Fashion

Our favourite festive hot drinks have been found to contain shockingly high amounts of sugar



A few years ago, there was an exposé of the secret sources of sugar (sliced bread, breakfast cereals and soft drinks were among the worst offenders), but despite efforts to curb our sugar intake, including national sugar reduction programmes that aim to take out 20 per cent of sugar in products by 2020 and a levy on sugary soft drinks, it seems we may not have made as much progress as had been hoped.

A new study released today by Action On Sugar found that many of our favourite hot drinks from high street coffee shops such as Pret and Starbucks contained a shockingly high amount of sugar. A Starbucks Venti Signature Caramel Hot Chocolate with oat milk and topped with whipped cream has a whopping 23 teaspoons (almost 100 grams) of sugar – that’s enough to bake a cake with. Similarly, Cafe Nero’s Grande Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate contains 15 teaspoons and a Starbucks Gingerbread Latte, again with oat milk, contains 14 teaspoons. Besides from the fact that this seemingly contradicts Starbucks’ 2016 promise to reduce the sugar content of its more ‘indulgent’ drinks by 25% by 2020 (time’s up, Starbucks), it also highlights that non-dairy milk alternatives aren’t a healthier alternative, as some perceive them to be.

According to the NHS, adults should not exceed 30 grams of refined sugar a day (excluding the sugars naturally present in fruit), and children over the age of 4 years should not have more than 24 grams. It’s recommended that children under the age of 4 do not have any refined sugar whatsoever.

The slightly alarming findings come at a time when obesity it at an all time high with 29% of adults and 20% of year 6 children classed as obese. Sugar has been proven to play a significant role in weight gain, increasing the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and some cancers as well as causing tooth decay. There is also evidence that sugar can increased levels of chronic inflammation throughout the body.

Read up on the best ways to stay healthy over the festive period as well as the ‘healthy foods’ that are surprisingly not so healthy.





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