The 10 unhealthiest drinks on store shelves right now — and what to try instead
Oh, sugar!
As the weather heats up for another spring and summer, the drinks cooler at your local corner store will once again step into its seasonal role as one of the hottest hangouts in the neighborhood, a magnet for thirsty locals looking to rehydrate via a dizzying selection of ice cold beverages.
But be careful what you reach for, say the experts — there’s so much added sugar in some of those sodas, juices and energy drinks, they ought to come with a Surgeon General’s warning.
Some of these popular palate pleasers even contain more of the devilish dextrose than you’re supposed to be consuming in an entire day. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we’re supposed to be sucking down no more than 50 grams of the sweet stuff, based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet.
The pros at Eat This, Not That! heroically sipped their way through the vast selection, coming up with a list of widely-available drinks with the most dizzyingly high amounts of added sugar.
Here, their top ten tooth decay promoters are named and shamed — followed by a handful of recommendations for quenching your thirst without making your dentist richer than they already are.
10. Arizona Green Tea
Ain’t that America, to take the healthiest beverage on the planet besides pollutant-free spring water and turn it into something that may well send you to an early grave? Packed with antioxidants and zero-calorie energy, normal green tea turns into absolute trash here, with the addition of 42 grams of added sugar, via honey and hook-it-to-our-veins high-fructose corn syrup.
9. Barq’s Root Beer
Another absolute crying shame – Barq’s is one of the best-tasting root beers around, full of spicy, herbal flavor and irresistible on a hot day in Louisiana — and then you read the label. Not only are there 44 grams of added sugar, that sugar typically comes from high fructose corn syrup. At least there’s Barq’s Zero now, if you can forget about the aspartame that makes it go.
8. Welch’s Grape Juice
Don’t buy the label hype — whatever’s good for you about one of the country’s most iconic fruit juices is erased by the presence of 44 grams of sugar in a 10 oz. bottle. Go eat some fresh grapes — one cup gives you just 16 grams of sugar, the experts say.
7. Mountain Dew
More like Mountain Don’t. Most adults know this as a fairly deadly soda that nobody should be drinking past their teen years, but in case you need reminding: Put it down. Surely you can find better ways to add 46 grams of sugar to your diet than a bunch of processed sweetener? Think about it — over a nice lemon seltzer, perhaps.
6. Starbucks Frappuccino Coffee Drink
How much is 47 grams of sugar? Approximately 12 teaspoons. If you’re getting away with putting 12 teaspoons of sugar in your coffee every morning, then go for it — the rest of us shouldn’t give these relatively weak-tasting, overly-sweet beverages a second thought. (Don’t even ask about the real Frappuccinos that Starbucks serves in-store. Okay, we’ll tell you — there’s 60 grams in a grande.)
5. Naked Green Juice Machine
How many years were we fooled into thinking Naked juices were a good way to start an on-the-go day? Raise hands. Hopefully by now, everyone knows better, but in case not — Naked’s juices, many of them made from relatively cheap apple juice concentrate, are not actual smoothies. This so-called “green juice” has 53 grams of sugar. You’re almost better off drinking an Arizona Green Tea.
4. Arizona Sweet Tea
Oh, great. Here we have another life-giving, antioxidant-rich elixir, turned into the beverage equivalent of an episode of On Patrol: Live. And all it took was an astonishing 13 tablespoons of sugar, taking us over the daily limit, all the way to 53 grams.
3. Monster Energy Drink
You knew this was coming. Never mind all the other ways one of the most popular pick-me-up beverages can mess with your body and brain — how can you even keep your hand on the steering wheel when you’ve got 54 grams of sugar in every single can? According to the American Heart Association, which takes a much stricter stance on sugar consumption, that’s double what a woman should be taking in per day, and right at the limit for men.
2. Naked Blue Machine Juice
Another scam smoothie, this time promising a blast of berry goodness, but once again delivering a bottle of mostly apple juice concentrate and 55 grams of sugar. As the experts point out, the Naked juices are missing the skins of the fruit that are supposed to be included, which provide important nutrients. To the berry barricades!
1. Naked Mighty Mango Juice
It’s always the ones you least expect, no? Committing the same sins as the other Naked juices coming up for their lashings on the naughty list, this one just manages to be that much more wrong by finding room for a whomping 57 grams of the white stuff. Don’t give into the lure of “1 1/4 mangoes” here — it’s just not worth it.
More hall of shamers
The Eat This, Not That! list of losers ran all the way to 25 — other no-no’s included Red Bull, V8 Splash Tropical, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Pepsi, Vitamin Water Power C-Dragonfruit and more.
Drink virtuously
Want to quench your thirst without doing any harm to your diet? In an earlier article posted to the site, three of the top recommends — from a group of certified dietitians — were unsweetened green tea, black coffee and sparkling water.
Just remember — only natural sugar-free sweeteners allowed.
