Coffee is hip (actually, it's been that way for several years now), and everyone is drinking it, including kids and teens. When I was a kid, we never drank coffee. It was seen as a "grown-up" thing to do, right up there with having sex, smoking cigarettes, and mortgages. But now you see kids and teens with a Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts cup in their hands, and coffee shoppes are the new malt shoppes.
The Boston Globe's Beth Teitell has an interesting piece on the trend, noting how we try to cut high sugar sodas and fat-filled candy from schools but we're not really thinking about high calorie/high fat/high sugar coffee drinks. Funny how coffee was always seen as an adult thing when soda has caffeine and sugar in it too.
6-04-2007 @9:12AM CJ said... I'm always amazed at people buying these calorie ridden coffee drinks. To me, buying a double whatever with whipped cream and extra sugar isn't drinking coffee. You can buy a regular (delicious) coffee and add some sweetener and a little cream and it's barely any calories! A lot of people a just drinking expensive caffiene loaded sugar bomb drinks, and thats bad. (throw in a muffin and you've got enough calories for the whole day!)
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6-04-2007 @10:48AM Crabby McSlacker said... I'm with you CJ--people fool themselves that they're drinking coffee when it's really just an excuse for fat and sugar--a milkshake in disguise.
The article makes a big deal about the caffeine, too, and theoretically, I guess this isn't such a great idea for kids who are already hyper.
But I started drinking it when I was young, and it worked out fine for me.
Coffee is actually a really healthy beverage in many ways. Excuse the annoying plug for my blog but I'll post a convenient link about that very issue! It's here:
http://crankyfitness.blogspot.com/2007/05/coffee-mighty-fine-beverage-after-all.html
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6-04-2007 @3:01PM Ian McKenzie said... I've been drinking coffee since I was a baby. I was born in Brazil -to Canadian parents. We didn't have a refrigerator in the house so we couldn't keep milk. I was weaned on coffee, cut half and half with sweetened condensed milk! Of course, growing up, we didn't have the likes of Starbucks with expensive, high-calorie drinks. The kids drinking soda were consuming far more calories than my coffee with 2% milk and a little sugar.
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6-04-2007 @1:45PM pete said... yeah, i like my coffe black and this is a reg blend. sometimes i live a little and choose a different bean, but not often.
stop spamming
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6-04-2007 @3:56PM Robyn said... my parents tried to keep us away from soda when we were kids. i think other parents do this too... of course it usually succeeds maybe until about age 7 or so.
as for coffee, i think it's okay around the teens--when you're okay with not growing any taller! this is when i started--of course this is also when starbucks started spreading to the area where i live.
i also see the lattes, etc. as sort of gateway drinks. i don't know if that's good or bad, but i know my friends and i mostly started with those (cuz they tasted good? cuz they were trendy?) and now realize the calories, etc. and consider them more as occasional treats. i also think soda should be considered only an occasional treat!
and that we need to publicize the nutritional (or anti-nutritional) facts of frappucinos/ mochas/ etc now that we all know how many calories and grams of fat are in Big Macs (thanks to Oprah, Morgan Spurlock, etc).
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6-05-2007 @10:08PM k said... When I see customers (mostly women) line up at Starbuck's first thing in the morning for all manner of blended cream topped drinks, especially Frappacinos, I just want to shudder. These are MILK SHAKES with coffee for flavor, NOT BLENDED COFFEE DRINKS. Milk Shakes for breakfast. Pure and Simple.
Now, as to the question about kids ... my mother still laughs over the story involving my then little brother. He was a good 4 years younger than the rest of us, so he was at home alone while we were in grade school. My mother and father were avid coffee drinkers, with cream and sugar. My brother's favorite thing to do in the morning was toddle around, barely out of his diaper, and sip the dregs at the bottom of the coffee cup because it was sweet. My mother didn't really think much of it, she only saw him do it a time or two. However, she realized just how often this was happening, and what this was doing to him, when one morning he came stumbling down the stairs in his droopy pajamas, crawled up into his own high chair, sat down, hair all askew, cranky as hell, scowling and nasty, and stared at my mother. She looked at him in surprise -- he was clearly having a bad morning -- and he croacked out "Is there any coffee?"
She about fell out of her chair laughing.
And then weaned him off of it, pronto.
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6-05-2007 @9:34PM Dan said... Coffee contains caffeine. Caffeine is a drug. Drug use at earlier ages changes and enhances dopamine based pleasure pathways and provide a stepping stone to other drugs. Certainly for some, another drug goes hand in hand with coffee... tobacco. So at the least coffee could lead to tobacco use. I think that drug use to should be delayed, whether it be coffee, alcohol, or other legal/illegal drugs. That issue should go hand in hand with sugar, fat, and empty calories. Not a prude, just asking. Yes? No? Maybe?
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6-06-2007 @12:20AM MJ said... No...kids have the rest of their lives to drink coffee. They need to drink more milk and calcium products to build up those strong bones that they will need fo life! Wait on the coffee.........
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6-10-2007 @10:07PM Coffeesage said... ha! I guess that since you also see kids "having sex, smoking cigarettes, and well, getting a mortgage earlier and earlier in life", one should not be surprised to see them drinking coffee. Us grown-ups just can't keep anything to ourselves any more. lol
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7-19-2007 @1:25AM Alex da Costa said... HELLO.
I BORN IN BRAZIL,SAO PAULO.
I DRINK , LOT COFFE BLACK AND SUGAR,MY SON 3 YEARS OLD,HE LIKE DRINK ,SOMETIMES I GIVE ,NOT MUCH...
1978 MY MOTHER GIVE BLACK COFFE ,AND CRACKERS AND BUTTER.TODAY I HAVE 36 YEARS OLD AND PROFESSIONAL MARATHON RUNNER ,NOW FROM USATF
THANKS
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7-23-2007 @8:38AM Tristan said... I'm 13 and i dot drink coffee like that. Ive never even otten coffee from Starbucks or Dunkin before. I just have regular coffee with 3 creamers and three no-calorie sweeteners
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7-25-2007 @10:38AM jackie said... seems like starbucks it the winner, but i will take dunkin doughnuts coffee anytime over starbucks !
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