Trenta

In all honesty, I’m not a coffee drinker. If I were a coffee person, I’d be avoiding Starbucks due to some of their business practices, such as lack of fair trade (Which has improved but not as much as I think it could), market strategy, labour disputes, opening without planning permission, water management and overall quality. McDonald’s apparently schooled them in the quality department.

Not to mention $5+ for a cup of freaking coffee…

Doing some quick research they are trying to implement certain environmental aspects to their company such as Grounds for your Garden and having cups made out of recycled goods and product red. So Starbucks isn’t all bad, I guess.

Now, you’d think that a forward thinking, “progressive” company such as Starbucks would be on board with helping to have healthy choices for it’s customers, seeing as the whole obesity thing is going on in the Western world. Starbucks has introduced the Trenta, a 916 mL cup for iced coffee drinks. Looking on their nutrition chart a Trenta (31 oz) made with 2% milk will be giving you 220 calories with 3g of fat, 43g of carbs, 0g of fibre and 5g of protein.

Ever wonder why you’re struggling at losing that bit of extra weight? If you have multiple “Peppermint white chocolate mocha” (540 calories, Grande with 2% milk and whipped cream) or “Double Chocolaty chip Frappachino” (400 calories, Grande with 2% milk and whipped cream) that’s an extra two or three “meals” in a drink per day.

A proper meal should be around 290 – 400 calories depending on your needed calorie intake. The 400 calorie meal I found was chicken and rice:

Chicken and Rice – 395 Calories
6 oz cooked chicken
2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce
1 cup of mixed vegetables
1/2 cup of brown rice
1 small tossed salad
2 tablespoons reduced fat oil and vinegar dressing
12 oz water

Ridiculously healthy, right?

I know I’m not the healthiest person I could be so I did a calculation of my recommended calorie intake for the day based on my age, weight and height. If I want to maintain my weight I need 2447, to lose weight I need 2080. So, if I were drinking those drinks, cutting out ONE a day, would help me lose pounds.

I think you get my point as to what the problems are surrounding drinks like this. Also, check out the image to put the quantity of the drink in perspective with the size of an average human stomach. It’s disturbing.