By snoadmin
For those who aren’t content with 20 ounces of caffeinated beverage, Starbucks plans to roll out a new, 31-ounce “trenta” size in California beginning Feb. 3. The move isn’t surprising — considering the state of American restaurant portions today — but it does provide a reminder that being a food consumer in today’s world is literally a life-and-death battle.
A Starbucks venti peppermint-white chocolate mocha packs 630 calories and 97 grams of carbs; that’s 90 more calories and almost double the carbs of a Big Mac. Pair it with a raspberry scone and you’ve got 1,130 calories under your belt by 9 a.m.: More than half a day’s worth, not to mention enough sugar to drive your organs into panic mode.
Consider a normal-sized ceramic, home coffee mug. It may run around eight ounces and typically holds drip-brewed coffee. A Starbucks cup may be three times that size and hold ingredients such as potassium sorbate, palm kernel oil, xanthan gum, maltodextrin and erythritol. Yum.
The point is not to pick on Starbucks, but to show how the cultural food climate has warped to the point where it’s almost impossible to actually eat, you know, food. What’s labeled one thing may include more than meets the eye. The “trenta” rollout comes on the heels of a fast-food horror story that’s likely the first of many: Taco Bell’s “taco meat,” is apparently only 37 percent beef. The rest is fillers and chemicals complex enough to give spelling bee champions a run for their money.
As consumers, we must be increasingly literate in food labeling: grass-fed, organic, all-natural, preservative-free, trans-fat free, fair trade: The list goes on, and it’s unlikely things will get any simpler in the future.
The consequences are clear. With skyrocketing rates of obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes, children born today are expected to make up the first generation whose life expectancy is shorter than their parents’. Everything from mega-corporate food lobbyists to video games to a drop in funds for PE classes contributes to this problem. We can’t fix everything, but as consumers, we have the power to influence the market.
First, we should begin aligning our ideas of restaurant portion sizes with those that we would eat at home and demand real, simple foods. As a general rule, foods that look closer to how they did when they came from the earth are more desirable; For example, a chicken leg rather than a chicken “nugget” stamped into that little boot shape. Cooking food at home can be cheaper — and is most definitely healthier — than grabbing fast food. Although it may take a little time, consider it an investment in health. Similarly, we must take the blinders off and ask for transparency in nutrition information and labeling.
And just so you know, Starbucks does offer an eight-ounce “short” size — at least for now.
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