Is Your Starbucks Coffee Healthy?

Why do we drink Starbucks Coffee? For most modern people our high-paced lifestyles means that we are constantly under strain and on the run. To help us cope with the seemingly never-ending pressure, most of us fall to coffeeto keep going. But because we are in such a rush, we don’t take the time to make it. Enter Starbucks.

But what are you drinking when you have a Starbucks coffee? One thing we can tell you before we start is that takeaway coffee from big chain stores like Starbuck is nothing like the simple drink you brew at home.

What is inside a Starbucks Coffee?

GMO Milk

The first and most obvious thing you will notice about Starbucks coffee is that it is made with a lot of milk. The milk used in Starbucks coffee (and many other chain coffee outlets) comes from cows that are fed GMO crops and antibiotics.

Most GMO crops are actually used to feed dairy cows. The genetically altered “Monsanto” crops used to feed cows to promote a large milk yield.  GMO crops are weaker against natural pests than regular crops. Because of this these crops have to be sprayed with chemical herbicides like Roundup, which is also manufactured by Monsanto. Both the GMO’s and the Pesticides cross from the mother cow into her milk, which is then going into your Starbucks coffee. You may think you don’t eat GMOs or foods treated by pesticide. But if you drink Starbucks coffee you are still being exposed to these chemicals.

Most mass dairy factory farms blanket treat their cows with antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. These antibiotics then cross into the milk and ultimately end up inside your coffee, too. But enough about the milk.

Sugar

The next scary ingredient on the list (before we get to the real chemicals) is sugar.

Unless you order a Sugar-Free coffee, the chances are your Starbucks coffee is loaded with sugar. Some flavoured coffees, such as the Caramel Macchiato and the Chai latte, have been found to have up to 25 teaspoons of sugar per cup!  That is three times the maximum daily intake of sugar, recommended by the American Heart Associations.  Starbucks has claimed that it is committed to bringing down the Starbucks coffee sugar content by 25% by 2020.

Sugar by any other name…

Starbucks sneaks sugar into everything by calling it something else. There are all kinds of other ingredients listed in their beverages which are, essentially, just different forms of sugar. For example, “Organic evaporated cane juice”. Cane is the plant that sugar comes from. Evaporated cane juice is sugar!  They have just added the word “organic” to make it look healthier than it is.

Corn Syrup is another culprit. It may sound harmless but corn syrup is just as bad as sugar, if not worse. Corn Syrup is sweet because it extremely high in fructose. Fructose is a concentrated form of sugar, and it has all the same effects on your body.

Why do we hate sugar? Sugar causes your insulin levels to spike. The raised insulin levels in your body have a long term effect of making you more likely to develop type two diabetes. In the short term insulin spikes cause you to become tired, sluggish and lethargic. Considering that most people are drinking coffee to stay alert and awake, it’s interesting to note that the sugar levels in your Starbucks coffee is so extreme that it actually causes your energy levels to crash after an hour or so. What happens next? You reach for the next cup of coffee to try and wake yourself up, and the whole process starts again.

What about the sugar -free options?

Most of these are sweetened by non-nutritive sweeteners. The idea behind them is that they are not supposed to make you fat, because they don’t give you any nutrition. The problem is that they have two other characteristics which are almost worse than sugar: They are full of toxic chemicals, and they are addictive.

Non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame have made headlines over the last few years for the cancer causing effects they have – and yet they remain present in our foods.

These sweeteners also have the effect of making people compulsively over eat and drink, because they are addictive. There is not much value in drinking a “sugar-free” drink if you can’t stop drinking them.

Other Harmful Ingredients in Starbucks Coffee

Aside from Sugar and Milk, there are all kinds of other ingredients in Starbucks coffee that you don’t want to put into your body. Even the Dairy free milks contain Guar gum and Carrageenan, not to mention large quantities of salt and preservatives, emulsifiers, thickeners, and flavourings.

