Liquid calories slip by so easily, it’s almost hard to take them seriously. But alas, all those super-sized beverages and high fructose corn syrup concoctions have contributed, quite stealthily, to our obesity epidemic. Our adults have the beer bellies and our children the Big Gulp guts to prove it. Although some cities have started to ban sales of soda in schools, we adults are free to roam in the world of heavily sauced drinks, sometimes adding a meal-sized amount of calories from a tiny little straw. Here are some obvious and not-so-obvious ways to bulk up without ever having to chew.
Burger King Chocolate Ice Cream Shake: 950 calories, 29 grams fat (19 saturated), 640 milligrams sodium, 146 grams sugar
Hmmm … a milkshake, or an entire meal? You could have a burger (290 calories), small fries (230 calories), and a small soda (140 calories) for fewer calories (660) than this drink. I’d rather chew.
A better bet: small chocolate milk.
Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino: 410 calories, 16 grams fat (10 saturated), 270 milligrams sodium, 54 grams sugar
Is it a coffee, or is it a milkshake? Although the CEO of Starbucks recently made the decision to stop selling sandwiches in their stores, I’m guessing they’ll keep selling these espresso-flavored milkshakes as long as we keep buying them. Darn, they’re good.
A better bet: iced skim milk latte.
Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d Shake Original Size: 840 calories, 21 grams fat ( 4.5 saturated), 122 grams sugar, 15 milligrams cholesterol
Jamba Juice’s logo contains a lot of colorful fruit, but there’s little of it in this shake. Instead, it has frozen yogurt, chocolate moo’d base (what is that?), soy milk, bananas, and peanut butter. With 122 grams of sugar (very few of them from the banana), it’s the equivalent of drinking five Cokes (a can has about 40 grams of sugar). Even their less obviously bad Strawberries Wild has 83 grams of sugar.
A better bet: 16-ounce Bright Eyed and Blueberry shake; it has 220 calories, and 38 grams sugar
Orange Julius’ Strawberry Banana Shake (32-ounce): 600 calories, 14 grams fat (11 saturated), 87 grams sugar, 130 milligrams sodium
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