Once you could order a cup of coffee with just a single word. You could even shorten your order to a ”cup ‘o joe.” Now the standard coffee order takes about a paragraph.

I’ll have a decaf, triple shot, grande, sugar-free vanilla, 2 percent milk, extra white mocha, extra hot, no whip, no foam, extra drizzle marble mocha macchiato.

That extra complexity also comes with a hidden drawback: extra calories and fat. Nearly every one of those extra modifiers can impact the overall nutritional value of the drink.

Consider that coffee is essentially a 10-calorie-a-cup drink. But some of the concoctions brewed up by modern baristas can be downright gluttonous.

”Most people wouldn’t consider shoehorning in a Quarter-Pounder with cheese somewhere between breakfast and lunch, but it’s perfectly possible to get 500-plus calories in a drink from Starbucks,” says Jayne Hurley, senior nutritionist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. ”Fortunately, it’s a cinch to bring down the calories and saturated fat in many of these drinks by making a few simple changes.”

Hurley and her colleagues recently reviewed the nutritional makeup of various coffee drinks at Starbucks and other national chains, finding a wide range of options. They recommend the following steps to keep your body merely at tall, instead of going grande.

* Go non-fat: A non-fat or soy cappuccino or latte will be lower in calories and fat than one made with whole milk, saving up to 100 calories in a 16-ounce coffee.

* Skip the whipped cream: Whipped cream at Starbucks adds 120 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat.

* Cut out the sugar: Order drinks with sugar-free syrup or get them unsweetened and add your own sugar (about 10 calories a pack) or zero-calorie sugar substitute.

* Choose light variations: At Starbucks, a grande Frappuccino Light cuts 100 calories by replacing half the sugar with Splenda and leaving off the whipped cream.

Need some extra motivation? Drinking just one 500-calorie coffee drink a week – without changing your diet or exercise patterns – will add seven and a half pounds of body fat each year.

Starbucks lists the nutritional content for its drinks online at www.starbucks.com/retail /nutrition_info.asp.

Coffee Makeovers

Latte (two shots of espresso with steamed milk):

A grande whole-milk Vanilla Latte has 320 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat

Makeover:

Dump the flavored syrup (70 calories)

Use non-fat milk (100 calories)

Result:

A grande nonfat Caffe Latte with 160 calories and 0 grams of saturated fat

Cappuccino (espresso with steamed and foamed milk):

A standard grande cappuccino has 150 calories and 5 grams of saturated fat

Makeover:

Use non-fat milk (50 calories)

Result:

A non-fat grande cappuccino with 100 calories and 0 grams of saturated fat

Mocha (espresso, steamed milk, chocolate syrup):

A grande white chocolate mocha has 510 calories and 17 grams of saturated fat

Makeover:

Use non-fat milk (50 calories)

Hold the whipped cream (120 calories)

Use chocolate instead of white chocolate syrup (120 calories)

Result:

A non-fat, no-whip, Caffe Mocha with 220 calories and 0 saturated fat

(Bonus savings: Drop down to a tall to save another 50 calories)

Frappuccino (coffee, milk, sugar in a pre-blended mix):

A grande double chocolate chip frappuccino has 580 calories and 13 grams of saturated fat

Makeover: Choose the original flavor (190 calories)

Hold the whipped cream (130 calories)

Result:

A grande coffee frappuccino with 260 calories, 2 grams of saturated fat

(Bonus savings: A Frappuccino light cuts the calories to 150)

Macchiato (espresso with foamed milk):

A grande caramel macchiato has 310 calories and 7 grams of fat

Makeover: Use non-fat milk (90 calories)

Result:

A grande non-fat caramel macchiato with 220 calories, 0 saturated fat

Following their four steps to healthier coffee, nutritionists from the Center for Science in the Public Interest suggested the following ways to rework your Starbucks favorites.