Gourmet coffee calories can really add up

Hungry?

You could have a hamburger, small fries and a chocolate chip cookie from McDonald's - or a single zucchini walnut muffin from Starbucks.

It's the same thing, really.

At least, if you're counting fat and calories it's the same thing.

Both "meals" contain about 650 calories and more than 25 grams of fat (the McDonald's three-courser actually has less fat, at 29 grams, compared to the muffin's 38).
Add on a whipped-cream topped Frappuccino and you might as well be eating a few pieces of fried chicken or guzzling a chocolate milk shake.

"No one expects to drink 800 calories in one sitting at Starbucks," said Jeff Cronin, communications director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C., non-profit consumer advocacy organization. "But it's entirely possible."

The center, the same consumer watchdog group that exposed the artery-clogging nature of movie popcorn and the trans-fat laden oils in Kentucky Fried Chicken, is publicly urging the Starbucks coffee chain to rethink some of its menu offerings - or at least, to openly display nutritional information - to give consumers healthier options for their daily caffeine buzz.

"There's a very wide range at Starbucks. You can get a cup of coffee with zero or very little fat and sugar or you can get a drink there that has 400, 500, 600, even 800 calories and more than a day's worth of saturated fat," Cronin said.

CSPI has accused Starbucks of serving high-fat, high-calorie products without giving consumers easy access to nutritional information. Cronin said CSPI has not filed suit against Starbucks, as it did with Kentucky Fried Chicken, they simply have asked Starbucks to list the nutritional content of its items on the same menu board that lists the prices.

"Having that one piece of information on menus would help people exercise personal responsibility," Cronin said. "Otherwise you're flying blind. You're guessing."

It's not just Starbucks. The Center for Science in the Public Interest is pushing for legislation to force all chain restaurants that use menu boards to openly post nutritional information.

According to a statement issued by Starbucks, the company is "actively seeking" to reformulate its food and drinks to remove harmful trans fats, which are found mostly in the chain's seasonal baked items.

YOUR CHOICE

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf also is looking to add healthier choices to its food selection.

As for its coffee drinks, already about 35 percent of the company's drink sales are of no-sugar-added options, according to Coffee Bean marketing director Lisa Steinkamp. Also, most drinks automatically are made with nonfat milk unless a customer requests otherwise.

"We're constantly looking at more healthful products," Steinkamp said. "We have the indulgent drinks for people that really want a treat and then we have our lower-fat, lower-calorie options."

The bottom line, said Cynthia Graff, president of Lindora Weight Control Clinics and author of "Lean for Life", is that people should remember that when it comes to dieting, what they drink is as important as what they eat.

"They should think about (a Frappuccino) as if it were a piece of chocolate cake," Graff said. "Think in terms of what kind of activity you would need to just use up those calories. A Starbucks latte has 260 calories - you'd have to walk about an hour and nine minutes to work that off."

Both Starbucks and the Coffee Bean offer healthier options to most of their specialty coffee drinks.

Go with the no-sugar-added version of a vanilla Ice Blended, for instance, and you'll have a drink with 160 calories and 2 grams of fat compared with the "Extreme Ultimate" version, which has 610 calories and 14 grams of fat for a 16 ounce serving.

Order a Starbucks vanilla latte with no sugar-added syrup and nonfat milk and you'll cut calories by about 200 and fats down to zero.

"People have choices," said Mary Farrelly, a Hermosa Beach, Calif., resident. "Starbucks has a good selection. They have fruit, they have yogurt. To me, they have better choices than you find at fast-food restaurants."

Granted, these are coffee shops, not restaurants; as such, the food menu is mainly comprised of baked goods (most to a dieter's dismay). Eating a single Starbucks zucchini walnut muffin, at 640 calories, is equal to having a hamburger, small fries and a cookie at McDonald's.

"A Big Mac has 590 calories. How many people think that when they go into Starbucks they could be getting more calories than they get in a Big Mac? Not many," Cronin said. "And we're not talking about a meal, we're talking about something that is shoehorned between lunch and dinner."

In the largely health-conscious area of south Los Angeles County, home to 10 Coffee Beans and at least 60 Starbucks, coffee drinkers weren't surprised to hear a Frappuccino and a Burger King Whopper have roughly the same number of calories.

"People aren't stupid," said Matthew Cereno of Hermosa Beach (who said he always orders nonfat mochas). "If you walk out and you have one of those Frappuccinos with whipped cream, who is shocked when somebody says, 'Hey, did you know that has 1,100 calories?' Where's the surprise? It's heavy, it's got whipped cream on it, it's got caramel on it, chocolate sprinkles. Who knows what else went into it - it's got calories."

"To top if off," he added, "it tastes unbelievable. You know there's something wrong with it if it tastes good and it's got whipped cream all over it."