Flavored Latte’s
When venturing into a coffee shop, most people search for an option that tastes yummy with as few calories and fat as possible. What people really need to be looking for is the option with less sugar. As Voltage and Energy Up! Promotes, sugar is what people have become addicted to and is a major contributing factor to diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, and Cancer. What people don’t know is that their hazelnut latte, caramel macchiato, or mocha is not just fattening, but nothing but sugar.
The most often ordered drink at a coffee shop is most likely a vanilla latte or a vanilla coffee. Take the latte for example. If a person were to go into Starbucks and order a grande (medium) vanilla nonfat latte, they think they are doing well cutting out the fat and therefore reducing the calories. A grande vanilla latte at Starbucks has 4 pumps of vanilla in it. The serving size on the vanilla bottle says 2 tablespoons with 19grams of sugar per serving. Keep in mind that the recommended amount of sugar per 24-hour period is 24 grams. About two pumps of Vanilla comes out to 1 tablespoon, so at 4 pumps, that’s already 4 tablespoons and 38 grams of sugar in the latte. That’s the minimum amount of sugar in the latte given that the barista makes the drink to Starbucks standard and does not add any extra pumps of syrup, which often ends up happening.
People also think that they can aid their health by choosing non-dairy milk, which would be true if the substitute has no added sweetener or sugar. At an establishment like Starbucks, they use vanilla soymilk, which has 13grams of sugar per 8 ounce serving…back to the grande vanilla latte scenario. If someone orders a grande soy vanilla latte, they are adding an additional 26 grams of sugar to their order. This is because a grande drink is 16 ounces, and the soy has 13 grams per 8 ounces, so there’s double the sugar from the soy in the drink.
The problem isn’t always the calories and the fat in foods and drinks it’s the sugar. One medium vanilla latte in the morning will on average put the person 10 grams of sugar over the recommended and healthy daily amount, which
is where the problem lies. Most people do not know that the sugar is the problem because people have become addicted to it.
A great alternative to any sugary latte or coffee is a skinny version. If nonfat milk is not preferred, one can still use whole or 2% milk with sugar free syrup to still get the flavor in the latte without all the added sugar. If one wishes to cut out syrups in general, Truvia is an awesome natural sweetener that doesn’t add the grams of sugar but still makes drinks taste sweet. It’s important to stay Sugar Savvy and know where sugar is lurking. You may be surprised where sugar is hiding in your life.