Sugar High: Everyday Drinks Damaging Your Health

Okay so we all know that fizzy and sweet drinks are bad for us and we shouldn’t drink too much of them… But did you know just how much sugar are in these everyday drinks? From no sugar in some drinks to 13 sugar cubes in one drink alone! It’s no wonder that studies have proven that consumption of soft drinks dramatically increases our risk of becoming obese. Read on to see how your favourite drink fares…

From the line up above we weighed out each drink’s corresponding amounts of sugar as you can see from the sugar cubes stacked up indicating exactly what is in the bottle, can or carton. I have also broken this down to sugar per 100ml to give everyone a fair picture as the drinks above vary in size from 500ml bottles to 180ml cartons. The guideline daily amounts of sugar consumption are 85g for a child, 90g for a woman and 120g for a man, and many of these drinks will have you sailing dangerously close to your recommended daily sugar intake.

I have outlines all the sugar quantities in detail below but first a few fun facts:

• Club Orange has by far the most sugar, in fact we were shocked that a bottle of the stuff contained 65g of sugar! That’s over two thirds of a woman’s GDA of sugar and over half of a man’s. Okay you might be thinking “well that’s the only treat I have in the day”, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only sugar you’re eating. There is sugar in fruit, bread, cereal, pasta and most processed foods, so unknowingly you could already be eating close to your GDA before even raising the bottle of Club Orange to your lips.
• Innocent Smoothies have almost the same amount of sugar per 100ml as Red Bull! Innocent contain 10.1g sugar per 100ml (and most people buy the bottles of the stuff rather than the small kids pouches), while Red Bull contains 11g per 100ml, so 27.5g in your average can. While of course it’s important to note Innocent contains all natural sugars from fruit and excludes all the chemical nasties that Red Bull contains, it’s still a bit concerning. Perhaps it’s time to put down the fruit smoothie and just eat a piece of fruit instead.
• Orange juice is not your friend… A 330ml bottle of Tropicana contains a whopping 33g of sugar. Again this might be a bit of a surprise to people who think they are making a healthy choice by picking up a juice, but unfortunately it contains almost the same amount of sugar as a can of Coke (35g).
• Speaking of Coke, otherwise known as liquid tar, while the regular Coke contains 35g sugar a can, the Diet Coke and Coke Zero are totally sugar free. However, this doesn’t give you a free card to guzzle the stuff down as it’s instead jam packed with aspartame and other crap that will probably rot your insides just as badly as the sugar.
• Health fanatics may well be disappointed to see that coconut water contains 16.5g sugar per carton, I had been lacing my morning smoothies with the stuff so will definitely be cutting back now. Also the Aloe Vera drinks that are growing in popularity contain 40g sugar per 500ml bottle… Yikes!
• The best choices of the bunch (if we are excluding the Coke Zero and Diet Coke which I am dubious about) are the Vit Hit Lean & Green which had 6.5g per 500ml bottle and the Kerry Spring Blackberry Sparkling Water which had 9.5g sugar per 500ml bottle.

Lucozade Sport Raspberry 500ml bottle: 17.5g sugar

(3.5g sugar per 100ml)

Club Orange 500ml bottle: 65g sugar

(13g sugar per 100ml)

Kerry Spring Blackberry Sparkling Water 500ml bottle: 9.5g sugar

(1.9g sugar per 100ml)

Aloe Vera King 500ml bottle: 40g sugar

(8g sugar per 100ml)

Vit Hit Lean & Green 500ml bottle: 6.5g sugar

(1.3g sugar per 100ml)

Capri Sun Orange 330ml pouch: 33g sugar

(10g per 100ml)

Tropicana Orange Original 330ml bottle: 33g sugar

(10g sugar per 100ml)

Coca Cola 330ml can: 35g sugar

(10.6g sugar per 100ml)

Diet Coke 330ml can: 0g sugar 

(0g sugar per 100ml)

Coke Zero 330ml can: 0g sugar

(0g sugar per 100ml)

Red Bull 250ml can: 27.5g sugar

(11g sugar per 100ml)

Vita Coco Natural 330ml carton: 16.5g sugar

(5g sugar per 100ml)

Innocent Smoothie Kids Size Strawberry 180ml: 20.9g sugar

(10.1g sugar per 100ml)

Life is all about balance, and we’re not saying to forgo your favourite drinks forever, but it’s worth being conscious of just how much sugar you are consuming and maybe swapping one of the above for a bottle of water every now and then.