9 Reasons to Avoid Starbucks’ Fake Pumpkin Latte
Starbucks Pumpkin lattes have been selling like hotcakes. In fact, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz recently said that pumpkin lattes ‘still rank as its most popular seasonal beverage.” Starbucks’ Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead confided, “We are continually, frankly, even amazed internally at its ability to keep driving its proposition, comping over itself every year.”
In fact, Starbucks has sold more than 200 million pumpkin lattes to date. But are the lattes made with high quality ingredients? Are they even remotely healthy? Unfortunately, you need to be a food detective to figure out the answer to those questions. The coffee kingpin refuses to post its drinks’ ingredients list online; they only post their food ingredients.
Let’s take a moment to look under the hood and examine the actual ingredients that go into Starbuck’s bestselling, cult favorite, Pumpkin Spice Latte.
From the Starbucks website: “Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is back– with all the amazing ingredients that make it a beloved fall favorite.”
Deconstructing the “Amazing Ingredients” in Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte
1. Their coffee (expresso brewed coffee and water) is not organic.
Regular consumption of conventional coffee can significantly increase ones toxic load via pesticides. According to the CS Monitor, conventional farmers apply up to 250 pounds of chemical fertilizers per acre! Pesticides have been linked to a slew of health problems, including prostate and other types of cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and miscarriages in pregnant women.
Back in 2013, Starbucks was busted for using ‘toilet water’ to brew coffee in Hong Kong, yet Starbucks assures us that they really do use a triple filtration system for all of their water.
2. Use of Caramel Color Level IV
A double dose of ammonia based Caramel Color Level IV, the most harmful type of color additive, is used in the ‘beloved’ Pumpkin Spice latte. In vivo studies indicate that this color additive increases cancer risk in mice.
The toxicologist Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D states, “There is no ‘safe’ level of 4-MeI, [the toxic by-product of Caramel Color IV] but if you have set a threshold, it should be well below the Prop 65 level (29 micrograms/day) – and more like 3 micrograms/day.”
What’s more, it’s almost impossible to determine a ‘safe’ dose since caramel color is commonly found in many processed foods.
3. No Real Pumpkin. Zilch.
There are no real pumpkins used in this recipe. That’s it.
4. Starbucks Uses GMO-Milk from Factory Farmed Cows
Starbucks milk is from cows raised in factory farms, also known as CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). These poor cows are fed massive amounts of antibiotics throughout their lives while also being injected with growth hormones. The cows are also fed genetically modified feed such as corn, soy, alfalfa, and cottonseed, which is leading consumers to push Starbucks to stop sourcing their milk from cows fed GMO feeds. The effort also demands the coffee giant use a third-party verifier to confirm their milk comes from GMO-free cows. In fact, Starbucks is a major supporter of Big Dairy.
The non-dairy, soy milk option isn’t great either. It’s laced with carrageenan, a popular stabilizer that poses a cancer risk and can cause inflammation of the intestines. Over 100 scientific studies confirm the dangers of soy even if it’s organic. Only small amounts of non-GMO, fermented soy are healthy.
5. Sugar Galore
For example, the ‘grande’ latte has a whopping 50 grams of sugar. Sugar is quickly becoming a known health destroyer and cancer-fueling substance.
6. Natural flavors
The term ‘natural flavors’ is vague and misleading. It can mean quite a few things.
The FDA defines “natural flavors” or “natural flavoring” as any substance that is extracted, distilled or otherwise derived [directly or indirectly] from plant or animal matter. So basically anything goes!
“Natural” can also mean they used a secretion from a Beaver’s anal gland to create a flavor…!
7. Artificial flavors
Artificial flavors are yet another dubious ‘skies-the-limit’ term that can include substances made from petroleum, rocks, or just about anything that a food chemist can whip up in a lab.
8. Preservatives and Sulfites
These can cause allergies and worse. Preservatives have been linked to cancer and hyperactivity in children. Sulfites can cause sensitive individuals serious respiratory distress.
9. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Also, the pumpkin syrup that Starbucks uses to create their Pumpkin spice latte contains high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
Note: Regarding any controversy over HFCS in the pumpkin syrup, a Starbuck’s representative told the Food Babe that “all of the syrups sold in their online store are the same ones that are used in the restaurant, and that specifically the Pumpkin Sauce is the same.”
Bottom line: If you must have a Pumpkin Spice Latte, consider making your own healthy homemade version.
Four solid reasons to avoid Starbucks
Undoubtedly, Starbucks is a coffee Kingpin, which boasts the largest coffeehouse chain in the world, with 23,187 stores in 64 countries, and annual sales of $14.9 billion, while CEO Howard Schultz is worth a
whooping $1.6 billion.
Although statistically impressive at first glance, an important question remains: are Starbucks food and beverage offerings high quality and healthy?
The food isn’t so bad, as the ingredients lists are there. Not the highest quality “healthy” but definitely better than a lot of crap that you can get elsewhere.
I am not going to defend Starbucks for the ingredients they use in their products, but I think this article is hypocritical. Why did Paul Fassa choose to write this article about Starbucks when many of these exact same claims can be made about almost every item sold at a restaurant or item in the grocery store. I don’t think Fassa can write a credible article while ignoring other food items sold to the modern consumer.
Well Guest 1 – Starbucks is very big internationally and their Pumpkin Spice Latte is very seasonal for October. It’s impossible to cite other products in one 600 word article, but I’m working on a book that will. Others have focused on this as well if you peak at the sources embedded in the text. BTW – why is this such a big deal to you that you would bother commenting?
You can make pumpkin spice or buy it in grocery stores and it doesn’t contain pumpkin either. It’s not supposed to. It’s the spices that make pumpkin pie taste like pumpkin pie. So you can take away #3.
I agree Bevi about the pumpkin spices — If I were to make this latte at home, I would use primarily organic spices. However, Starbucks does not merely make their drink with a pumpkin spice mixture, instead they use a “pumpkin sauce,” which is an artifically flavored syrup concoction minus any real pumpkin anything and HFCS. Here’s what’s in the sauce: SUGAR, CONDENSED NONFAT MILK, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, ANNATO (FOR
COLOR), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, CARAMEL COLOR, SALT, POTASSIUM
SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE).
The pumpkin analogy is flawed IMO. Although, the spices make PUMPKIN pie taste like pumpkin pie; there is pumpkin in the pie. CHEERS!
Why do they even bother adding preservatives to stuff like this? It’s barely even food, also usually in a very tightly sealed container.
Can I ask you, Paul, why you can’t bother to check your spelling before writing articles? It’s espresso, not “expresso,” and it’s caramel, not “carmel.”
Caramel, carmel whatever! Who cares.
I just read how much sugar is in my fave Starbuck’s beverage: the white chocolate mocha latte. Wow! I don’t really like to consume stuff w/artificial flavors. I sometimes trick myself into being OK with it if I don’t actaully know & can’t read. Hey I try, but I’m not perfect. But Startbuck’s coffee is pretty expensive so it’s such a rare treat.
I did come up with a way to make my own flavored coffee at home using organic coffee. I’ve only managed to do cinnamon so far. But if you add cinnamon to the coffee maker w/your coffee, brew it like you normally would & voila, natural cinnamon coffee.