Health & Fitness
How Much Sugar Is In Your Drink?
Many of the bottled juices, teas, sodas and fitness drinks that are on the market are packed with sugar. In fact, some are filled with more than 15 teaspoons of sugar!
The USDA recommends the average person eat no more than 10 teaspoons of sugar per day. But some drinks are loaded with well over the recommended daily intake.
Take a look at this…
- 1 Can of Pepsi (12-ounce) = 10 ¼ teaspoons of sugar*
- Strawberry Awareness Fruitopia (20-ounce) = 17 ¾ teaspoons or sugar*
"Sugar consumption has been going through the roof. It has increased by 28 percent since 1983, fueling soaring obesity rates and other health problems,” says Michael Jacobson of Center for Science in the Public Interest.
It doesn’t help that some drinks that are marketed as health drinks are loaded with the sweet stuff. Consumers may want to take closer look at the labels and find drinks with less sugar.
I stumbled upon one company that is putting away the sugar and pouring on the taste. Honest Tea, based in Bethesda, Maryland is on a mission to change the way people think about sugary drinks. They offer unsweetened green and black teas with no calories and no sugar. There’s also a line of "tad sweet" drinks with 50 calories or fewer, sweetened with organic cane sugar. 
Honest Tea also makes low-sugar drinks for kids. The sugar content is far lower than many other juices and drinks marketed for children and there is no high fructose corn syrup.
There another bonus-- all Honest Tea products are certified as meeting the USDA's organic standards. The beverages and tea bags are produced without antibiotics, pesticides, irradiation or bioengineering. Organic farmers are required to adhere to certain soil and water conservation methods, and their practices are monitored by third-party certification agencies.
*Sources: Manufacturers, USDA, CSPI analyses and/or estimates.
Center for Science in the Public Interest, August 1999