Does Your Kid or Teen Have the Caffeine Bug?

Caffeine is not good for your child. Side effects include trouble sleeping, stomach aches, too much energy, and loss focus. While caffeine does not stunt growth, a prime reason I wasn't allowed to have caffeine as a child, it can bring with it some very empty calories and an empty pocket as well.

Your child on caffeine is bad for you! I see kids running around like a little Tasmanian devils, touching everything in reach and knocking it down , firing a million questions a minute in a voice that definitely doesn't belong inside all while pushing strangers and pulling hair. THIS is the kid you want to give coffee to?!

Saying “No” to any coffee shop drink for a child would be best. There are so many healthier still delicious things they could be doing with those calories and sugars. The CDC reported in 2011 that what we drink can effect our diets to an alarming degree. Your kid might not need to watch their weight now but please think beyond the present. You could be building bad food habits which will bite them in the future. Limiting empty sugar calories now can teach a child better habits for life.

If you do want to treat the kid: the variety of caffeine free drinks is nearly endless. Almost anything hot or cold can be made without any coffee. When you choose flavors remember decaf coffee and chocolate still have lower levels of caffeine in them. For a complete table of foods and drinks that may have caffeine please look here. For a list of shocking places you'd find caffeine check out this Sara Collins article. I had no idea oatmeal and beef jerky could have caffeine!

Your kid can have a steamed milk with thousands of different flavor combinations in it and a dollop of whipped cream on top. Lots of stores have apple juice that can be steamed to create a fun cinnamon or caramel themed apple drink.

Be wary, caffeine free drinks don't mean good for them. A coke the same size has less sugar andcalories than steamed milk with syrup. There is good news though! The milk in this drink still has all its nutrients including an excellent dose of calcium.

Older children present a whole different conundrum in the coffee shop. Teens want to be cool and drinking coffee is in vogue. I get that teens roam the stores without an adult often. You can discourage them from ordering coffee.

When you're out with your teen, don't offer to buy them a coffee. Or offer a coffee but limit how much sugar can go in. No one needs a latte with extra syrup and extra drizzle. Don't let a beginning coffee drinker make this a standard order! Encourage them to drink coffee with fewer additives. Suggest things that complement coffee's natural flavors like chocolate, cinnamon, or one of the nut flavors. Avoid making the coffee a candy bar with berry flavors, caramel, peppermint, coconut, or more than one syrup flavor.

Finally, you might point out the calories in the “treat”. Health Assist allows you to enter a weight and how many calories you want to work off and will literally tell you how long it will be to “run them off.” A lot of young ladies who think drinking a coffee will help them lose weight may be rudely awakened.

A coffee might seem like a weird place to take a stand, but it's not. Consider that your kid could be buying this regularly for the rest of his or her life. How often do you buy a coffee or drink while out? Once a month, once a week, more? Do you know how much money that is over the course of a natural human life span? Once a week at $2 each for 52 weeks is $104 in just one year. Lattes and frozen beverages, kids preferred coffee drinks run $4-$7 each, this more than doubles projected costs!

Does your teen realize how much money they are spending on coffee? A potentially eye opening exercise is to have your teen keep each coffee order receipt for a month. At the end of the month, add up all the money spent in the coffee shop. Ask your teen what else they could have bought with the money. Was being the cool kid who drinks coffee the best option?

If you must introduce kids to coffee, why not do it at home where you can control what goes in the coffee along with how much they have? Most kids aren't going to like straight coffee with a little milk and sugar. It might squelch any interest in getting a coffee from the shop when they know they don't like the home brew.

Thats' My Two Cents, I Want To Hear From You:

-Am I making too big a deal out of children drinking a coffee?

-What other suggestions would you offer to keep a kid from wanting coffee?

-Would you ever allow your child to drink a latte of some kind? Why or Why not?

-Is there a way for a barista to offer a coffee free alternative to a parent ordering a mocha for a kid without seeming rude or obnoxious?

-If you were in the coffee line and heard a parent buying a kid a coffee, would you speak up? Why or why not?

-Do you interpret the same order differently based on whether it's for a child, tween, teen, or adult?

-When are we old enough for caffeine?

