It’s a shame that the one drink  Americans don’t think twice about consuming can have so many hidden calories. The standard cup of coffee, minus the sugar and cream/milk has no calories but it doesn’t take much to quickly consume several hundred calories/serving with the fancier coffee drinks. So just how much is in that specialty drink from Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s? This month’s issue of Nutrition Action (4/2010) compares the caloric intake of these products and the results are somewhat startling.

Starbucks

• Skinny/Cafe Latte   130 calories
• Caffe Latte with flavored syrup, 2%    250 calories
• Cinnamon Dolce Latte, with whipped cream, 2%   330 calories
• Strawberries & Creme Blended Creme Frappuccino (with whipped cream) 480 calories
• Green Tea Blended Creme   490 calories

Dunkin’ Donuts

• Mocha coffee, iced or hot, cream     260 calories
• Coffee, iced or hot, cream with sugar   190 calories
• Cappuccino, skim    70 calories
• Latte Lite or Vanilla Latte Lite    130 calories
• Frozen Cappuccino, skim   410 calories
• Coffee Coolata, cream   600 calories
• Vanilla Bean Coolata    650 calories

McDonald’s

• Iced Coffee, with syrup, cream     190 calories
• Iced Latte, nonfat               60 calories
• Latte, with sugar free syrup, nonfat     90 calories
• Cappuccino or Latte, nonfat        100 calories
• Cappuccino, with syrup      240 calories
• Latte, with syrup                  280 calories
• Mocha, Iced or hot, with whipped cream      320 calories

It’s the calories we consume unwittingly that increase our weight without satisfying our hunger. The new health care plan just passed, requires that calorie counts be provided by restaurants. Hopefully, as consumers we will be better informed about the food choices we make so that we can avoid stacking on those unnecessary pounds.