It’s finally fall, which is the season for drinking super sugary coffee drinks, apparently. Some people are such huge fans of Pumpkin Spice Lattes and the like that they were counting down the days until the beverage hit stores. You can find some version of the sweet concoctions at most coffee shops, but do you know what’s really in them? We’re not talking ingredients, but calories and sugar content.
Basically, when you drink a Pumpkin Spice Latte, just think of it like a warm milkshake. And if you’re thinking the pumpkin and spices make it healthy, registered dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick explains, “Unfortunately, that’s like saying apple pie is healthy because it’s apple.” So, while coffee has some health benefits, a sweet seasonal coffee drink is really a dessert.
That’s because even a small one - a Tall at Starbucks - made with nonfat milk and no whip cream still has 200 calories and 29 carbs. The smarties at Consumer Affairs figured out we’d have to do burpees for 21 minutes or jog for 1.6 miles to burn that off. And if you go big and get the full-blown Venti PSL with whip cream and whole milk, you’re looking at 64 grams of sugar, 500 calories, and 66 grams of carbs, so it takes a major workout of 54 minutes of burpees or jogging for 4.6 miles to burn that off. And suddenly, black coffee never sounded so good.