The cold weather and Christmas is right around the corner and we can’t stop ourselves from indulging in holiday drinks! Unfortunately, these delicious drinks are packed with sugar, which can contribute to weight gain that usually happens towards the end of the year.
According to U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health (NLMNIH), the average American gains five pounds (2.27 kg) or more over the holiday period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day”. Not all this weight gain is directly related to these drinks, but sugary drinks share the blame. Some studies state that the consumption of these drinks increases a 20% during festive seasons.
Just think about when you hang out with your friends, you more than likely feel cold and need a cup of coffee so you end up in Starbucks and instead of getting a coffee, you order a Gingerbread Latte, Chestnut Praline Latte or a delicious Honey and Almond Hot Chocolate. How could you resist?
You might not be aware of this, but Christmas drinks usually have two times more sugar and calories than ordinary drinks– which are very high in sugar as well. According to The Independent: “The drink with the highest sugar content is a grande gingerbread coffee frappuccino with skimmed milk, which comes in at 68.7 grams of sugar. Other high-sugary drinks on the festive menu include the venti eggnog latte (56.3g), grande toffee crunch frappuccino (54.3g), venti fudge hot chocolate (53.8g), venti gingerbread latte (49.1g) and venti toffee nut latte (48.4g). To put this into perspective, an original glazed doughnut from Krispy Kreme contains 12.6 grams of sugar. So one of these festive frappuccinos contains as much sugar as nearly six doughnuts.”
Do you still feel like going for a drink?
A few years ago, some states started taking action by taxing sugary drinks. After that there was a visible decrease in sugar drinks consumptions: the sales decreased a 10% and some sources claim that water consumption increased. Yet, in Chicago, this tax was recently overturned. But, people should not stop drinking sugary drinks because they’re expensive, they should do it because they are concerned about their health.
This doesn’t mean we can’t have one every now and then, but don’t make it a habit! Keep in mind that these big companies will always take more care of their pockets than of your health. Instead, you can try preparing some of these drinks at home reducing the amount of sugar, whipped cream, and syrups.