Comments on: Starbucks Aims Healthier

By: mccn

mccn — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:56:15 +0000

Mo, I don’t think your attitude is at all oppressive. And I am firmly in the camp of those who believe that different options are good – whether that means adding more fiber and freshness to a heavily greasy or sugared menu – or even the other way around! I like having healthy options when I go places, more fresh fruit, and, as a T1, less refined sugar or grease – and as an unabashed Starbucks patron, I’m happy to hear of the revisions.

However, I’m also with KarenElhyam above – I know that this is not what you intended (or I don’t believe it is, feel free to correct), but the one thing about the post I did balk at a bit was some perceived confusion between healthy and calories. I don’t believe the two have much, if anything, to do with one another. It can be hard to talk about healthier options without mixing it up with our cultural associations that healthy = less calories and nothing else. But I wanted to point it out and see if that was what you intended to convey or not.

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:14:30 +0000

Wow. Starbucks is a big deal to a lot of people isn’t it? I find that kind of strange myself. In Australia, starbucks has just made a quite different announcement: They’re scaleing back there operation to just two stores nation wide. One in Sydney and one in Melbourne. That’s right, Starbucks LOST something.

I brought a coffee there once. Worst Latte I’ve ever had. Never went back.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:34:07 +0000

Is Starbucks still going to call out that it’s a “skinny” order, to make customers feel good about themselves for living up to the arbitrary ideal image?

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:33:22 +0000

I think the fruit and walnut salad at McDonald’s is good, myself. It’s fruit, yogurt and candied walnuts. They don’t give you a huge amount of nuts.

By: KarenElhyam

KarenElhyam — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:32:59 +0000

Less calories doesn’t equal healthier.

Goodness, the sooner that idea dies, the happier I’ll be. It’s ridiculously, mind bogglingly stupid. Calories are NECESSARY to LIVE. If something has a lot of fiber and a lot of nutrients, is that cancelled by the amount of calories it has? Of course not.

This culture’s fear of calories makes as much sense as our fear of fat.

By: Bree

Bree — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:06:00 +0000

Starbucks isn’t the only coffee chain getting in on the action. Dunkin’ Donuts also has a new healthy menu, consisting of egg white flatbread sandwiches and multi-grain bagels. They’ve also been pushing their lite lattes and getting iced coffee and hot coffee with Splenda and skim milk.

The closest Starbucks to me is almost a half-hour away, so I don’t frequent them as much as Dunkin’ Donuts, which is less than a mile from my house, and cheaper too. But I’m really not a fan of overpriced breakfast items. Just give me a piece of fruit, a granola bar, and water or juice, and I’m happy.

I’m not begrudging Starbucks’ decision. They know the demand is there for healthier quick-fix snacks, and there’s money to be made there. Those that can afford it will buy it. Personally, lower-fat, lower-calorie breakfast items taste better than a lot of other healthier food out there.

By: msmeta

msmeta — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:26:40 +0000

There are SO FEW healthy options for a quick, fast-food breakfast out there that I may “swallow” (HA!) my distaste over Starbucks’ high prices and burned coffee and actually give it another try. Thanks for the post.

By: maggie

maggie — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:23:18 +0000

i work at starbucks right now, too. i’ve been eating the oatmeal prepared as follows:

*half the recommended amount of water
*tiniest of splashes of steamed milk (whatever happens to be hot and left over)
*the nuts
*one pump of cinnamon dolce syrup

yum.

but uh. the rest of the stuff… meh. not so great, although the caramel toffee almond bar is awesome when i’m pms’ing.

and none of us have been able to stop laughing about the “justin’s nut butter” that goes with the multigrain roll, which is surprisingly yummy considering it was frozen and then thawed. i especially can’t help but giggle at justin’s nut butter because my husband’s name is justin. ha. he sold his nut butter to the ‘bux.

/pointless

By: Just Me

Just Me — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:14:36 +0000

I am a huge fan of the Vivanno…..orange, mango, banana. MMM. Fiber and protein….healthy.

By: Living400Lbs

Living400Lbs — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:19:53 +0000

Shinobi, hee :)

At the same time, a lot of what influences price is things like shelf stability, handling ease, bulk pricing, and supply/demand. Fresh fruit at a deli is usually expensive because it requires special handling to keep from bruising and will go bad if not sold quickly. Hostess is darn near indestructible, so it won’t go bad no matter how long it takes to sell….