Here’s a dirty secret they do not want you to know about:
Without any doubt, Starbucks is the number one brand when it comes to coffee shops. This company has more than 23.000 stores in 64 countries on almost every continent. They have annual sales of more than $15 billion and these sales are constantly growing. On top of that, their CEO – Howard Schultz net worth is $1.5 billion and still increasing.
These numbers are fantastic, but have you ever wondered how healthy the food and beverages found in Starbucks are?
If we analyze their offer, we must say that their menu is not the healthiest out there.
1. The quality of their coffee
In order to get higher yields, individuals and companies that grow coffee beans use pesticides on a regular basis. What is even more interesting is that less than 1.5% of the coffee offered in Starbucks is organic. Does this statistic apply to their decaf coffee? This is probably a healthy alternative? The truth is that this decaf coffee is made from typical coffee beans which as we said before are treated with pesticides, but that’s not all.
Only a small number of decaf coffee fans are aware of the fact that most of the decaf coffee is made in a procedure that involves soaking coffee beans in a solution made of methylene chloride. This is a substance that has the potential to trigger the development of cancer. In addition, the process involves ethyl acetate too and this substance has been linked to liver and kidney problems and damages in the central nervous system.
On the other hand, the OTA (Organic Trade Association) says that organic coffee is decaffeinated using a method that doesn’t breach organic standards. There are only two methods recognized as safe in this process – a non-toxic CO2 process and the so-called Swiss Water process.
About eight years ago, Consumer Report has published a report that included a comparison between coffees offered from different popular fast-food chains, and Starbucks was listed lower than McDonald’s. This report claimed that Starbucks coffee is quite strong, but it is also very bitter and burnt.
2. Regular milk
Milk found in Starbucks is produced from cows kept in factories. These cows receive antibiotics injections on a regular basis and consume unhealthy foods including GMO food like alfalfa, soy, corn, and even cottonseed. Starbucks is openly cooperating with the so-called Big Dairy.
The OCA (Organic Consumers Association) claims that Starbucks used more than 90 million gallons of milk in 2011 which is enough to fill more than 150 swimming pools with Olympic sizes. Four years after this claim, Starbucks is definitely using more milk.
The OCA managed to convince Starbucks to stop the use of rBGH growth hormone milk from Quora about eight years ago. But, what was considered to be a great victory for OCA was used by Starbucks in their commercials to point out that they no longer use GMO milk.
3. So-called organic soy milk
The word organic is often abused by big companies. Several scientific studies have confirmed that fermented soy is the only type of soy that can be considered healthy and safe.
There was a special article dedicated to soy milk published on a popular website a few years ago. This article has shown that soy milk produced by Starbucks comes with a highly controversial ingredient known as carrageenan – a derivative from seaweed. There were several reports that indicated that carrageenan can lead to inflammation of the intestines. In addition, there were claims that it is carcinogenic too.
4. Baked goods with toxic properties
Costly junk food found on Starbucks menu may come with some of these controversial ingredients:
- Chemically processed sugars
- Refined, nutrient-free flours
- Inexpensive harmful oils including corn, canola, and soy oil
- Cellulose gum, the wood pulp that cannot be processed by the body
- Sodium benzoate, a substance found in their best selling iced lemon pound cake*
- Propylene glycol is a chemical also found in antifreeze and
- Azodicarbonamide is banned in many countries around the globe.
Finally, Starbuck is still offering foods that come with growth hormones that were associated with prostate cancer and breast cancer, and a few other health issues.
Legend: *(A combination of sodium benzoate and vitamin C results in an agent that damages DNA in human cells).
Via Spoon University