That's Fit

I'll admit it: I'm a bit addicted to Starbucks. It's just so darn convenient. There's one near my house, my office -- heck, there's even one in my grocery store. Since coffee is definitely a staple of my diet, I end up in the Starbucks line-up fairly often.

And I usually do stick to coffee, except on a rare occasion when I've either forgotten to pack a healthy snack or was in too much of a hurry to grab a healthy meal. In such an event, the baked goods call out my name from their home behind the glass window, and, with stomach grumbling uncomfortably, I am powerless to resist.

I'm not a fan of super sweet cakes and donuts, so I tend to stick to things like muffins and scones. But are they any healthier than the sweet stuff?

I make a point of always eating breakfast, but if I have to get it on the run, one place I rarely go is Starbucks. Sure, they have some yogurt and fruit (not to mention those fantastic Americanos), but other than that, the options seem limited to sugary baked goods.

Well, good news Starbucks lovers. The gourmet coffee chain is coming out with some new and improved healthier breakfast offerings, currently referred to as Morning Source. USA Today has all the details, but here are some sample items:

• A protein power plate, available with or without peanut butter.
  
• Oatmeal with a variety of toppings, including fruits and nuts.
  
• Multigrain rolls with almond butter and/or fruit preserves
• Bran muffins.
  

What would you like to see on the new menu?

(Via Fitsugar)

I'm a major coffee fanatic, but when the weather is hot, I find myself craving something cooler than a big, hot, steaming cup of java. And what fills that kind of void better than an iced cappuccino? Nothing, if you ask me. They're cool, delicious, with just the right amount of creaminess and coffee flavour. One popular establishment here in Canada, Tim Hortons, has the best iced caps.

But while coffee itself is pretty low in calories (calorie free, in fact, if you skip the cream and sugar!), you can't usually control what goes into a slushy coffee drink. It comes with lots of sugar and cream already in it, and the result usually tastes so good that you know it can't be good for you. What do you think?

Occasionally grabbing breakfast on the run is one of those inevitabilities. After all, who hasn't overslept or woken up only to find that the last bit of cereal milk has been usurped by the last breakfaster? And grabbing breakfast on the go is better than not having any at all.

Yahoo health recently rated the top breakfast choices. Here are some picks:

• McDonald's: Fruit n' Yogurt Parfait -- 160 cal, 2 g fat
• Starbucks: Spinach, roasted tomato, feta and egg wrap -- 240 cal, 10 g of fat (but lots of protein and fiber)
• Jamba Juice: Jamba Light smoothie -- 150-160 cal, 0 g of fat
• Dunkin' Donuts: Four powdered donut holes -- 260 cal, 15 g of fat
• Burger King: Nothing. Their food still has trans fats.
  

Want to find out what other breakfast dishes made the cut? Click here for the full list.

A Tacoma, Washington woman who suffers from polycystic kidney disease found help in an unlikely place -- Starbucks.

Annamarie Ausnes had struck up a casual friendship with Starbucks barista Sandie Anderson during her regular coffee runs. When Ausnes mentioned to Anderson that her kidney disease was progressing rapidly and that she needed a transplant, Anderson volunteered to be tested. She was a perfect match.

This week, surgeons took one of Andersons kidneys and placed it into Ausnes. Both are expected to make full recovery, and Ausnes is grateful for the kindness of this relative stranger who I'm guessing she now calls a friend.

Whether or not caffeine is good for you remains a mystery. Amazingly, an estimated 21,000 studies have been conducted to finally put an end to this debate. But, as of this writing, nothing has been determined with any degree of certainty. So, we'll instead focus on the one thing we know for sure: excessive amounts of caffeine can make you feel, shall we say, amped up.

I've tracked down some info on how much caffeine some popular drinks contain. After reading this list, you may be inclined to reach for unleaded from here on in!!

Diet Coke: 66mg of caffeine are packed into a 20oz bottle of this sugar-free soft drink. If you need a visual on how big a 20oz bottle is, know that it is the is the same size as a bottled water.

