A Dietician Shares The Sugary Starbucks Menu Item You May Want To Avoid

While Starbucks' bread and butter is, of course, its coffee drinks, the global chain offers food items and bakery goods, as well, making it a viable place to get a quick bite along with your daily caffeine jolt. But be warned: While the coffee giant is among chains that offer fast-food menu items with more than 30 grams of protein, there are many less nutritious items lurking on the menu, too. One in particular, though seemingly innocuous, is actually loaded with sugar. If you're watching your intake of that particular ingredient, you may want to avoid it when getting a snack at Starbucks.

At a quick glance, the Banana, Walnut & Pecan Loaf might seem like a lighter choice among Starbucks fare — after all, fruit and nuts are the highlighted components, per the item's name. But one slice of the baked good contains 26 grams of sugar. "That amount is equal to 6.5 teaspoons of added sugar," registered dietitian Angel Luk shared with Food Republic. To put this into perspective, just one piece of the banana bread equates to more than the recommended daily sugar consumption for one person. "The [World Health Organization] recommends that children and adults stay below 24 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar daily, so the banana loaf exceeds this already," Luk explained.

If you want to log a less sugar-heavy Starbucks visit, Angel Luk suggested some "[other] items that are a bit more balanced," like a "grab and go" yogurt. The Ellenos Muesli Yogurt, for instance, has no added sugar. It features unsweetened Greek yogurt and a no-sugar-added muesli topping, which, combined, have just 10 total grams of sugar. The sweetness in the muesli comes from dried cranberries, freeze-dried banana, and fermented stevia extract.

Another grab-and-go Starbucks snack on the sweeter side but light on sugar is a single-serve bag of Khloud Sweet and Salty Kettle Corn Protein Popcorn. This salty-sweet treat has just 5 grams of sugar per serving, and the inclusion of milk protein brings 7 grams of protein into the mix per serving, which is impressive for a kettle corn product.

Starbucks also has plenty of savory light bites, which, in addition to being low in sugar, offer a pop of protein. Some options are the chain's selection of egg bites — of which the Bacon & Gruyere Egg Bites offer the most protein at 19 grams — and its Spinach, Feta & Egg White Wrap, which comes rolled up in a whole wheat wrap with 20 grams of protein.

In lieu of a sweeter drink to accompany your food, one might opt for a "plain, matcha latte made without syrup and [lower-fat] dairy milk or plain [calcium-fortified] soy milk," Luk recommended. "Adding a fresh banana or packaged apple chips with a plain, [low-fat] latte also adds nutrients[,] including fiber[,] to a [calcium-dense] beverage," she added. Starbucks' protein cold foam drinks and lattes are also impressively high-protein beverage options and include various sugar-free flavors.