My daughter Jessi was complaining that there is too much sugar in many coffee drinks and other beverages sold at various restaurants. That started us on a search of how much sugar is actually in commonly ordered beverages. Keep in mind the American Heart Association recommends that women ingest no more than 25 grams of sugar per day and men ingest less than 37.5 grams per day.
When I looked at how much sugar was in some of these drinks, I cringed. When I was a teenager, I used to love drinking Coke. However, in my adult life, I can state that I have not had a soda in a very long time—it must be over 20 years. In order to compare the coffee and other drinks, let’s look at how much sugar is in Coke. A 12 ounce bottle of Coke has 39 grams of sugar, which already exceeds the American Heart Association guidelines.
I must be one of the few adult Americans who does not drink coffee at Starbucks. I don’t understand the Starbucks lingo—a tall is small? Grande is medium? A Starbucks Grande Java Chip Frappuccino contains a whopping 66 grams of sugar—nearly the same amount of sugar as two bottles of Coke. Even the Grande Hazelnut Macchiato contains a whopping 31 grams of sugar. Tim Horton’s medium iced cap coffee (flavored with milk) contains 46 grams of sugar. Pot Belly’s 16 ounce mocha shake contains 93 grams of sugar. Wendy’s large chocolate Frosty contains 139 grams of sugar. (Full disclosure: I used to love Wendy’s Frosty drinks when I was a teenager.) That is the equivalent amount of sugar in three and a half bottles of Coke.
I only have two words to say here: “Oy veh”. I did not realize (since I presently do not frequent any of these establishments) how much sugar was in these drinks. I did not even comment on the saturated fat and other unnatural items that are also in these products. When you consider how many Americans frequent these establishments, is there any wonder why diabetes is occurring at an epidemic rate in America?
I would say save your money. I cannot understand spending up to four or five hard-earned dollars on a drink that undermines your health. My advice: drink more water and pay attention to the labels of the food and drink you are ingesting. Ultimately, you are responsible for what you eat. DrB
Products sold in America are most often re-formulated before being produced/exported to western European countries. Companies such as Coke and Pepsi use real sugar as opposed to HFCS they use here. Many folks have found that a major discount company sells Mexican coke with real sugar and buy that instead. European countries won’t import many of our meats and vegetables because of the way things are processed/grown/inoculated!! We sit idly buy and use the excuse that we are a nation that feeds the world–we feed them the better quality and inflict the dregs of the business for our own! Deplorable! I know I am a sugar addict and it is just like being an alcoholic–sugar does crazy things to our brains and destroys our bodies. The hardest task I have undertaken, ever is to reduce and ultimately eliminate sugar from my diet!! Dr. Oz has had some good shows on the processing of foods in this country with mega amounts of sugar and Kosher salt and mega doses of fat–very addictive!!
I love all of the wonderful advice provided by Dr. Brownstein and I have prescribed to his tenets of health. When I travel through airports (which is not frequent) I always treat myself to a Starbucks coffee. I simply order one of the brews, plain and add a tablespoon of half and half because I like cream in my coffee and I’m not lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant nor have allergies. Drop the sugar and lose weight, feel better about yourself, and regulate your blood sugars to avoid problems with diabetes or other ailments down the road. Over consumption of sugar is making Americans FAT, OBESE, OVERWEIGHT, DEPRESSED and UNHEALTHY.
Take Dr. Brownsteins advice overall but also in this blog article… drop the soda and the sugary coffee drinks. he knows what he’s talking about and does not follow the herd mentality of traditional medicine. Dr. Brownstein treats the root problems of illnesses, and doesn’t just prescribe pharmaceutical pills to mask the problem and create other side effects. He is a champion doctor. The world is a better place for Dr. Brownsteins of the world.
But I’ll still order my Starbucks brewed coffee with room for a little half and half. Not a problem. Great coffee!
I moved from the UK to the USA 17 years ago. At first I could not eat the bread, or coleslaw, coffee’s or many cakes or deserts because to me they were all toooo sweet. However after a few years I stopped noticing, that is what is so worrying, you get used to the sugar and no longer notice. If only companies could dial the sugar content back a little at a time perhaps people would not notice that either.
Who can trust labels these days? Undesirable ingredients are ‘legally’ hidden in plain sight from the buyer with changes in name. For me, trust has been compromised.