Dunkin' Donuts Coffee: A 16oz black coffee from "The Dunk" can pump about 206mg of caffeine into your system. "America Runs on Dunkin'?" Well, with that much caffeine in a cup of their coffee, I'm surprised America doesn't run to the moon and back.

Starbucks Doubleshot: Have you tried the ready-to-drink Starbucks Espresso and Cream cans? If not, you're missing out on a tasty drink -- that just so happens to be loaded with fat and absolutely packed with caffeine. How much, you may be wondering? We're talking 106mg of caffeine squeezed into a 6.5oz can. I'm not going to lie, though, it is delicious.

Nestea Cool Ice Tea: A Nestea bottle the same size as that of the Diet Coke is actually one of the lesser offenders on this list. At just under 1mg per ounce of caffeine, a 20oz bottle contains about 20mg of caffeine in it. Be advised and aware of the high sugar content in bottled Ice Teas, though. Perhaps reaching for a diet version of the drink is the way to go.

SoBe Adrenaline Rush: They don't call this Adrenaline Rush for nothing! Don't let this skinny little can fool you -- even at a mere 8.3oz, this energy drink has 79mg of caffeine in it. Making matters worse, because the can is smaller than a typical soda can, people sometimes feel the need to drink two of them at a time. 79 + 79 = 158mg. Not good.

Mountain Dew: A 12oz can of this known high-sugar, high-caffeine soda has almost the same amount of caffeine in it as the aforementioned 20oz bottle of Diet Coke. What if the Mountain Dew was in the 20oz bottle? Well, you'd be gulping down close to 118mg of leaded fuel.

Can you imagine ordering a Starbucks coffee for just $1.00 -- with free refills? For a Starbucks fan like myself, this is good news. Currently this pricing strategy is being tested in the coffee giant's Seattle hometown, and it's mums the word on whether additional test markets are in the works.

It's only logical our recession or near-recession economy is part of this $.50 drop in price for a tiny 8 oz tall. Rivals McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts also sell a bigger cup of coffee for less than the current price of a tall Starbucks.

Recession and competition aside, what I particularly like about this new pricing is it might draw people away from the calorie-loaded lattes and frappuccinos to regular 'ole drip coffee with five calories -- unless you're a coffee wimp and cream it like me (2 T of half 'n half have 40 calories and 3 g of fat). If $1.00 Starbucks ever hits its 15,000 worldwide stores, a whole lot of people switching to a plain cup of joe may drop a pants size, too.

As part of their morning ritual, so many people down a cup or ten of coffee to help wake up. The same is often true of people who have some java before they workout, hoping that it will 'amp' up their intensity -- if not their desire to do it in the first place. Best I can tell, the jury is still out on whether caffeine is 1) good for you, and 2) helpful in any way with respect to giving you some extra pep.

More or less, the pick-me-up you get from caffeine is a result of an increased heart rate. So, right of the bat, it may not be the best thing to be drinking before you go into the gym (where your heart rate will be increasing anyway). That being said, a little caffeine does not seem to cause safety thresholds of any kind to be crossed, so maybe it's not so bad after all. But, what about how much pep it actually gives you?

As a bit of a self-confessed coffee maniac, I am happy that some of the beverages at Starbucks are going 'skinny', as Bethany pointed out a little while ago. But not everyone is happy about the change. As Diet Blog reports, at least one employee has spoken out about the change.

The source of her frustration? The wording -- the term skinny can have a negative impact on both the customers and employees, especially after being called out loudly countless times a day. Want more info on the complaint? Click here.

I can see her point. It might be embarrassing for some to ask for a skinny beverage-- it's almost like announcing to the whole store that you're on a diet. What do you think?

Are you Starbucks-addicted and looking to trim down in the New Year? You might appreciate this news. In 2008, Starbucks will be offering a new skinny latte that's fat and sugar free. Grand total calories in a "tall"? 90, down from 400, for a white chocolate mocha latte.

