of which are saturated).
4) Pair your coffee with a high-fiber snack. Coffee alone, if made with nonfat milk, contains some protein, but has no fiber. Add Fiber-sure to your coffee for an extra 5 grams of fiber per teaspoon. Some high-fiber snacks are GNU Flavor and Fiber bars or 2-3 fiber crackers with peanut butter and sugar-free jelly. The combination of protein from the milk and fiber from the snack will keep you feeling full and satisfied throughout the day.
5) Don’t drink your calories, eat them. Studies reveal that your body does not register calories from fluids. Meaning that fluids don’t replace food—you will still end up eating as much, but now you have to add in the calories from your beverages. So think twice next time you order a Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream. It’s practically a meal in itself and most likely won’t fill you up.
Here’s a list of the do’s and don’ts from some of your favorite coffee houses:
Starbucks: (nutritional counts are for a Grande sized coffee drink)
*F-Factor Best Sips
Starbucks:
|
|
Calories |
Fat |
Sat. Fat |
Carbs (g) |
Fiber (g) |
|
Latte, whole |
260 |
14 |
9 |
21 |
0 |
|
*Latte, nonfat |
160 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
0 |
|
*Sugar-free Vanilla Latte, nonfat |
180 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
0 |
|
Iced Caffé Latte, whole |
160 |
8 |
5 |
13 |
0 |
|
*Iced Caffé Latte, nonfat |
100 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
|
Iced Vanilla Latte, whole |
210 |
7 |
4 |
31 |
0 |
|
Iced Vanilla Latte, nonfat |
160 |
0 |
0 |
32 |
0 |
|
*Iced sugar-free Vanilla Latte, nonfat |
120 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
|
Caramel Macchiato, whole |
310 |
12 |
7 |
37 |
0 |
|
Caramel Macchiato, nonfat |
220 |
1 |
0.5 |
40 |
0 |
|
Cappuccino, whole |
150 |
8 |
5 |
13 |
0 |
|
*Cappuccino, nonfat |
100 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
|
Frappuccino coffee, no whip |
260 |
3.5 |
2 |
52 |
0 |
|
*Frappuccino Light, coffee, no whip |
150 |
1 |
0 |
30 |
3 |
|
Frappuccino, mocha, w/ whip |
420 |
16 |
10 |
61 |
0 |
|
Frappuccino mocha, no whip |
290 |
4 |
2 |
58 |
0 |
|
*Frappuccino Light, mocha, no whip |
180 |
1.5 |
0 |
36 |
4 |
Dunkin Donuts:
|
|
Calories |
Fat |
Sat. Fat |
Carbs (g) |
Fiber (g) |
|
Latte, whole w/ sugar, 10 oz. |
160 |
6 |
3.5 |
22 |
0 |
|
*Latte Lite w/ sucralose |
70 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
|
Iced Latte, whole w/ sugar, 16 oz. |
170 |
7 |
4 |
23 |
0 |
|
*Iced Latte Lite w/ sucralose |
80 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
|
Iced Caramel Swirl Latte, whole |
240 |
7 |
4 |
37 |
0 |
|
Iced Caramel Swirl Latte, nonfat |
180 |
0 |
0 |
36 |
0 |
|
Coolatta, Coffee, nonfat, 16 oz. |
170 |
0 |
0 |
41 |
0 |
|
Coolatta, Coffee, whole milk |
210 |
4 |
2.5 |
42 |
0 |
|
Cappuccino, whole, 10 oz. |
80 |
4.5 |
2.5 |
7 |
0 |
|
*Cappuccino, nonfat |
48 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
|
*Plain Coffee, 10 oz. |
15 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
*Coffee with skim milk |
25 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
|
Coffee with cream |
70 |
6 |
3.5 |
3 |
0 |
Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being. For more information log onto The F-Factor Diet: Discover the Secret to Permanent Weight Loss
I used to drink three pots of coffee per day (ah, the desk job life) but had to quit due to health reasons and now I just drink green tea. It was hell at first but I’m much better off now. So if you REALLY want to take care of your health, dump the coffee altogether.
Your color choice for the (calories, fat, sat fat etc) is very poor. It is unreadable.
It’s irresponsible to recommend sugar-free foods like you often do on this blog. Sweet ‘n Low, Equal and others like them are terrible for you! They are unnatural and we still don’t know the potential long-term health effects of using them frequently. It’s better to use honey or agave, which are natural sweeteners, if you must indulge a sweet tooth. Those items may contain calories, but at least they aren’t made up of chemicals! This blog should only be called low-fat or low-calorie, not healthy!
Caffeine is a psychoactive drug. If you are going to use a drug, you should recognize it as a drug. You can buy over-the-counter caffeine pills. 1 pill is 200 mg (a strong cup of coffee) and costs about 20 cents, and has ZERO fat, calories, or sugar. I am a caffeine user, but I wish our society would recognize it as a dug rather than treating it like a beverage.
Anything in excess is bad for you! If you are drinking these kinds of drinks every day and you want to be healthy, you need to change your habits. Coming from someone with Crohn’s disease who has had to do considerable research on dietary issues, it is true that all of that refined sugar is not good for your body, but the artificial sweeteners are worse! I began drinking two cups of coffee a day at work, since my doctor told me that some coffee was ok (there are beneficial tannins in coffee, but lots of caffeine is not a good thing). Things were going fine until I began to add cream and sugar. Within a couple of weeks I noticed a difference in my complexion. The table sugar and even the lactose in the milk require extra effort from the gut to digest. While a healthy person may not be able to see the same results as quickly, his/her body is dealing with the same effects. The bottom line: don’t make this sort of drink a staple item in your life, but if you want a treat every now and then, enjoy the real thing — whole milk and all.
(P.S. Great recommendation Itruss. Honey is much easier to digest (albeit too strong for my taste in coffee, but great in teas). Also, I recently discovered agave nectar and found it to be a quite adequate sweetener for my coffee.)
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