6 Steps to Slim Down White Mocha Without Ruining the Experience

 A medium white mocha made to recipe is 470 calories hot, 450 calories iced, and 440 calories blended. For reference, there are 36 items on McDonald's menu you can enjoy for under 400 calories. These include a hamburger for 240 calories, cheeseburger for 290 calories, 6 piece chicken nuggets for 280 calories, or a medium fry for 340 calories.

Obviously, anyone is entitled to have a treat once in a while. If you're enjoying a white mocha less than once a week or if you are very physically active, then these calorie counts probably don't matter one whit.

If you're indulging in a white mocha a little too often, don't despair! I have 6 barista secrets that can help slim down your white mocha and still leave you feeling satisfied.

1. Hold the whip cream. I know, the little kid in some of us is crying at losing the whipped topping. Who didn't eat so much of this stuff they got sick at some point in childhood? Seriously though, super simple and saves 70 calories.
2. Use Nonfat aka Skim Milk instead of the standard 2%. I honestly can't taste the difference in most hot beverages between the skim milk and the 2%. For most people, this is the most palatable of changes, though it only cuts 50 calories.
3. Get a smaller size drink. The difference in which size you order can be as great as 120 calories or as little as 80 calories. Going from a medium to small on average saves 90 calories.
4. Put less pumps of the syrup in the drink. Finding out how much each pump of syrup costs you is a little tricky. Sure the most logical thought is to see what the calorie difference between each drink size. There is one additional pump per each cup size in the recipe, so the difference in calories between sizes should tell us how much calories are in one pump of syrup.

The problem is the proportion of coffee to milk is not uniform, which plays some havoc with learning how many calories are in a pump. Best guess is that each pump of white mocha averages 97 calories.

It's probably best to reduce the syrup levels of the drink just one less pump at a time. Since there is both milk and sugar in the white mocha syrup, reducing the amount of syrup too quickly is going to make a huge difference in the taste of your drink. If you reduce the syrup pumps over time, it gives you time to adjust and feel satisfied with less sugar.

Sugar is a tricky ingredient because it effects taste and also the brain. There are studies that show our bodies react to sugar in alarming ways. For example: our brains release dopamine, a chemical that makes us feel happy, in response to sugar which can lead to us craving it. Also, our bodies develop a tolerance for sugar, so we need more to get the same effects. While science seems very clear that sugar and fatty foods are not drugs, it can still trigger some alarming tendencies that make it best to reduce our consumption slowly.

5. Stir your drink. None of the drinks are stirred unless you ask for them stirred (and even then no guarantee anyone is actually stirring like you asked). This means a lot of the sweet taste in the drink is just collecting at the bottom of the cup. This is VERY true for thick syrups that include white mocha, regular mocha, pumpkin spice, and caramel brulee. You might be surprised how more balanced your drink tastes stirred. Stirring your drink does not reduce calories but a lot of people find that the drink is sweet enough when stirred they can more easily reduce the amount of syrup in the drink.
6. Don't make all these changes at once. The number one mistake people make on the way to a healthier life is to try to change too many things about their lifestyle too quickly. If you want to health up your white mocha pick one of the above suggestions (the one you hate the least) and follow it. Get used to the ordering your white mocha that way, and after as week or two pick a second suggestion and add it to the one you're doing. It could take you a few months to be comfortable with your drink optimized for both taste and health. This step doesn't reduce calories, but it might help you keeping your drink slim and satisfying in the long run.

Do you have a coffee monkey on your back but it's not a white mocha? Don't fret! All fancy coffee drink calories can be reduced following these 6 steps! If you drink vanilla, caramel, hazelnut, cinnamon dolce, peppermint, or mocha you may be able to reduce calories further by asking for sugar free syrup. Just be aware that the sugar free syrups have sucralose in them currently has a 'caution' rating on it due to some studies where rats developed leukemia while consuming it. Also, the artificial sweetener taste is different and tends to leave a terrible after taste. I don't personally recommend sugar free syrup, but if you like diet soda then you may also like sugar free coffee drinks.

Above all else: enjoy your coffee! If it wasn't fancy and fun, you could just be drinking coffee at home.