Welcome to part 2 of the “how to eat/drink healthier on the go” series. This week we will be talking about the most famous drive thru drink chains.

We all love the super sugary coffee and frappe drinks at our favorite coffee shops.

Unfortunately, those don’t always fit into the calories and macros though.

In this post, we will go over lower calorie/lower sugar drink options you can get at your favorite drive thru.

I want to preface by saying I am NOT a nutritionist nor do I claim these options to be “healthy”. They are simply options that I like that are lower in calories and sugar and can help contribute to your fitness goals.

As we know, sugar free syrups and sweeteners are under a big debate as to whether or not they cause cancer and a variety of other problems.

My opinion on it –

Pretty much EVERYTHING causes cancer and other problems these days so unless you’re going to be 100% organic/natural with every single product you use, eat and drink, there’s not a huge point in cutting our artificial sweeteners completely.

No one really knows the long term effects for sure, so it’s best to try to limit them, but real sugar can cause you many problems too.

I would say that it’s safe to have artificial sweeteners in moderation weekly. You probably shouldn’t have them every day but in all honesty, it is very hard to find protein bars, shakes, powders, snacks, etc. that don’t have any form of artificial sweetener in them which isn’t the best news for us.

Of course there are options out there, they just are not the most tasty most of the time or they contain added sugars instead (not natural).

When you can, always opt for natural sugars like that in fruit. When it comes to getting a flavored coffee or tea, that’s when the moderation aspect may come in!

Now, I can’t tell you how to live your life, if you want to have artificial sweetener everyday by all means you do you. I think I tend to have it most days either in a bar, shake, etc. but I’ve been trying to keep an eye on it and get more natural products and limit it in my coffee daily.

Below we will go over the top coffee chains and a few drink options you can get at each. Most will be listed in iced form just because..basic white girl here but you can get the majority of these in hot form as well.

Starbucks

1. Iced coffee or cold brew with almond milk, sugar free vanilla syrup and an added pack of sweetener of your choice if needed – 30 calories, 3g sugar
2. Iced blonde Vanilla Latte with almond milk, sugar free vanilla syrup as a substitute, and an added pack of sweetener of your choice if needed – 100 calories, 5g sugar
3. Vanilla iced shaken expresso with almond milk and sugar free vanilla syrup and an added pack of sweetener of your choice if needed – 60 calories, 3g sugar
4. Matcha tea latte with almond milk, only 1 scoop of matcha, sugar free vanilla syrup, and an added pack of sweetener of your choice if needed
5. Mango Dragonfruit Starbucks Refreshers Beverage – 90 calories, 19g sugar

My favorite Starbucks order right now (which isn’t calorie or sugar friendly but isn’t TERRIBLE): Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Expresso – runs 190 calories, 18g sugar, 5g fat for a Venti.

As I said, I am trying to cut back on artificial sweetener so I have to add in real sugar essentially. 18g isn’t that much to me, but for some may be a lot! I treat this coffee as my “treat” food most days.

Dunkin Donuts

1. Iced almond milk latte with 3 blueberry shots and an added pack of sweetener of your choice if needed – 120 calories, 10g sugar (my personal go to)
2. Iced coffee or cold brew with almond milk, any sugar free flavor shots available and an added pack of sweetener of your choice if needed – 30 calories *It is important when asking for the flavor you ask for the shot and not the syrup because some flavors come in both sugar free and sugary syrup options such as vanilla & hazelnut*.
3. Unsweetened iced tea with 3 blueberry shots – 20 calories, 2g sugar
4. Iced skim milk macchiato – 80 calories, 6g sugar
5. Toasted almond cold brew – 40 calories, 4g sugar

McDonald’s

1. Iced coffee with sugar free vanilla syrup and fat free milk – 140 calories, 2g sugar
2. Iced sugar free vanilla latte with fat free milk – 150 calories, 9g sugar

Panera Bread

1. Madagascar Vanilla Almond Cold Brew – 90 calories, 17g sugar
2. Hazelnut coffee with almond milk – 60 calories, 0g sugar

Conclusion

Gas stations like Wawa or 7Eleven also can have decent coffee options for low prices where you can customize your blend, flavor (including sugar free flavors) and milk option.

Again, reducing the calorie and sugar intake in your coffee or go to drink will require you to cut back on the sugary flavors you’re getting in them.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend looking at the nutritional info for the drink you’ve been ordering via the restaurant nutrition guide. You can access the ones I discussed above here:

Starbucks Nutrition Guide

Dunkin Donuts Nutrition Guide

McDonalds Nutrition Calculator

Panera Bread Nutrition Guide

Instead of getting sugar free syrup, you can always ask for 1 pump of whatever the flavor is you’re getting. Generally, you will get 2-6 pumps of syrup in a coffee depending on the size (that’s just how they come) but you can ask for less. It will reduce the flavor some, but you will also reduce the calories and sugar levels by doing so without having to get sugar free syrup.

You obviously can always get a black coffee too since that’s only 5-10 calories generally and no sugar…. but, that’s not fun.. and yuck.

Let’s be real, most of us get coffee out for the fun taste not the caffeine itself. If we wanted black coffee, we would just make it at home.

Until next time,

Coach Emily