The Trouble with Joe

Although there is no such category as “national beverage,” coffee would likely win the title hands down. A staggering 400 billion cups of coffee are consumed each year worldwide, with Americans downing about 130 billion of them. We are so enamored of coffee that the U.S. imports more than 100 different varieties. In the global marketplace, the only commodity more popular than coffee is petroleum.

Plenty of people rely on coffee to get through the day. That may not be such a great idea for several reasons. First, unless you’re drinking organically grown coffee, be aware that coffee plants may be treated with as many as a dozen different petrochemical pesticides, including DDT and other products that have been banned in the U.S. or other countries. Of those that have not been banned, several are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “probable” or “possible” human carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).

Another problem: Here we are up to our spare tires in an obesity crisis and there seems to be a Starbucks or other designer coffee outlet every 500 feet. And now you’ve got the above-mentioned pesticides, plus, if you don’t order judiciously, horrendous amounts of fat and sugar conveniently packed up in a go cup. Don’t take my word for it. Check out this handy website, where you’ll see that a 16 ounce Grande Latte with whole milk contains 260 calories, 14 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 55 mg of cholesterol, 200 mg of sodium and 19 grams of sugar. Order the same drink with non-fat milk and you shave off 100 calories and the cholesterol drops to 10 mg. But now you’re getting more sodium (220 grams) and more sugar (20 grams).

Of course, you could do worse. There’s something called a Grande Latte with Breve milk. I have to confess my ignorance here; I do not have a clue what Breve milk is. But you might want to have a medical team standing by if you drink one of these bad boys. The same 16 ounce cup supplies a mind-boggling 550 calories, 47 grams of fat, 29 grams of saturated fat, 150 mg of cholesterol and 170 mg of sodium. On the plus side, there’s no sugar in this particular heart-attack in a cup, but that’s hardly a reason to order it. In fact, I can’t think of any reason to order it. A cup of coffee should not contain 550 calories (roughly the same amount as Burger King’s Bacon Double Cheeseburger, which actually has less fat and cholesterol than the latte).

Seriously, people, if you’re hitting the coffee bars on a daily basis and wondering why your pants don’t fit, let me make a suggestion. Maybe it’s time to switch to tea. There is a growing list of health benefits associated with teas of all kinds, including weight loss. (More on tea tomorrow.) Plus, you’ll still get the caffeine rush, although maybe not as big a one. Still, you get to feel virtuous about doing something good for yourself – and the planet.