Healthily Navigate Coffee and Doughnut Shops

Don't let these morning fixtures destroy your health goals.

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Sugar High

What would the world be like without Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts? Well, somewhat thinner, perhaps.

These chains, which specialize in sweet coffee and tea drinks to wash down their hard-to-resist pastries, have become a staple in American cities and suburbs, with 4,500 Starbucks and 4,000 Dunkin' Donuts alone. That's not counting all the smaller chains and mom-and-pop coffee shops. Yet beyond the caffeine and wireless hot spots, they're a major, albeit often hidden, source of fat and calories.

As Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and coauthor of the book Restaurant Confidential, notes, a Starbucks venti-size White Chocolate Mocha made with whole milk and whipped cream has more calories and saturated fat than a McDonald's Quarter Pounder With Cheese. Yowza!

1. Order a glazed yeast doughnut. We know most people want a doughnut when they walk into a doughnut shop. So have one. But make it a glazed yeast doughnut, that is, plain except for a sugar coating if you're at Dunkin' Donuts (180 calories and 8 grams fat) or a traditional cake doughnut at Krispy Kreme (200 calories and 11 grams fat). In comparison, that Vanilla Kreme Filled at Dunkin' Donuts has 270 calories and 13 grams fat.

2. Classify doughnuts as treats, not breakfast. A doughnut or other pastry as an occasional treat is fine, but as a breakfast it's disastrous. Not only will the simple carbohydrates and high sugar load leave you drooping and hungry an hour later, but you get little to no nutritional benefit for the fat and calories you're ingesting. If you must eat on the run at your friendly coffee shop, order a whole wheat bagel.

3. Classify specialty coffee drinks as dessert, not coffee. Fancy-flavored, whipped-cream, hard-to-pronounce coffee drinks can be worse for you than a big slice of cake. For example, a medium Java Chip Frappuccino with whipped cream at Starbucks has 510 calories, 22 grams fat, and 59 grams sugar. Of the 27 types of cakes Starbucks lists on its Web site, 21 have fewer calories per serving than the drink! If you must have a fancy coffee drink, treat it like a banana split or a big slice of cake -- a rare indulgence, to be had by itself and not as a mere beverage.

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