I don't drink coffee, nor have I ever (gasp) been inside a Starbucks, but I have my vices and I know what it means to sacrifice tasty treats for better health. The new skinny may be an alternative for those who need their coffee fix, and if not, Diet-Blog has a few other options for making that coffee habit a little more diet-friendly.

One of my favourite things about the holidays is the holiday drinks they serve at Starbucks. Starbucks is only an occasional treat for me but it tends to become a weekly occurrence once the Peppermint Mochas, Eggnog Lattes and Gingerbread Lattes hit the menu. Are you a fan of these festive beverages? They're oh-so-tasty if you ask me.

I know they can't possibly be good for me, but I can't help but wonder, just how bad are they? What do you think?

I just recently happened upon an interesting website called EnergyFiend.com. Pretty straightforward in its purpose, Energy Fiend offers a calculator of just how many servings of your choice caffeinated beverages it would take to kill you (based on your weight only -- so, clearly it's not an exact science, but interesting, nonetheless). For example, if you weighed 175 pounds, it would take consuming approximately 45 Starbucks tall coffees in one sitting to kill you.

It's kind of fun, in a strange and slightly macabre sort of way. But, it also lead me to uncover some interesting facts about how much caffeine is in some products, many of which I didn't expect to rank so high. For example, I was rather surprised to discover that many fruit-flavored sodas are relatively high in caffeine. And, I also was amazed at the fact that the aforementioned Starbucks tall coffee actually contains more caffeine than a dose of Maximum Strength No-Doze pills.

The jury is still out on whether or not caffeine is healthy (I've read opposing views on this matter), but the one thing that is for sure is that too much of anything -- be it caffeine or, well, anything else -- is not a good thing. Therefore, you should try to limit your caffeine intake to 250mg per day, which is about what you'll find in an average (read: Non-Starbucks) cup of coffee.

Does a latter have as much caffeine as a regular coffee? Does a large regular coffee have the same amount of caffeine as an espresso? Does a chai latte have caffeine? As someone who needs that caffeine kick in the morning, I'm always wondering these things when I head to Starbucks. Or course, for me the idea is to get a good dose of caffeine, but you might ask the same questions if you're looking to cut down on your caffeine. Luckily, Diet Blog has a guide the the amount of caffeine in your favourite Starbucks drinks.

Interestingly, regular brewed coffee has more caffeine than anything. The Americano comes in next, and then Cafe Mocha. To see the full list click here.

Cool weather calls for hot drinks. My latest guilty pleasure is the Starbucks Caramel Macchiato. It's made with espresso, steamed milk, vanilla, foam and caramel sauce. It kind of looks like a fancy little pie, doesn't it?

When it comes to guessing calorie counts, the fact that this drink looks like a miniature pie worries me a little. How many calories are in a Tall Starbucks Caramel Macchiato with 2% milk?

A) 100 calories
B) 180 calories
C) 250 calories
D) 290 calories

I remember taking a class in university where we discussed the history of marketing products to children. Giants like Disney and McDonald's got in the business early, convincing kids that their toys and burgers were must-haves. Since the start, many other companies have gotten on board, realizing the money-making potential that lies in advertising products to easily-influenced and hard-to-ignore (by weary parents anyway) kids.

Is it ethical? I suppose it depends on your personal point of view. At the very least I can understand why a company like Disney, whose brand focuses on kid-friendly products, would market to children. I'm not so sure what to think though when a company like Starbucks admits that kids and teens are a part of their client base.

As Heather Craven at ParentDish points out, most Starbucks beverages are chock full of sugar and caffeine, neither of which need to be ingested by kids on a regular basis. It may be hard to refuse your children when they're begging for a giant-sized white chocolate beverage, but Craven pledges to save her money and deny her children.

What would you do? Do you thi it's unethical of Starbucks to market caffeine-filled drinks to kids?