Perhaps the concluding advice could better be stated, “Reduce processed, packaged, brand-name food of every type with the ultimate goal of zero, but accepting the journey’s potholes with grace and humor.”
Could you please translate “grams” to “teaspoons” — that would be helpful.
Katherine,
1 tsp of sugar is approximately 4.2gm. Therefore, 1 can of Coke contains over 9 teaspoons of sugar. Therefore, as i stated in my blog post, a Starbucks Grande Java Chip Frappuccino contains a whopping 66 grams of sugar—nearly the same amount of sugar as two bottles of Coke–or nearly 15 teaspoons of sugar!!
I reiterate, “Oy Veh”.
DrB
Watch out for peanut butter. There are some brands that contain BOTH sugar and HFCS and others that contain just one of the two. Yes, there are brands that contain neither, just peanuts and sea salt.
There’s a ton of sugar in almost everything now. When you look critically at TV commercials you can see that the food industry is constantly pushing sugar, sugar, sugar.
For example, most of Bush’s “Grillin’ Beans” varieties (which I enjoy) have 75-100 grams of sugar in a 22 oz. can! Eat a cup of them at dinner and you’ll reach or surpass your sugar quota for the entire day– just from baked beans! I stick with their “Black Bean Fiesta” and “Texas Ranchero” varieties now — only 10 grams of sugar in a can and almost as tasty.
There is a real difference between sugar and, what is being used to sweeten most processed food and drinks, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Coke, Pepsi, and all of the multinational soft drink companies have used HFCS since the early ’70s (gee, check the obesity curve in the US and be amazed). As per Starbucks, most of what they use for sweetener comes from the processed ingredients they use. I would think most are either all HFCS or mostly HFCS. Studies show there is a major difference between HFCS and sugar. Sugar is not good for people, but is far less harmful and fattening than HFCS. The distinction should always be made as to what the sweetener is that is being used.
Bob,
I am sure you would agree that too much sugar or HFCS are both problems.
DrB
Peter:
Have you been to Germany or Switzerland recently? I was in Zurich just a few months ago. I was staying in the Old Town near the main train station. There were three Starbucks within a five minute walk of my hotel.
Virtually every train I go into in Europe has a Starbucks.
I wanted to point out a subject that is rarely mentioned in sugar debates- the desensitizing of American tastebuds to sugar. I’ve read that people lose the ability to taste sweet things as they become more insulin resistant, so maybe the increase in diabetes is a cause. But the trend in American food production has been to sweeten food products to suit the tastes of little kids. (kids on junk food diets!)
I was watching one of those chef shows recently, and they were tasting a red devil cake made my an irate American chef. He was upset that these top European chefs thought he used too much frosting or sugar in his cake and kept saying “Well, it tastes good to me.” No one commented on the difference between their palates. One thing I love about European pastry is its relatively high protein & low sugar content. When food is oversweetened, I can’t taste the other flavors, and at that point it’s basically candy. No wonder Americans (kids especially) don’t find fruit to be sweet enough on its own now. Food manufacturers are influenced by these by these “kid tastes” in consumers & food testers, so their products get sweeter & sweeter every year.
I agree- Starbucks coffees taste like syrup to me.
If you are lucky that drink will have sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup.
Check out such as apple sauce. It now has HFCS. I think Coke in the US is in the same boat. In Mexico, they still use sugar.
I love Coke’s (Fuze) Iced Tea with Lemon, though. It does have sugar. I limit how frequently I buy and will split 1 bottle up over 2-3 days.
Lipton’s product has HFCS. I will not buy it.
Bottled, canned apple sauce will usually have HFCS unless you get the unsweetened version.
Read the labels on things like chili.
Sugar Check Soy Check
Do read the product labels on canned and frozen foods.
So do read labels carefully.
I endorse Dr B’s comments. There is not one Starbucks in Italy and extremely few in France, Germany and Switzerland and the populations of these countries drink a LOT of coffee and are very fussy about the quality. Enough said – I NEVER drink Starbucks or for that matter coffee from any other of these ‘Fast Food’ style coffee sellers. It is rubbish and very unhealthy rubbish as well as not ‘Real coffee’ as it is meant to be. Right on Dr B.
How does honey compare to sugar ? I use a teaspoon of honey per 12 oz mug?
Bonni,
Honey is a better choice than sugar. Unrefined sugar is a better choice than refined sugar.
DrB