I'm by no means a health nut, but I am a bit of a label-reader and I'm always interested in finding out what foods and drinks are hiding under heathy facades but are actually really bad for us. This info was in Men's Health magazine as part of the popular Eat This Not That series, and it shows just how much sugar is in some popular bottled and canned drinks. I love that ETNT has equated the amount of sugar in each drink with a sweet treat so we can get a better idea just how much sugar we're talking about.
The Worst Tea: Snapple Lemon Ice Tea has 250 calories and 58 grams sugars. That's as much sugar as you'll get in 6 original Fudgsicle bars.
The Worst Flavored Water: With 150 calories and 33 grams sugars, Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water sounds healthy, but you'd have to eat 3 bowls of Honey Comb cereal to get that much sugar.
The Worst Bottled Lemonade: You can eat 5 Good Humor ice cream sandwiches or drink a bottle of Minute Maid lemonade for the same amount of sugars (67 grams).
The Worst Soda: A 20-oz bottle of Sunkist packs 325 calories and 88 grams of sugars which is about what you'd get if you chomped 17 chewy Chips Ahoy cookies.
The Worst Coffee Drink: Did you know Starbucks Coffee Frappuccino has 290 calories, 4.5 grams fat (2.5 saturated), and 46 grams sugars? If you'd rather have 3 1/2 scoops of Dreyer's double fudge brownie ice cream, it's about the same.
The Worst "Heathy" Drink: Naked Protein Zone Banana Chocolate has 480 calories, 3 grams fat (1 saturated), 32 grams protein, and 70 grams sugars. That's as much sugar as 5 Breyers Oreo ice cream sandwiches! (I was glad that my favorite healthy drink, Bolthouse vanilla chai, is the healthy alternative they recommend.)
Here are some additional grocery/convenience store drinks you might want to pass up: SunnyD Smooth Style (for a kid drink), Rock Star (for an energy drink), Nesquick chocolate milk (for a bottled milk), and Sobe Lizard Lava (for a fruity beverage).
If you want little updates from Eat This Not That, you can follow them on Twitter here. And now, I'm curious: Do you read labels on foods and drinks before you buy them? What's your favorite bottled or canned beverage?
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8 comments:
I am a bit of a health nut, and def a label reader--and I really hate packaged foods, fast foods, sodas, etc. I haven't had a soda since 1994--seriously! Though every now and then, a hot chocolate on a cold day is a beautiful thing . . .
:)
Chef Hymie Grande (www.chefhymiegrande.com ) is the first and only bottled BBQ sauce to carry the seal of the American Diabetes Association on the label. It has no high fructose corn syrup, no processed sugar, it is all natural and vegan friendly. It is produced by Jamie Failtelson, a.k.a. Chef Hymie Grande of Carlstadt, NJ. 5% of proceeds go to the American Diabetes Association.
Water! I love water! If I am feeling rich and fancy, my favorite is Fiji, but usually it's Brita-filtered tap.
I've never liked sodas or sugary drinks, fortunately. Since being diagnosed with diabetes I am an extra-careful label-reader and try to go for the five-ingredients-or-less stuff if not whole food.
Might have to check out aforementioned bbq sauce even though sounds suspiciously like spam comment!
Oh gees, I totally don't read labels! I'm awful!! Thanks for giving us the heads up!
Alyson, that's cool you're not a pop drinker. I quit in high school (our bball team had to) and never started again until fairly recently. Grr.
Sara, hmm. Not sure if it's spam or not.I love water straight out of my fridge with fresh lime.
I'm a label-reader. My primary beverages are Lime Diet Pepsi, water and wine.
I'm a total label reader because I'm lactose intolerant. The kids are brilliant at it too, especially when they were younger because they not only had to check out for me but my youngest used to go wild if he so much as sniffed an E number - especially the orange!!
I love this, Wendy! I am such a soda fan, but I try to give myself one regular Coke a week and otherwise stick to seltzer (it really is the fizzy buzz that I like most). Phew!
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