St. Patrick’s Day in around the corner (or here in State College the State Patty’s Day festivities has already happened) and McDonald’s is rolling out their cult creating, glowing green shake – The Shamrock Shake. In the world of food gimmicks, the Shamrock Shake has serious staying power. It was created in the 1970’s, sold via by Uncle O’Grimacey in the 1980, and now after 30+ years it is available nationwide.
Unfortunately the nutrition facts for this cult classic shake aren’t as fun as Uncle O’Grimacey. A 12oz Shamrock Shake contains 540 calories and a whooping 74 grams of sugar. At first glance, the ingredient list doesn’t seem that bad (for McDonald’s):
- Vanilla reduced fat ice cream (gotta get in your low fat dairy right?)
- Shamrock Shake Syrup (hmmm…this is the wild card)
- Whipped Cream (not surprising for a milk shake at a fast food joint)
- Maraschino Cherry (what else would you top it with?)
But what is in that Shamrock Shake Syrup???
- High fructose corn syrup
- Corn Syrup
- Water
- Sugar
- Natural Flavor
- Xanthan gum
- citric acid
- sodium benzoate
- yellow 5
- blue 1
As a general rule, it isn’t good when your top 3 of 4 ingredients are sugar. All these ingredients spell one thing….D-I-A-B-E-T-E-S
Not wanting to encourage the onset of diabetes by indulging in a shamrock shake shouldn’t prohibit you joining in on the celebrations. So I (Uncle O’Mikey) have created for you…the Shamrock Shake 2.0 (the health nut carb controlled version) – no food dyes included!
Ingredients
- 1 Cup 2% Fat Greek Yogurt
- 1 cup kale
- 2 tsp powdered green tea
- 5-6 ice cubes
- 1 cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk
- 1 1/2 scoops Vanilla protein powder (a casein rich protein like Low Carb Metabolic Drive works well here as it’ll make your shake thicker)
- 1-2 drop of peppermint extract (use less initially, taste, and add more if needed).
Combine all the ingredients in a blender, blend until thick, and enjoy!
It is 360 calories, with 43 grams of protein, 10 grams fat, 26 grams of carbohydrates
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