- The Starbucks fall menu contains many seasonal favorites and new treats for 2023.
The Pumpkin Spice Latte has become a regular staple in Starbucks’ fall drinks menu, but with 390 calories, 14g of fat, and nearly 50g of sugar in a grande cup, it’s not something you should be consuming regularly.
“What immediately stands out is the volume of sugar in this drink,” says Natalie Louise Burrows, a registered nutritional therapist. “A small portion of this will be natural sugar from the milk (lactose) and the rest from the added sugar likely from the pumpkin flavor sauce and potentially from the whipped cream too.”
To make this drink healthier, Burrows advises cutting out the whipped cream, which adds to both the saturated fat and sugar content.
“Another option is to reduce the amount of pumpkin spiced sauce added to the drink. Start by asking for half and then see if you can enjoy it with even less,” she suggests.
- Some of the seasonal drinks contain high amounts of calories, fat, and sugar.
- Nutritionists say there are several simple substitutions you can request to make them healthier.
With the arrival of Starbucks’ fall drinks menu, ‘tis the season to indulge in your favorite seasonal brew.
But with many of these drinks containing whopping amounts of calories, fat, and sugar, you might want to consider the nutritional content before taking a sip.
Here, we ask two nutritionists how eight of Starbucks’ fall drinks rack up, and what you can do to make them healthier.
The Pumpkin Spice Latte has become a regular staple in Starbucks’ fall drinks menu, but with 390 calories, 14g of fat, and nearly 50g of sugar in a grande cup, it’s not something you should be consuming regularly.
“What immediately stands out is the volume of sugar in this drink,” says Natalie Louise Burrows, a registered nutritional therapist. “A small portion of this will be natural sugar from the milk (lactose) and the rest from the added sugar likely from the pumpkin flavor sauce and potentially from the whipped cream too.”
To make this drink healthier, Burrows advises cutting out the whipped cream, which adds to both the saturated fat and sugar content.
“Another option is to reduce the amount of pumpkin spiced sauce added to the drink. Start by
With 420 calories, 15g of fat, 70g of carbohydrates, and 60g of sugar, the Apple Crisp Frappuccino is far from healthy.
Burrows says the amount of carbohydrates alone is equivalent to the amount you’d find in a decent meal. The sugar content is also a big concern.
“Personally, this drink would be on my ‘not recommended’ list. With double the amount of free sugars than the upper daily limit, and the impact this sugar will have on blood sugars and inflammation, I class this as confectionary, not a drink,” she says.
If you are ordering this drink, Burrows says one way to make it slightly healthier would be to swap the oat milk for whole milk.
“This would provide more fats and protein to slow the sugar spike down,” she explains.
“Removing oat milk will also reduce the overall sugar content as oats are broken down into sugar,” she adds.
If a seasonal drink is a must for you, then a Cold Brew may be a slightly healthier choice. A grande Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew has 250 calories, 12g of fat, and 31g of sugar, noticeably less than some of the other fall drink choices.
“A cold brew tends to have a lot less ingredients and you can tell by how different the nutritional value is,” Burrows points out.
One of the biggest concerns with this drink is its saturated fat content. “The saturated fat content will likely be from the Pumpkin Spice Cream Foam which could easily be omitted to reduce this,” Burrows explains.
If you want to go one further, you could also ask for one pump of vanilla syrup instead of two
Hot Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato
Like most of the drinks on the fall menu, the Hot Apple Oatmilk Macchiato is high in calories (320), sugar (29g), and fat (10g). It’s also very high in caffeine with 170mg of caffeine in a 16 fl oz grande.
“Just two of these drinks and you would have almost had your caffeine limit for the day,” Burrows points out. Add to that, with 29g of sugar, you could be setting yourself up for a massive energy spike, followed by a massive crash.
Most of the sugar will come from Apple Brown Sugar Syrup and the Spiced Apple Drizzle so Burrows recommends reducing these by half.
“There will be a portion of sugar coming from the oat milk too, so swapping to a whole milk could help to reduce the overall sugar intake,” she adds.
If you’re sensitive to caffeine, you might want to consider asking for decaf as well.
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