Healthiest Starbucks Drinks
Our diet and health
The modern way of living can have a great impact on our health. Stressful jobs with a lot of work hours leave us with not enough time to work out, go outside or have any other healthy activity, which is impacting our health. Still, the most harmful thing to our health is our diet. We don’t pay enough attention to nutrition because of lack of time or energy to deal with it. That can lead to some really bad decisions regarding food choice, and somehow people are ignoring this problem even though it is a huge one.
It is an old saying that 'you are what you eat'. So, it is unclear why people still pay so little attention to what kind of foods and drinks they are putting in their bodies. In order to make food and drinks more tasteful, manufacturers have been putting a lot of sugar and other bad additives that can be harmful in the long run. This is a big problem; and many food chains and drink brands are trying to offer healthier options to their famous meals and drinks, but people are still taking the unhealthiest options even though they have a choice. So, if you have an option, take the healthier one and your body will be deeply grateful.
Starbucks nutrition
A lot of people across the country have a caffeine addiction. On the other hand, there are also a lot of people who are addicted to non-caffeinated products of one food or drink chain. Starbucks is one of the most famous coffee brands in the world, and many people are addicted to their delicious drinks. Over the years, Starbucks has expanded (and is still expanding) that their offering range from just coffee to various drinks that contain no coffee at all. Besides teas and juices, there are some drinks that contain so many calories and sugar that they can easily qualify as a meal. So, it is important that you learn everything about Starbucks drinks' nutrition and learn about ways to reduce the calories in them, especially if you are one of the Starbucks fanatics.
For example, Starbucks revealed their newest drink which created a mass rush to their stores, because people went crazy for it. That drink is the Unicorn Frappuccino® Blended Crème, which, by their own words, starts off as sweet and fruity and becomes pleasantly sour all while it is changing color. Let’s put aside the fact that it has brought chaos to the work life of an average Starbucks barista, and let’s take a look at its nutrition values. A Grande size, which is 16oz, with whole milk and whipped cream contains 410 calories, 16g of fat, 45mg of cholesterol, 230mg of sodium, 5g of protein and a staggering 59g of sugar. So, make sure you know what you are drinking before you order it.
Starbucks beverage nutrition
Starbucks offers a wide range of drinks and they have the following categories: Starbucks Refreshers Beverages, Evolution Fresh, Iced Coffee, Iced Tea, Bottled Drinks, Freshly Brewed Coffee, Chocolate Beverages, Starbucks Espresso Beverages, Frappuccinos Blended Beverages, Kids’ Drinks & Others, Smoothies and Fizzio Handcrafted Sodas. You might think that none of the drinks could possibly be that bad for you since it is just a cup of liquid, but some of them can contain up to 500 calories.
Chocolate Beverages are one of the most caloric Starbucks beverages. Tuxedo Hot Cocoa contains 470 calories, 19g of fat, 60g of carbs, 3g of fiber, 16g of protein and 230mg of sodium, and Hot Chocolate contains 320 calories, 9g of fat, 47g of carbs, 4g of fiber, 14g of protein and 160mg of sodium.
Starbucks Refreshers Beverages mostly have low calories and contain no fat, no protein, almost no fiber, and all of them contain 10mg of sodium. When it comes to calories and carbs, the Cool Lime Starbucks Refreshers™ Beverage contains 45 calories and 11g of carbs, the Strawberry Acai Starbucks Refreshers™ Beverage has 80 calories and 18g of carbs, and the Very Berry Hibiscus Starbucks Refreshers™ Beverage has 60 calories and 14g of carbs. So, these drinks can be considered as low calorie and more healthy drinks.
When it comes to Starbucks coffee nutrition and Starbucks nutrition latte, the menu’s brewed coffee has barely any calories, and lattes have a little bit more. Freshly Brewed Coffee has no carbs, no fat, no fiber, almost no protein, and it can contain 5 to 10 calories and 10mg to 15mg of sodium, with two exceptions: Nitro Cold Brew with Sweet Cream that has 70 calories, 5g of fat, 5g of carbs and 20mg of sodium; and Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew with 110 calories, 6g of fat, 14g of carbs and 25mg of sodium.
Lattes have a little bit more calories, but out of all the latte coffee drinks, the drinks with the least amount of calories are the Iced Caffè Latte with 130 calories, 4.5g of fat, 13g of carbs, 8g of protein and 115mg of sodium, and the Iced Cascara Latte with 180 calories and 4.5g of fat, 29g of carbs, 8g of protein and 110mg of sodium. The average in this category is the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, which has 260 calories, 6g of fat, 40g of carbs, 11g of protein and 150mg of sodium. Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte nutrition, as one of the most popular Starbucks drinks, contains 380 calories, 14g of fat, 55mg of cholesterol, 240mg of sodium, 14g of protein and 50g of sugars.
