Staff Writer
A long line of students trails out the door of the Union Station in the Richard B. Flynn Campus Union. This line is not for the mouthwatering burgers or the delicious pizza, but for a cooler, more delectable treat.
Springfield College has been introduced to a F’real milkshake machine. It has everyone on campus talking because it is so simple to use and creates the most delicious dessert.
Waiting in line is the least difficult part, trying to decide whether you want a milkshake or a smoothie is much harder. Once that choice has been made, you then have to pick from one of the many flavors.
By the time you have made up your mind and reached the machine, your mouth is watering and you cannot wait to peel the foil from the top of the cup.
And there it is, the last choice that needs to be made: less thick, medium thick or more thick.
That choice is now the only one that stands in the way of you and your milkshake.
Trying to hurry the process along, you quickly select one of the choices on the touch screen and up goes your milkshake. Then, the blending begins. It is so loud and if you watch carefully, the entire machine shakes.
Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, your milkshake makes its final descent and it is yours to enjoy.
Amazingly, during all that time waiting for that milkshake, no one thinks to read the ingredients. Or better yet, no one even notices that there is no nutrition information printed on some of these yummy desserts. It kind of makes you think, why not?
Stacy Garvey, the nutritionist on campus, was surprised to hear that a 16-ounce F’real is worse for you than a 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake. The F’real milkshakes contain 210 calories from fat, whereas the McDonald’s milkshakes only contain 180 calories from fat.
Garvey says F’real is worse for us because the fat in the shake is saturated. And the reason McDonalds shakes have less saturated fat is because they substitute sugar for fat.
“I recommend 65 grams of fat a day on average,” said Garvey. “23.3 of those grams are consumed in just one F’real shake.”
It is amazing how bad a 16-ounce milkshake really is for you.
Garvey said her advice to the student body would be to “limit yourself to one shake a day.”
The good news for students is that the F’real smoothies are actually quite healthy.
The strawberry-banana F’real smoothie contains 270 calories and more importantly 0 grams of fat.
Taylor Hassa may be reached at thassa@springfieldcollege.edu
I wouldn’t say 60 grams of sugar is healthy. I just drank the berry pomgranate flavor, and I feel horrible.
I must say, if you say saturated fat is unhealthy and then don’t mention the threat of sugar, that’s absurd. Sugar is a substitute to “reduced fat”, but you just end up taking in sugar fast enough that the glucose rush is converted and stored to fat by the liver. It’s just not fat being taken in by the body, but rather fat being SYNTHESIZED by the body.
That being said, good call on pointing out that mcdonalds milkshakes do have more sugar to offset the increased fat :/