The Starbucks Addiction...

Like a lot of college students, I have a coffee (and baked goods) addiction. Fueling the fire, I live within five miles of at least seven Starbucks and fifteen other various coffee shops. No plug intended, Starbucks is a great place to do homework when the school library just doesn’t work. The problem becomes, ordering a drink and a muffin and soon become you eating (and drinking) half to all of your recommended daily calories. Here is a good way to curb that!

For example: Grande Mocha- 400 calories
Grande white Chocolate mocha- 510
Grande Mocha Frappuccino- 420

How to slim down a drink (and still remain tasty)
I understand that not everyone can enjoy black coffee like I do. So, here is way of slimming down a drink at Starbucks. I use to order a Grande Vanilla Latte (around 320 calories)

Step one: Ask yourself—do you really need a grande or is a tall going to satisfy your craving? If you decide on a tall, subject 80 calories (down to 240)

Step two: Do you normally drink whole milk? I drink skim milk on a regular basis but when I went to Starbucks I didn’t bother to change milk. Ask for non-fat milk instead of whole milk, this will subtract another 70 calories. (down to 170)

Step three: This is up to you, but I find no difference in the taste. Many places you can ask for sugar free syrup in place of regular. The drink is still the tasty vanilla latte without the added calories of the previous sugar. Depending on the number of pumps of flavor put into the drink this can save 20 to 80 calories.

So, the next time you are at Starbucks, I recommend a tall non-fat, sugar free, vanilla latte. Oh- and don’t forget to leave off the whip cream (that adds up to 130 calories.)

Each of these hints can work on almost any drink—any little adjustment helps. This also works at other coffee places, I just chose Starbucks because that happens to be where I go!

The other issue is food. Now that we have slimmed down that drink of yours, the cookie is the next problem. Depending on where you live, different Starbucks carry different food items. When you are on the go or craving something sweet, Starbucks has a good selection. The only problem is what the sweets are hiding. I love scones and always have. The only problem is scones are very, very high in calories and fat. Luckily at Starbucks, trans fat and high fructose corn syrup (I will explain later why I hate these) are non-existent. So, we are left with calories, fat, and sugar.

My favorite coffee companion is the biscotti. These pre-packed treats can range in amount of calories but the ones at my local Starbucks are around 150 calories. These are a good way to satisfy your sweet tooth.

I grew up in a household where the low-fat/no-fat diet craze hit so when I decided to eat healthy, I scoffed at low-fat foods. However, at Starbucks, I find them tasty and often lower in calories than regular items. These include low-fat muffins and reduced fat coffee cakes. I like the low-fat blueberry muffin because the calories are lower, there is no saturated fat, and the muffin has less than 300 calories.

Be careful when the items are scones and cookies, they can hide a lot. I use to each the cinnamon scone like it was my job until I found out that one scone had over 500 calories!

When eating the bakery items, portion control can be your best friend (more on portion control later). If you absolutely want that chocolate chip cookie (470 calories), break the cookie in half and save for later or give to a friend.