A QUARTER POUNDER OF SUGAR
National Post (Canada) Oct/2002
Author, Jonathan Kay, editorials editor

My good friend Jacob Richler, the Post's resident food critic, gave a solid bashing to McDonaId's a few weeks back. He's shocked by how obese North Americans have gotten in recent years, and lays a lot of the blame on the golden arches.

Jake's right, of course: We're all too fat. And the fast-food industry; is probably part of the problem. But I'll say this for McDonald's and its ilk: When you stuff yourself with burgers, you know you've stuffed yourself with burgers. You've had a "happy meal" or a "meal deal" or some such. It's a "meal" in any event: Your stomach is full and you give your cake-hole a rest for a few hours.
That's more than I can say for the sugar-peddling restaurants formerly known as coffee houses. They don't market their products as "meals," but as between-meal pick-me-ups. Since their product comes in liquid form, it doesn't fill your stomach the way fried meat and potatoes do, and you don't take it seriously when you're tallying up your food intake.

But let's do some math. This year, Starbucks rolled out its new whipped-cream-drenched Vanilla Creme and Coconut Creme Frappucinos. Tried one? OK, let's see how fat it made you. According to Starbucks' own nutritional data, a coconut frap in "Venti" format (Starbucks' answer to supersizing) has 32 grams of fat and almost a quarter pound of sugar.

That works out to 870 calories - more than two quarter pounders.

Caffeine? There is none! "Fuelling a nationwide resurgence in. the colour white's popularity, Vanilla and Coconut Creme Frappuccino blended beverages are frosty concoctions that get their stylish hue from an absence of coffee," reads a promotional blurb. "From all-white designer clothing lines to ivory clad nightlife hotspots,' shades of white are making an undisputed comeback in the world of fashion, food, and with the social elite."

Too bad obesity's not making an "undisputed comeback" on the runways of Milan, too. Then you could cover all your fashion bases with one long frapo-gulp.

Starbucks isn't alone. Second Cup has rolled out its own new waist- expanding smoothie-style drinks: With the complementary whipped cream, an extra-large version of Second Cup's newly introduced "delato" also packs about 800 calories and 35 fat grams. And if you're in the mood for something hot, there's the "Chocolate-Lovers' Lattes." Three fattening flavours: vanilla fudge brownie, chocolate toffee and chocolate banana.

Here's another thing I'll say for McDonald's: They're upfront with their nutritional information. Ask for it at your local restaurant and they'll give you a chart that lists every single fat gram, carb and calorie in every McDonald's snack, and sandwich -right down to . the pickles, cooking spray and mustard. Go to www. mcdonalds.com and you can download the same chart. But Starbucks and Second Cup don't give out printed lists with nutriional data. Neither do their Web sites.

To Starbucks' credit, the telephone operators at ( 800) 23 - LATTE were forthcoming. And the people at Second Cup e-mailed me the information I wanted when I phoned them and asked for it. But how many people are as persistent as me? I'll bet that 99% of the tubbies who load up at coffee shops would be off by a factor of three or four if Iasked them to estimate the calories in their cocoa-frosted coffee bombs.

This isn't a conspiracy theory: I know it's my fault, not Starbucks', that I lack the willpower to resist liquid snacks. Yet I still find it disturbing how much liquid sugar, people take in under the myth that what they're drinking is in the same nutritional ballpark as old fashioned coffee. Coffee breaks have been transformed into stealth meals -and we're all the fatter because of it.