Who'da Thunk It?

Since I'm not dieting anymore, I try not to focus obsessively on calories, like I used to. But I do still check labels since I do believe that if you like two foods equally and one is either healthier or has fewer calories, there's no reason not to go with it.

Now, I enjoy my coffee and my typical is a plain brew with a bit of half and half and sugar from my local bagel place. But now and then, a girl needs something a bit more exciting. Well, the other day, I was at my local Starbucks and looked up at the menu board. Since California has passed a law requiring restaurants to disclose the calorie counts of their foods, I happened to note that my drink of choice when I'm in the mood for one of those froofy coffee beverages, a grande white chocolate mocha, had just under 500 calories. About what I expected.

But here was the surprise, the same size caramel macchiato had about half the calories! Who knew? I would have guessed they were the same. I asked the barista why there was such a big difference and she said that the syrup used for the white chocolate mocha was much richer than the vanilla syrup used in the caramel macchiato, and the grande uses 8 (!) pumps of it. Add the whipped cream, which is flavored with the same vanilla syrup used in the drinks, and you've racked up quite the calorie count. The macchiato, on the other hand, uses less of the of the more simple vanilla syrup, has no whipped cream and only a bit of caramel sauce on top. Very interesting. Now, I'm not going to give up my white mochas. But I'll probably downsize to a tall rather than a grande and have them only once in a while. I enjoy caramel macchiatos just as much, so there's no reason not to have a new regular.

I should say, however, that I do take these calorie counts with a grain of salt. During the same trip, I also couldn't help noticing that a petite vanilla scone was listed as having 140 calories. Now, the petite vanilla scone was one of my favorite little sinful treats in my dieting days and as a calorie counter, I had checked out the Starbuck's website, where it had been listed as having only 90 calories. (I can't tell you my blood type, but the calories of pastries, *that* I know!! LOL). Odd that those little scones are no bigger than they used to be, but somehow now magically have 50 more calories? Did it ever really have only 90 calories? WTF? Really, you just can't take any of that information as gospel. At best, I think it's a rough approximation of the actual calories. All the more reason to rely on your body's signals to tell you what you need and how much, rather than some external factor, that's probably not even accurate anyway. Lesson learned.