I rather enjoyed this article the New York Times wrote on Starbucks, it makes you think!
“My regular coffee order at Starbucks sounds ridiculous. “I’ll have a grande, no-fat, sugar-free Cinnamon Dolce Latte, no whip. Please.’’ Once, a customer behind me chirped, “Would you like coffee with that?”
Now Starbucks is making it easier on patrons like myself who like to order a little coffee with their adjectives. Coffee drinks made with nonfat milk and sugar-free syrups are now called “skinny.’’ So I can order a “skinny” Cinnamon Dolce and get the same no-fat, sugar-free, no-whip drink without so much effort. There are also “skinny” mochas, “skinny” caramel lattes and “skinny” hazelnut lattes.
But in giving my coffee order a new, easier-to-pronounce name, Starbucks has also given me food for thought. If I can’t pronounce it easily, should I really be drinking it?
I may not have come to this conclusion had I not been reading Michael Pollan’s excellent new book, “In Defense of Food.” I learned that my coffee order breaks at least three of his rules.
- Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
- Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, or c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
- Avoid food products that make health claims.
I’m not the only one fretting about the meaning of the skinny moniker. Last week, the Gothamist blog reported on a Starbucks barista who complained that the “skinny” terminology will exacerbate self-image issues of the overweight. (The Gothamist asks whether “no-fat” milk and “heavy” cream are insensitive as well.) Starbucks Gossip carries the full letter.
And while I save 200 calories by ordering the “skinny” rather than the regular Cinnamon Dolce Latte (which packs 330 calories), I’m still consuming an extra 130 calories daily in my so-called skinny drink. If I order it seven days a week for a year, that translates into a not-so-skinny 13.5 pounds worth of calories.
So thanks to Starbucks, the wisdom of Michael Pollan and the umbrage of an unnamed barista, I’ve decided to kick the flavored-coffee habit altogether. Now I’m just going to order coffee, although I’m not sure what to call it.”
via nytimes.com
Our friends over at the Food and Drug Administration stated that they believe food from cloned livestock is just as good as getting food “the old fashioned way.” Personally I don’t exactly see what the big deal here is, whether it is cloned or not, it is still meat. However many people are skeptical about how healthy cloned livestock is.
