Nothing's better than a cool, creamy drink on a scorching hot day, but do you know exactly what and how much you're eating? Some of your favourite drinks can really pack on the pounds.
The biggest culprit is a peanut butter and chocolate milkshake and it can be found at some Tim Hortons thanks to the company's partnership with Cold Stone Creamery. It packs a whopping 2,010 calories, 131 grams of fat – 68 of that saturated – and 880 milligrams of sodium in just one 24-ounce serving.
Some of the other drinks include:
Tim Hortons Iced Cappuccino
Original (Small, cream) 250 calories- 11g of fat, 45mg of cholesterol, 50g of sodium, 33g of sugar
Original (Small, milk) 150 calories- 1.5g of fat, 5mg of cholesterol, 35g of sodium, 32g of sugar
Original (medium, cream) 360 calories, 15g of fat, 60mg of cholesterol, 70g of sodium, 46g of sugar
Original (large, cream) 470 calories, 20g of fat, 80mg of cholesterol, 90g of sodium, 62g of sugar
The popular Tim Hortons Iced Cappuccino is probably the healthiest dessert beverage out of the five choices, especially if you choose milk over cream. However if you ditch the cream, you cut the calories and, more importantly, the fat content,to a reasonable amount. An Original Tim Hortons Iced Cappuccino (small, milk) contains 150 calories, 1.5g of fat and 32g of sugar. If you replace the milk with cream, you are entering major weight-gain territory – a small contains 250 calories, 11g of fat and 33g of sugar.
Dairy Queen
Who doesn't love ice cream with a choice of toppings? Dairy Queen offers their popular Blizzard shake with a variety of toppings like chocolate, caramel and candy – all delicious, but eating a large Blizzard could blitz your diet and a small size provides you with at least half your recommended daily calories.
The Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard - Large: 650g/23 ounces
With chewy baked brownie pieces, choco chunks, cocoa fudge and Dairy Queen vanilla soft serve: 1,430 calories; total fat: 68g of fat – 38g of that saturated and 0.5g trans fat; 880 milligrams of sodium
The Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard - small: 287g/10 ounces
With chewy baked brownie pieces, choco chunks, cocoa fudge and Dairy Queen vanilla soft serve: 650 calories; total fat: 29g – 16 of that saturated and 0.5g trans fat; 370mg of sodium
The culprit? All those delicious toppings.
They taste great but add hundreds of calories to your treat. If you skip the chewy baked brownie pieces and the choco chunks and just get the vanilla soft serve and cocoa fudge, the small Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard becomes 420 calories and 16 grams of fat.
McDonald's McFlurry
Smarties McFlurry (Large)- 690 calories, 24g of fat, 79g of sugar, 460mg of sodium
Oreo McFlurry (small)- 500 calories, 17g of fat, 58g of sugar, 330g of sodium
It may look tiny and innocent, but even the small Oreo McFlurry is fattening. But that's nothing compared to a large Smarties McFlurry -- you may as well
just be eating a tub of ice cream.
Starbucks Frappuccino
Cafe Vanilla Frappuccino Blended Beverage -- Grande (medium) - two per cent milk, no whipped cream - 290 calories, 2g of fat, 210mg of sodium,
65g of sugar
The Starbucks Frapp is a summer staple, but people should probably enjoy this beverage once a year, based on how fatty and sugary it is.
A Cafe Vanilla Frappuccino (Grande, two per cent milk, no whipped cream) contains 290 calories, 2g of fat and 65g of sugar. Not too bad (aside from the sugar count,) but considering that many people add whipped cream, that will get you 410 calories, 13g of fat and 67g of sugar.
That is way over the daily fat and sugar content you should be ingesting. The one perk to being a Starbucks customer is the franchise gives you the option to choose non-fat milk, two per cent milk, whole milk, soy milk and whether you want cream on it. But despite this, the sugar count is still high.
The lesson here: always choose milk over cream and skip the extra toppings. They are always the most caloric part of these dessert drinks because they're basically pure fat and no one wants to add to their waistline in the summer.
