Calorie Stealth

Calories, calories, calories. That is all this girl talks about… well, mostly true. I also talk about making sure that you are as physically active as possible (that means sit less) and that you try to exercise every day. And a few other things, like not smoking or tanning… and, well by now, you can fill in the rest yourselves.

So YES, calories.  First, restaurant (and similar venue) menu labeling is coming and I have noticed an increasing number of commercials that include a calorie count within the TV (or internet) ad.  Here is the most recent:

Second, I want to pass along a ‘be on the lookout’ note:

Little Bites and mini donuts are not low calorie options, but calling something little bites sure makes you think so. Right? Actually, a serving of Little Bites muffins has 180 calories, a regular muffin 190 and a 'mini' cake 260.  All of these are made by Entenmann’s. TastyKake sells mini-donuts with over 200 cals per serving. Take home message: read the calorie AND serving size information regardless of the words, light, little, diet, mini, good for you, all natural, organic...etc.

And back to the lemonade: 240 calories for a beverage is a bit much… more than half those calories are from sugar - 39 grams or about 10 teaspoons. The rest is from protein and fat, which comes from the milk. Below is the ingredients list from ChickfilA. The ingredients in the “Icedream” read like a chemistry book.

Frosted Lemonade: Icedream (whole milk, sugar, nonfat dry milk, artificial flavor, corn starch, mono & diglycerides, microcrystalline cellulose, carrageenan, guar gum, Yellow 5 & 6), water, freshly-squeezed lemon juice, sugar.

Diet Frosted Lemonade: Icedream (whole milk, sugar, nonfat dry milk, artificial flavor, corn starch, mono & diglycerides, microcrystalline cellulose, carrageenan, guar gum, Yellow 5 & 6), water, freshly-squeezed lemon juice, Splenda® (dextrose, maltodextrin, sucralose).

SO – the picture above, with the 240 calories, that is the diet one…. the regular lemonade has 330 calories and 63g of sugar (16 teaspoons). Sigh…and by sigh, I mean that's crazy! (PS I didn't see the fine print in the picture at first, “starting at…. 240 cals.”)