Dairy-Free Milks Coffee Ingredients:

Below is a list of ingredients inside the dairy free milk offerings at Starbucks:

Starbucks Almond Milk: Filtered water, Almonds, Sugar, Tricalcium Phosphate, Sunflower Lecithin, Sea Salt, Xantham gum, Guar gum, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D2.

Starbucks Coconut Milk: Water, Coconut Cream, Cane Sugar, Tricalcium Phosphate, Coconut Water Concentrate, Natural Flavors, Sea Salt, Carrageenan, Gellan Gum, Corn Dextrin, Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2.

Starbucks Organic Vanilla Soymilk: [Organic Soymilk (Filtered Water, Whole Organic Soybeans), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Vanilla Flavor, Sea Salt, Carrageenan, Sodium Citrate, Baking Soda, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin B12].

 

Carrageenan – Carrageenan is used as a thickener and emulsifier to keep ingredients from separating. Unfortunately it causes digestion problems for many people and is contaminated with as much as 25% “degraded carrageenan”. As reported in a new study published in Nature, emulsifiers are cited as being partially responsible for the “rising incidence of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and inflammatory bowel disease by interfering with microbes in the gastrointestinal tract”. Most mainstream brands have removed carrageenan from their products,but it’s still found at Starbucks coffee.

Gellan Gum and Guar Gum– Both of these ingredients are known to cause stomach problems like bloating, gas and IBS.

 

The worst Starbucks coffees – what to avoid

 

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

If you think that this beverage is healthy because it has “pumpkin” in it, just take a look at the extensive list of unnatural ingredients in it: GMO milk, sugar, contains 2% or less of fruit, flavourings, annatto, salt, potassium sorbate, monoglycerides, diglycerides, carrageenan, vanilla syrup (corn syrup),potassium sorbate, and sulfiting agents.

Starbucks Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte

The Ingredients in this “skinny” are less than skinny: The main culprits are sucralose (a non-nutritive sweetener associated with cancer), natural and artificial flavourings which have been proven to cause compulsive, addictive eating.

Starbucks Caramel Macchiato

The Caramel Macchiato contains high fructose corn syrup. This sweetener is usually made from GMO corn, and it’s been heavily linked to type 2 diabetes and stomach cancer.

Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha

This drink contains monoglycerides, which is a by-product of oil processing which contain trans fatty acid. Trans fatty acids are responsible for clogged arteries, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The whipped cream is thickened with carrageenan, which we have described above.

Starbucks Citrus Green Tea Latte

This may sound like a healthy drink, but in truth it’s loaded with sugar. In fact it contains more sugar than most of the other drinks at Starbucks. It also contains maltodextrin, corn syrup, flavourings and sweeteners, emulsifiers and, in case that’s not enough it also contains preservatives.

Starbucks Very Berry Hibiscus Refreshers

This beverage is full of artificial flavourings and sweeteners. It also contains synthesised, chemically pure erythritol. It also contains Truvia, which is extracted from Stevia using chemicals such as methanol,ethanol, acetone, acetonitrile and isopropanol.  Many of these chemicals are associated with cancer. None of them should be in your food.

 

The drinks listed above are examples of your average Starbucks beverages. There are many variations and flavours, but the ingredients above are what you will find in most of them. In truth you are much better off making your own coffee at home and pouring it in a travel mug to take along with you.

Even if you add sugar you will most likely only add one teaspoon full instead of 25, like some Starbucks coffees! Instead you can make your coffee with organic milk, real honey and organic coffee. No hidden preservatives, corn syrup or thickeners and emulsifiers.

Do you constantly suffer from bloating, gas or indigestion after drinking coffee?

If yes, you could be suffering from digestive issues, go to the next page and watch the 3 tips to reverse these digestive-related issues –

 

 

 

 

About the Author:

Emma Deangela is the best selling author of The Alkaline Diet Program and 80/20 Fat Loss. She has helped over tens of thousands of men and women to lose weight and transform their health with sound nutrition advice.

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