Consumer Safety: Coffee brand drinks reportedly causing ‘gurgling stomachs, burning throats’   –Experts

*Healthcare professionals suggest that mixing olive oil and coffee is not some kind of magic elixir that offers consumers extra nutritional benefits

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Medical experts have offered their takes on propriety or otherwise of adding olive oil to coffee.

Mixing coffee, expresso, oatmilk, and olive oil sounds weird enough to begin with.

Now, the mixture is allegedly creating stomach issues for consumers who drink one of Starbucks’ Oleato drinks, experts said.

Some consumers also have reacted to the beverage with both fascination and rage because of stomach issues.

ConsumerConnect reports the company, while introducing the drinks has stated: “This coffee-forward beverage offers layers of flavour sweetened with notes of hazelnut, rich espresso and creamy oatmilk infused with Partanna extra virgin….”

The Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) Twitter posts, and Reddit threads, however, revealed that Starbucks customers and baristas were the first to sound the alarm on the new coffee product.

It was gathered that when Oleato was first released into the market, reviews were mixed, and even though some on social media recently applauded the drinks, the source stated that in a subreddit for Starbucks baristas, one barista wrote that when their team tried the Oleato, half of them ended up in the bathroom.

A consumer also wrote on Twitter “so far, my stomach is gurgling and my throat is burning. Not sure if it’s the olive oil.”

ConsumerAffairs reached out to Starbucks for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

What health experts on safety or otherwise of olive oil use in coffee

When Oleato was introduced, Starbucks heralded it as “raising the bar on coffee innovation” and the company was very positive that the drink’s mix of ingredients was perfectly acceptable.

A Starbucks spokesperson even told Verywell that enjoying a daily spoonful of extra virgin olive oil is an Italian family tradition that “nourishes the soul,” report said.

Verywell’s Stephanie Brown has reportedly said: “Maybe Oleato drinks are just that—soul nourishment.”

However, when Brown reached out to nutrition experts, she discovered that some were cautious about signing their name to anything that said there were any health benefits of the drinks.

Vandana Sheth, RDN, CDCES, FAND, a registered dietitian nutritionist who owns a nutrition consulting business in Los Angeles, told Verywell in an e-mail: “Both olive oil and coffee provide positive health benefits on their own.

“I would be intrigued in trying the new coffee drinks out of curiosity. However, I am not sure you need to have them together in a drink.”

But mixing olive oil and coffee isn’t some kind of magic elixir that offers drinkers extra nutritional benefits, according to experts.

Alice H. Lichtenstein, a Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, opined that the only nutritional benefit she thinks could be expected from a cup of Oleato is if the olive oil was substituted for cream.

However, a spoonful of olive oil adds also adds 120 calories to coffee, which can add up over time.

“Assuming no displacement by other foods or beverages, this could result in weight gain,” Lichtenstein said.

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