A cup of sugar to go anyone?
Sugar in fizzy drinks
Some time ago you may recall that I blogged about how much sugar can be found in fizzy drinks.
The latest reports find that dangerously high levels of sugar have been found in some out our best loved high street cafe hot drinks.
The Action on Sugar charity analysed 131 hot flavoured drinks and found 98% of them had red nutritional value labels. A third of the drinks contained the same amount of sugar or more than Coca-Cola (which at only 9 teaspoons per can) appear positively saintly!!
So which are the culprits?
It’s your mochas, lattes, hot fruit drinks and hot chocolates.
Stay away from Starbucks ‘venti’ (561ml) Grape with Chai, Orange and Cinnamon Hot Mulled Fruit that had a staggering 25 teaspoons of sugar in it and Costa’s large drink-in Chai Latte didn’t fair much better with 20 teaspoons of sugar. Oh, and Starbuck’s large White Chocolate Mocha with Whipped Cream has 18 spoonfuls, KFC’s mocha and Starbuck’s Signature Hot Chocolate had 15 spoonfuls and Cafe Nero’s drink in Caramelatte had 13.
Just imagine trying to eat that much sugar in one go - you just wouldn’t do it would you?
The suggestion by Prof Graham MacGregor chairman of Action on Sugar is to have a plain hot drink or ask for the drink to contain a minimal amount of syrup preferably sugar free in the smallest serving available.
Better still support your local coffee shop – we love The Exploding Bakery across the road from us – they’re finalists in the Exeter Living Awards as are we – more about that next time!
