Do You Know How Much Sugar You're Drinking?
Over the past few weeks the topic of flavoured drinks or soft drinks (Soda for all the Americans reading) and sugar content has been coming up in many conversations. There always seems to be a general consensus that these kinds of drinks aren't good for you. However, it seems as though not everyone knows how much of a difference cutting down on sweetened drinks can have on your health. When I explain how much sugar there is in terms of teaspoons then everyone seems to be even more shocked. Well today let's look at these beverages in a practical demonstration of how much sugar they contain. I don't want you to think I am against sugar or that sugar is the cause of all evil. I am just aiming to give you a few examples of where you can save yourself a extra kilojoules (Calories) in a day.
Do you remember a few weeks ago we talked about making small changes to achieve weight loss, that you can keep off forever? You might choose cutting down on sweetened drinks as your first baby step towards your goal.
First I want to talk about sugar. We actually need sugar to live, it is the only fuel our brains can use. Sugar is the fuel that can give us a quick burst of energy before a 100m sprint or for the last part of a marathon. However if you eat more sugar than you can use, it will be stored as fat. Unfortunately this delicious ingredient can also cause some negative health effects. So what to take from this? Eat everything in moderation and reduce added sugars as much as possible. Have a look at this blog post here to see what level of sugar to look for on nutrition panels.
Let's get stuck into the facts.
Lipton Ice Tea Peach Flavour 500mL
26.4g sugar | 5 and a bit teaspoons of sugar
The Daily Juice Company Pulp Free Orange Juice- No Added Sugar 500mL
41.5g sugar | 8 and a bit teaspoons of sugar
Fanta Strawberry Flavour 355mL
Sugar 45g | 9 teaspoons of sugar
Dare Iced Coffee Espresso 500mL
45.5g sugar | 9 teaspoons of sugar
Coca-Cola 600mL
Sugar 64g | 12 and a bit teaspoons of sugar
Vitamin Water Dragon Fruit 500mL
Sugar 22g | 4 and a bit teaspoons of sugar
Now think of it this way. If you normally have one bottle of soft drink every day and you make the change to even just drinking 1 bottle every second day, you have already halved the amount of kilojoules you are consuming from sweetened drinks. Now imagine cutting down to once a week, that actually ends up being 6480 kj (1548 Calories) less that you are consuming in a week. This lifestyle change would make a huge impact on both weight loss and general health!
I hope you find this information useful. I am curious to know if this demonstration has shocked you? It shocked me when I had to find more teaspoons to measure out the Coca-cola's sugar. Do you think knowing this now will help you to make some lifestyle changes? I would love to hear your thoughts if you would like to share them in the comments.
Enjoy you're weekend!
Bridge
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