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A cup of black coffee is a three-calorie beverage. Add a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk and you're up to 35 calories. But order a frozen coffee drink and you've turned a low-calorie beverage into a 500-plus-calorie liquid dessert.

Although there are variations, chillers, frozen cappuccinos and frappuccinos are blended drinks made from coffee, milk, ice and plenty of sugar in the form of syrup. Flavoured coffee drinks can come with added chocolate, coconut, caramel or vanilla (i.e. more sugar). Some are made with cream and come with a dollop of whipped cream, bumping up the calorie and saturated-fat content.

Consider that Second Cup's large (24-ounce) Chillatte with whipped cream serves up 540 calories, 23 grams of fat (18 of them saturated) and 18 teaspoons worth of sugar. Even worse for your arteries is Tim Hortons' large (20-ounce) Chocolate Mint Iced Capp Supreme, made with cream, which delivers 640 calories, 30 grams of fat (20 of them saturated) and 20 teaspoons of sugar. That's a full day's worth of saturated fat and more sugar than I thought possible in one beverage.

Even a serving of ice cream is easier on your waistline. In fact, you'd have to eat almost five servings (625 millilitres) of Breyers Double Churned Extra Creamy Triple Chocolate ice cream to consume as many calories as you would from the Tim Hortons Iced Capp Supreme.

If ice cream isn't your thing, think of these drinks in terms of fast-food burgers. A McDonald's Quarter Pounder has 410 calories and 19 grams of fat including seven grams of saturated fat. Pretty much the same numbers as a Grande (16-ounce) Vanilla Frappuccino with whipped cream from Starbucks (430 calories, 14 grams of fat, nine grams of saturated fat).

The only upside - you're sipping calcium and vitamin D along with your coffee.

You certainly don't need to ban these beverages from your diet. A Starbucks Raspberry Mocha Frappuccino Blended Coffee - "juicy raspberries, chocolate and the finest Latin American coffees blended with ice" - certainly sounds refreshing on a hot summer day. This 390-calorie coffee (medium size) isn't so bad every once in a while. But if you make it a daily habit, expect the number on the bathroom scale to climb if you don't also make the gym a regular routine.

And research suggests you're not likely to cut calories elsewhere in your diet to accommodate this high-calorie beverage. In a study from the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University in Indiana, researchers gave people 450 calories worth of either jelly beans or soft drink every day for four weeks.

When people ate the jelly beans, they compensated by eating 450 fewer calories from other foods. But when they consumed the sugary drink, they didn't compensate - they ended up swallowing an extra 450 calories each day for one month. Not surprisingly, their weight climbed significantly over the study period.

If you're counting calories or watching your blood cholesterol level, it's best to treat these slushy summer coffee drinks as a splurge for the week. If you enjoy them more often, the following tips will help you downsize your coffee break:

Order the smallest size. Instead of the Starbucks Venti or large (24 ounces), think small. Moving from a large (20-ounce) to a small (10-ounce) Tim Hortons Iced Capp Original (with cream) will save you 250 calories, 11 grams of fat and eight teaspoons of sugar - not to mention a 20-minute jog on the treadmill.

Choose low-fat. Order your chiller with low-fat milk (skim, 1 per cent or 2 per cent) or soy milk to reduce your intake of saturated fat. If you order a small Tim Hortons Iced Capp Original with 2 per cent milk instead of cream, you'll save 100 calories, 9.5 grams of fat and five grams of saturated fat.

Skip the extras. Say no to whipped cream and you'll save roughly 100 calories and 10 grams of fat.

Go light. If you're looking for a rich and creamy coffee drink with considerably less fat and sugar, Starbucks offers a light version of its Frappuccino Blended Coffee. A Grande (16-ounce) Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino Light has 140 calories, one gram of fat and five teaspoons of sugar. The same-sized regular Mocha Frappuccino (with whip) has 380 calories, 15 grams of fat and 11 teaspoons of sugar.

Simplify. If it's iced coffee and milk you're craving, order an iced nonfat latte (just espresso and skim milk poured over ice). To sweeten, add one packet of sugar or one pump of flavoured syrup (20 calories per pump). Some coffee houses even have sugar-free flavoured syrup.

Make your own. When you brew more coffee than you drink, refrigerate the leftovers. Sweeten to taste, mix with ice and enjoy. Or dilute your cold coffee with an equal amount of low-fat milk or soy milk.

Read nutrition information. Starbucks, Second Cup, Tim Hortons and Country Style post detailed nutrient breakdowns of menu items on their websites. To know what you're drinking - and to make a healthier choice - consult this information in advance. (Tim Hortons and Country Style give numbers only for a 10-ounce serving, so you'll need to do the math for larger beverages.)

Next week: The upside of coffee - health benefits.

Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based

dietitian at the Medcan Clinic,

is on CTV's Canada AM every Wednesday. Visit her website

at lesliebeck.com.

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