A medium lite latte from Dunkin Donuts is more points than the larger venti skinny latte from Starbucks. Since it's much more convenient to drive through Dunkin's than to go out to the Starbucks before work, this just didn't seem right to me. So I had to do some research to find out why.
It turns out that a lite latte is made with 2% milk, while the skinny latte is with nonfat. This still didn't make sense to me. Milk is milk, right?
Wrong. Whole milk (the stuff I always bought in the past) is about 3.5% fat. You can save yourself some of those fat calories by drinking lowfat milks, which are either 2% or 1% fat. But the nonfat milk (or skim milk) is the best choice with less than 0.5% fat.
At this point, I began to wonder why even bother with milk. I know you're supposed to drink it because of the calcuim (that's what I told my kids, anyway). But I really don't like it, except in lattes and ice cream.
It turns out that the calcium in milk is good for a lot of things. Studies have shown that it reduces the risk for both breast cancer and colon cancer. It helps keep high blood pressure under control. And it can reduce the symptoms of PMS by as much as 50%, according to the American Journal of Gynocology. In order to have all these benefits, people should get an average of 1,000 milligrams of calcuim a day (1,2000 milligrams for those over 50 years old). That's two servings of milk (or other dairy items) every day.
And a 12 oz latte counts as a serving. So does a 16 oz. cappachino. Other servings include:
1 c. low fat or nonfat yogurt
1 c. milk (preferably nonfat)
2 c. cottage cheese
1 1/2 oz cheese (drats! my 2 tbsp. of cream cheese on the bagel isn't enough)
1 c. fat free pudding (if it's actually been made with milk. So the pudding packs don't count.)
Basically, this means that I'm not getting enough milk.
And I need to stick with Starbucks.
It's getting closer!
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