For those of you born before or during the 80's then you would remember the song by Fleetwood Mac, "Little Lies". It's definitely one of my favorites and it always pops into my head when I hear or see most of the marketing that the big companies promote when it comes to nutrition.
For example, a few days ago I went to Starbucks to get a little afternoon coffee (4:30am workouts start to catch up with you), and because I'm a huge, tall, freak of nature and look down at most others I couldn't help but notice that the woman in front of me was on her phone and had Googled "healthy drinks at Starbucks". I didn't notice what the search results came up with and which link she clicked on, but I could only assume that it was a Starbucks sponsored link, or someone that is affiliated with Starbucks.
I could barely contain myself as she approached the head of the line and placed her order. I thought maybe she would see above all the marketing bullshit and know that pretty much anything on the menu at Starbucks is unhealthy.
Cue the lyrics "tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies"!
She placed an order for a large Skinny Caramel Machiotto.
"ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME" I thought to myself! Just because it has "skinny" in the title doesn't mean shit! This is the marketing ploy of Starbucks to get more people to order something, thinking it's healthy, when it's really terrible. Yes, this drink only has 140 calories, but how many times have I told you that the number of calories don't matter; it's the types of calories. In addition to the 140 calories, this drink has over 20 grams of sugar and only 1 gram of fat. I know most of you are thinking, "oooh, only 1 gram of fat, that's got to be good right?" NO! The fat is probably the only healthy thing in this entire drink. Those 22 grams of sugar inevitably caused a MASSIVE insulin spike in this woman's body, gave her a giant burst of energy, and then caused her to crash an hour later.
When a large amount of sugar enters your blood stream and the insulin released can't restore balance, it will tell your body to store it as fat. It will also tell your body to stop using its already stored fat for energy, since it's now overloaded.
Is this making any sense at all or am I getting the same look from you as I get from our dog when I ask her to do something?
Even if there were 0 calories in that drink, with that amount of sugar, your body will still receive signals to create and continue to store fat.
Now back to Fleetwood Mac and Little Lies. If you take anything away from this article, please learn that you need to look at the source of your information and what the ultimate goal of the message. Starbucks and it's affiliates goal is obviously to make as much profit as possible, hence anything you read from their site will make their product look like it was sent from heaven. Another example is the documentary "What the Health" that I recently posted about. This documentary was put out by a vegan extremist who happens to be a big supporter of PETA, so of course they're going to produce a film that is against any kind of meat consumption.
As you can see, I obviously have my own opinions, but I am not giving you information in hopes that I will make millions from you. I'm giving you information that I have learned from reputable resources in hopes you will become a healthier person. Then maybe I'll ask for a high five!
So even if you don't listen to me, all I ask is that you do your research, look at the sources of information, and make an educated judgement based on what you learn!
And for those of you that are curious what I ordered; anytime I'm at Starbucks, I order a regular coffee with a splash of heavy cream for those healthy fats!