Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte: What a Cuppa PSL Does to Your Body

Summary: Pumpkin Spice Latte is Starbucks' most popular seasonal beverage but a Sept. 17 article in Yahoo! Health shows what a cuppa PSL does to your body.

Pumpkin Spice Latte season at Starbucks: Jeff Wilcox (jeffwilcox), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Pumpkin Spice Latte is a seasonal coffee drink offered by Starbucks Coffee, the world’s largest coffeehouse.

Based in trendy Seattle, Washington, Starbucks Corporation operates a global coffeehouse chain under the trade name of Starbucks Coffee.

Founded March 30, 1971, as a coffee bean roaster and retailer by three University of San Francisco students (Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker, Zev Siegl), Starbucks was sold to coffee lover Howard D. Schultz (born July 19, 1953) in August 1987. As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Howard Schultz shares his passion for the world’s best coffees for almost three decades.

Known familiarly as PSL, Pumpkin Spice Latte is a specialty latte. Latte is an espresso coffee drink made with steamed milk.

PSL is flavored with traditional autumnal spices of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. The seasonal beverage is topped with whipped cream and pumpkin pie spice.

Introduced in 2003, PSL claims the honor of being Starbucks’ most popular seasonal beverage.

A 16-ounce cup, called a grande, contains 380 calories. Fat accounts for 14 grams. Sugar contributes 50 grams.

Within the first hour of consuming a cuppa PSL, the happy consumer experiences an array of internal effects, according to Korin Miller's article Sept. 17 in Yahoo Health.

Blood: 12 teaspoons of sugar raises blood sugar level. Caffeine raises blood pressure and leads to release of sugar into bloodstream.

Bladder: Heightened blood sugar levels combine with PSL’s 150 milligrams of coffee, a diuretic (substance promoting urine production), to necessitate including a bathroom visit within the consumer’s schedule.

Heart: Caffeine-induced increase in blood pressure may cause pulse increases and heart racings. Drinking PSL in the late afternoon may affect sleep as about 75 milligrams of coffee stay in the body for three to four hours.

Pancreas : Secretion of insulin is initiated to break sugar down to glucose for storage as energy or fuel in cells. When glucose exceeds cells’ storage capacity, excess dominates blood and leads to increased insulin production.

Liver: Spiked insulin levels stimulate liver to absorb glucose for creation as glycogen (glucose’s stored form), which then is stored as fat in the body.

The absorption of fats jumpstarts increase in levels of a type of fat known as triglycerides in the blood. Elevated triglyceride levels, which may stay high for six or more hours, increase risk over time of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a disease of hardening of the arteries from buildups of cholesterol, fats and other substances in and on arterial walls. Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of  such debilitating and/or fatal conditions as heart attacks, peripheral vascular disease and strokes.

PSL fans do not have to add their beloved beverage to must-give-up resolutions on New Year’s Day. Pleasure may still be found in moderate consumption and in savoring one cup rather than in guzzling many cups.

Fortunately, Pumpkin Spice Latte is a specialty drink offered only in the autumn by Starbucks, so fans at least are not faced with year-long temptation.

As for me, I intend to enjoy my weekly cuppa Pumpkin Spice Latte by framing it with healthy activities and eating.

infographic by Yahoo Health: Yahoo @Yahoo via Twitter Sept. 17, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Pumpkin Spice Latte season at Starbucks: Jeff Wilcox (jeffwilcox), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffwilcox/8012663805/

infographic by Yahoo Health: Yahoo @Yahoo via Twitter Sept. 17, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/Yahoo/status/644604513630973952

For further information:

Miller, Korin. "Your Body Immediately After Drinking a Pumpkin Spice Latte." Yahoo! > Yahoo Health. Sept. 17, 2015.
Available @ https://www.yahoo.com/health/your-body-immediately-after-drinking-a-pumpkin-110501584.html?nf=1

Yahoo @Yahoo. "How your body reacts immediately after drinking a pumpkin spice latte." Twitter. Sept. 17, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Yahoo/status/644604513630973952