Starbucks' Scary Nutrition Facts

My wife and I love Starbucks. In fact, we consider the Barnes & Noble/Starbucks at Park Meadows our second home. Nevertheless, I realize Starbucks beverages are not as healthy as we all would like. So I picked up a Starbucks Nutrition Facts sheet a couple nights ago to find out how unhealthy their beverages really are.

Everybody looks for a different "key performance indicator" when they look at nutrition facts labels. I happen to be tuned in to sugar, so I looked for the two Starbucks beverages with the most sugar. Here they are.

Sugar Offender #1: Caramel Apple Cider
A tall (12 oz.) Caramel Apple Cider packs a whopping 53 grams of sugar and 340 calories! If you were to set this 12 oz. Caramel Apple Cider next to a regular 12 oz. can of Coca-Cola, the cider's sugar content would whallop the can of Coke by an astonishing 14 grams of sugar. (A can of Coca-Cola has 39 grams of sugar and "only" 140 calories.)

Sugar Offender #2: Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino
A venti (20 oz.) Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino is a monster next to the Caramel Apple Cider. This nefarious beverage sneaks in 123 grams of sugar and 780 calories in its frothy pinkness—the sugar-equivalent of drinking 3.15 cans of Coca-Cola. Another way of saying it: it takes 37.8 oz. of Coca-Cola to achieve the same sugar content of a 20 oz. Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino. Take that and slap it on your hips!

With all the different sizes, it can be difficult to see each of these three beverages on a level playing field. So let me boil it down to sugar density.

• Coca-Cola — 3.25 grams of sugar per oz.
• Caramel Apple Cider — 4.42 grams of sugar per oz.
• Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino — 6.15 grams of sugar per oz.

Everybody's blaming soft drinks for diabetes and obesity, but I see another player looming giant-like on the horizon....

You'll notice I linked to two different web sites so you could view some of the nutrition facts yourself. Probably the best site I found is DietFacts.com. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any source except my brochure that listed the sugar content of a venti Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino.

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Comments

[Rachel]

You can look at and compare all the nutritional information you could imagine on the starbucks website. You can calculate drinks by changing the type of milk, sizes, extras, etc. It's very cool. You can do this for beverages and food.

[The Health Blog]

Thanks for the information, Rachel!

I went out and found the link directly to the Starbucks nutrition facts page. I've posted it here for other readers: Starbucks nutrition facts

[Maria VUcheva]

I can't agree with you more that Starbucks products are not very healthy. In fact, having a coffee there is like having a huge meal. You get all the Carb, Sugars, Fats, and protein for the whole day just in one drink. Also, I think milk is very bad so it should be at least substituted with soy milk.

[Adam]

Hey, just stumbled on your site while looking for chantico nutrition facts. Congrats on all the great info and accessible writing.

A couple of notes:
You might also want to note just how awful the frappacinos are. I used to down one of those delicious java chip frappachinos drinks weekly, until I learned that that a 16 ounce size with whipped cream has 510 calories and 15 grams of saturated fat! Much of that does come from the cream, but still...! To compare, a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese has 510 calories and 10 grams of saturated fat. Who knew that a tasty coffee drink had more calories and saturated fat than a large burger?!

Oh, and one more thing: I also have Health and Food topics over on my blog :)

[Sugar Free -Non Fat...Starbucks Fan]

Down on Starbucks?? Try a Sugar Free - Non Fat Latte.
It is NOT Starbuks( or anybody else) job to police our eating /drinking habits.
It is totally up to you to make a good healthy choice and fight obesity for you and your family. I have found many good NON-Fat Sugar Free options at Starbucks.

[Nahhan]

I really want to know- what sort of sweetener do they use in their sugar-free things?? splenda? something scarier?

[barista]

Starbucks sugar free syrups are sweetened with sucralose (splenda), and I agree with adam...make a wise choice ppl - eg, a tall (12oz)skinny mocha has only 90 calories,0 fat grams, and provides 30% daily rec calcium and 9 grams protien

[Angela]

Pop is more dangerous because it uses high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener which the body does not metabolize and it turns to fat... although regular refined sugar is not good either it is much better than its chemical counterpart.