On occasion I will saunter into Starbucks for a Grande Decaf Soy Latte because they taste so darn good. The last time my hubby and I had a date night we stopped in for a coffee between dinner and a movie. I noticed their pamphlet, “Nutrition by the Cup” and grabbed it on my way out. We arrived at the movie a bit early, so I pulled out the pamphlet and took a look. My drink wasn’t awful weighing in at 170 calories, 4.5 grams fat, and 17 sugars (a bit high), but is definitely categorized as a treat.
I instinctively knew that a lot of their blended drinks were akin to milkshakes, however I was still SHOCKED by how much sugar they contain. A Venti Green Tea Frappuccino Blended Crème (WITHOUT WHIPPED CREAM…and how many people do you see walking out of Starbucks WITHOUT the whipped cream???) weighs in at 440 calories, 7 grams of fat, and 86 grams of sugar!!! Say what?!??!?!?!?
This pamphlet provided for great conversation with my husband. We zeroed in on the Strawberries and Crème Frappuccino Blended Crème. In his infinite wisdom my husband suggested I compare the nutrition of real strawberries with the Strawberries and Crème Frappuccino Blended Crème drinks. How many strawberries would it take to meet the sugar equivalent of a Strawberries and Crème Frappuccino Blended Crème?
GRANDE STRAWBERRIES & CREME FRAPPUCCINO BLENDED CRÈME
| Calories | Fat (g) | Sugars (g) | Fiber (g) |
| 250 | 2 | 52 | 1 |
NUTRITION INFORMATION FOR 1 MEDIUM (1 ¼” across) STRAWBERRY
| Calories | Fat (g) | Sugars (g) | Fiber (g) |
| 4 | <0.1 | 0.6 | O.2 |
Based on this information, for the same sugars amount of sugar in the Starbucks drink I can eat 87 strawberries!!! If I were to eat those 87 strawberries I would have given my body countless phytonutrients and over 17 grams of fiber. Yes, I would have eaten 348 strawberry calories vs. the 250 Frappuccino calories, but studies have also shown that your body burns up to 50% more calories when eating WHOLE versus processed foods due to the extra workload created when breaking them down. If this is true, the net calories you are truly consuming are 174…76 calories LESS than the Frappuccino. I personally would much rather consume real strawberries or make my own blended Frappuccino at home with vegan vanilla protein powder and real strawberries. Yikes!
image of Starbucks courtesy of simonleong.com
image of Strawberry Frappuccino courtesy of sugarscape.com
image of strawberry sign courtesy of artcanyon.com
Nutritional information for strawberries from Calorie King.
When you compare it like this, the strawberries are far better option. Besides, How can you resist good ol fresh strawberries 🙂
Great post Grettie 🙂
Thanks 🙂
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Yep – been there. My path to good health started with checking out the Starbuck’s nutritional info online only to discover that half of my daily calories were comming from Starbucks treats! (details on my blog if you’re interested)
That’s crazy…half! The nutritional information can be so eye-opening. People don’t realize how much they “drink” their calories.
What a great post! I love that you compare the two. I would much rather eat the strawberries too but that’s a lot of strawberries! And that’s a crazy amount of sugar in that drink. Eek!!
I used to get a caramel macchiato almost every day (before I went veggie). I was SHOCKED to learn the calorie count in them. Now the only thing I get is black coffee, and the very, very occasional soy macchiato with no whip.
It is very eye opening and totally shocking to see the info. I am so glad the info is available now.
Really interesting post – I always get a grande iced soy latte but sometimes I get espresso frappuccinos because they are so good! Life was so much easier before I started learning about how awful processed foods are, but I’m so much happier and I feel so much better now that I’ve largely cut them out of my diet.
I really like your site! Thanks for coming by mine! I’m in the process of converting mine to a more food/health-centered blog.
Thanks Sara!
I know…some people say ignorance is bliss, but I believe information is power 🙂
I never get the whipped cream. And when they accidentally put it in, I ask them to make a new one.