By Eve Persek
Student Dietetic Association
With the beginning of the school year and the influx of a new crop of students, the phrase “freshman 15” rears its ugly head yet again.
Here at Pepperdine’s Waves Café, these words are overheard daily in conversations of neighboring students, but the anxiety in a room full of new students laboring to weed out foods that might pack on extra pounds can easily be felt.
While most attribute this first-year phenomenon to larger portions offered in cafeterias, frequent snacking with late-night studying, or even (dare I say it) the recreational intake of high-calorie beverages of the alcoholic variety, another important factor often goes unaddressed: coffee.
A cup of coffee used to be just that, your ordinary “cup of Joe.” But today, coffee is practically a subculture. Specialty coffee shops occupy almost every corner of every town nationwide.
In our comparatively small town of Malibu, we have two Starbucks, a Deidrich’s and a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, with three of the four within a one-mile radius.
In addition to the wider availability of coffee outside of the home, coffee has become less about the coffee and more about potential additions that can personalize your order.
There is always the choice between cappuccinos, frappuccinos, ice-blended drinks, lattes, mochas or macchiatos, in two dozen different flavors, with five different kinds of milk, with or without whipped cream, in one of three sized cups.
Most consumers consider the increased variety a plus but fail to recognize the increased calories that accompany most “extras” and preparation variations.
Here are examples of the calorie and fat content of just a few specialty drinks offered at Starbucks:
Grande (16 oz.) caramel mocha with whipped cream (whole milk) – 470 calories, 21 grams of fat
Grande (16 oz.) caramel macchiato (soy milk) – 300 calories, 8 grams of fat.
Venti (24 oz.) chocolate brownie Frappucino blended coffee with whipped cream (whole milk or soy milk) – 650 calories, 25 grams of fat.
Venti (24 oz.) caffe mocha with whipped cream (Breve milk) – 770 calories, 59 grams of fat.
Many of these drinks are the caloric equivalent to a dessert or a full-fledged meal, and few people look at their cup of coffee from this perspective.
Keep in mind, these calories add up. With the extra 500 calories a day from just one of these beverages or two of the lighter variety, seven days a week, the faithful Starbucks customer can easily gain one pound of body weight each week.
For the sleep-deprived new college arrivals dependent on regular caffeine intake to make it through the relentless onslaught of class and homework, this is a recipe for disaster.
Students in higher education drink a lot of coffee. On a killer school week when sleep is minimal, it is not uncommon to make two or three coffee stops a day.
Despite the fact that the serving size for a cup of coffee is 6 ounces by industry standards, most coffee shops offer 12-ounce cups as their smallest size.
At the end of the day, it is possible to have put down anywhere from 40 to 60 ounces of coffee. That’s quite a bit of coffee, and if you choose specialty drinks as opposed to the run-of-the-mill plain coffee, the “freshman fifteen” is not out of sight from your coffee intake alone.
So, what can you do? First of all, to avoid excessive caffeine intake, rely upon coffee only in dire straights.
However, if the school week ahead necessitates coffee and quite a bit of it, you can adjust your order to keep the calorie content of each drink to a minimum. Here are a few helpful hints:
Pass on the whipped cream.
Skip the flavored syrups if you do not mind reducing the sweetness of your drink.
Choose soy milk or fat-free milk instead of whole or Breve milk.
Order the tall (12 oz) cup instead of the Venti (24 oz) for starters and evaluate when you finish whether you need the extra 12 ounces.
Try a coffee alternative like caffeinated tea or soda.
If you only darken the door of a Starbucks, Deidrich’s or Coffee Bean every once in a while, by all means, help yourself to any sweet treat you like. Coffee should be fun, too. On the other hand, if coffee is part of your daily routine, please consider all that goes into your cup and think twice before you order.
October 30, 2003