Ok, I have a sweet tooth. I’ll readily admit that. I have a panache for the decadent, a yearning for the caramel and chocolatey goodness of desserts. I try however to limit my consumption of said girth expanding foodstuffs and I keep an eye on what I drink too since even juices, milk, and other liquids have calories that are easily overlooked in the course of a meal.

Today, I came across this eye-opening article on MensHealth.com courtesy of a friend called “20 Worst Drinks in America 2010” and holy mackerel! I knew that most of the drinks on the market were bad for you, but just how bad will totally shock you. Starting with the mundane Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant “Water” that sets you back 150 calories, it quickly slides into insane comparisons (A Starbuck’s Venti Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with Whipped Cream sets you back 660 calories, 22 g of fat and 95 g of sugar, the equivalent of 81/2 SCOOPS of Edy’s Slow Churned Rich and Creamy Coffee Ice Cream!) and ends with the mother of all horrible drink choices: the 24 oz Cold Stone PB&C™ Shake.

The PB&C is made with chocolate ice cream, skim milk & peanut butter. Why they bothered with the skim milk, I have -no- idea. This gut-buster in a cup weighs in at a whopping 2010 calories, 131 g of fat (68 g saturated), and 153 g of sugar. That’s 30 Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies…2 BOXES worth of Chips Ahoy! If cookies aren’t your thing, you could always eat 68 bacon strips instead. As they so aptly put it on their own website, “Ice cream for breakfast, a smoothie for lunch, and a sensible cake for dinner? – Who says you can’t eat this amazing ice cream for all three meals?”

How about because you will gain weight faster than a baby blue whale.

In case you weren’t aware, one pound is the equivalent of 3,500 calories.

So skip the shake and have some real food…your waistline will thank you for it!