Smoothies are a popular drink in general, and Starbucks offers two types of smoothies: chocolate and strawberry. Starbucks smoothies nutrition facts are as follows:
- The Chocolate Smoothie contains 320 calories, 5g of fat, 53g of carbs, 8g of fiber, 20 g of protein and 170mg of sodium.
- The Strawberry Smoothie contains 300 calories, 2g of fat, 60g of carbs, 7g of fiber, 16g of protein and 130mg of sodium.
Starbucks chai nutrition - In a wide range of chai drinks on the Starbucks menu, there are some drinks that have zero calories like Teavana® Oprah Cinnamon Chai Tea, Chai Brewed Tea, and Teavana® Oprah Chai Herbal Blend Brewed Tea. But on the other hand, there are also highly caloric drinks like the Chai Eggnog Latte, which contains 400 calories, 12g of fat, 85mg if cholesterol, 160mg of sodium, 10g of proteins and even 62g of sugars.
Starbucks syrup
Starbucks offers Mocha syrup which contains 25 calories, 7 g of carbs and 5g of sugars per 1 pump. Also, it offers these flavored syrups: Vanilla Syrup, Sugar-Free Vanilla Syrup, Caramel Syrup, Classic Syrup, Toffee Nut Syrup, Sugar-Free Cinnamon Dolce Syrup, Cinnamon Dolce Syrup, Hazelnut Syrup and Peppermint Syrup. When it comes to Starbucks syrup nutrition, these flavored syrups contain 20 calories, 5g of carbs and 5g of sugars per 1 pump, and the sugar-free versions contain no calories at all.
As always, counting calories might be confusing and boring, but there are ways to make better and healthier choices, and you can do that by drinking healthy drinks or the healthier versions of your usual choices.
Starbucks baristas have a couple of tips on how to lighten up your beverages since you can choose what the barista puts in your drink. So, when you are having a Frappuccino® blended beverage, you can choose sugar-free syrup; ask for nonfat milk, less whip or no whip cream which can reduce 80 to 110 calories from your drink. You can choose a Skinny Latte drink with nonfat milk and sugar-free syrup or reducing classic syrup or even choose a smaller size.
The baristas recommend taking a tall size Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte that contains less than 100 calories but has 9g of protein and no fat, and Starbucks® Iced Coffee & Tea if you drink it without the sugar or with a sweetener substitute.
Making healthy choices at Starbucks
So, general advice is to
- Order a smaller size (the bigger is not the better for your health and your pocket)
- Forget about sugar (once you get used to a sugar-free drink, you will prefer it sugar-free) and whipped cream
- Use sugar-free syrup or no syrup at all
- When using milk, use the nonfat one
- Order already reduced versions of drinks (Light or Skinny)
- Get it iced or with extra foam or an extra shot of caffeine
- If you just can’t give up your favorite drink, you can limit yourself to having it once or twice a week, but stuffing yourself with these on daily basis is very bad for your health.
As Starbucks is trying to offer healthier versions of their popular drinks, they made a list of delicious drinks under 200 calories, so if you want to cut calories, you can try with one of the following drinks which can benefit your health, your looks, and your pockets:
Cold Drinks (Tall size)
- Caramel Frappuccino® Light Blended Coffee - 130 calories, 1g of fat
- Coffee Frappuccino® Blended Coffee - 180 calories, 2.5g of fat
- Iced Caffè Americano - 10 calories, 0g of fat
- Iced Coffee (with classic syrup) - 60 calories, 0g of fat
- Iced Skinny Latte - 60 calories, 0g of fat
- Nonfat Iced Caramel Machiato - 140 calories, 1g of fat
- Nonfat Iced Vanilla Latte - 120 calories, 0g of fat
- Shaken Tazo® Iced Black Tea Lemonade - 100 calories, 0g of fat
- Shaken Tazo® Iced Passion® Tea (unsweetened) - 0 calories, 0g of fat
Hot Drinks (Tall size)
- Brewed Coffee - 5 calories, 0g of fat
- Brewed Tazo® Tea - 0 calories, 0g of fat
- Caffè Americano - 10 calories, 0g of fat
- Nonfat Caffè Latte - 100 calories, 0g of fat
- Nonfat Caffè Mocha – hold the whip - 170 calories, 2g of fat
- Nonfat Cappuccino - 60 calories, 0g of fat
- Nonfat Caramel Machiato - 140 calories, 1g of fat
- Nonfat Tazo® Green Tea Latte - 150 calories, 0g of fat
- Nonfat Vanilla Crème – hold the whip - 150 calories, 0g of fat
- Skinny Vanilla Latte - 90 calories, 0g of fat
- Soy Tazo® Chai Tea Latte - 170 calories, 2g of fat
- Steamed Apple Juice - 170 calories, 0g of fat
