On a recent sun-filled afternoon, I enjoyed a walk through Edwards Gardens with a forward-thinking friend who came prepared. I was met with a smile, a hug and a thick, pink-coloured frosty beverage with a tall straw. Mmm – the perfect way to beat the heat. The summer strawberry smoothie.

After one sip of the smoothie, I was taken aback by the overly sweet flavour. I was expecting a tart and fruity mouthful, but was met with a cloying sweetness instead.

My homemade smoothies don’t taste like that. When I blend banana, berries, yogurt and maple syrup, it has a mellow, subtle sweetness. This icy pink drink was not working for my palate, so I let it melt in the cup as we walked among the weeping willows.

But I was curious. How could a drink that I make at home taste drastically different from one purchased at a coffee shop? A few mouse clicks provide the answer: 90 grams of sugar – roughly 23 teaspoons – were blended into the store-bought strawberry smoothie.

Picture that for a second – imagine adding 23 teaspoons of sugar to your morning coffee…

Too sweet

Most Canadians consume too much sugar. Estimates of added sugar intake in Canada are about 52 grams a day, or 13 teaspoons. However, leading authorities such as the American Heart Association recommend the following intakes for added sugar:

  • Women: no more than 100 calories per day = 6 teaspoons of sugar
  • Men: no more than 150 calories per day = 9 teaspoons

Added sugars contribute no nutrients to the diet. They just provide calories – which, when over consumed, can lead to weight gain. Once weight starts creeping up, so does the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. That’s why health authorities caution that while some sugar is okay, too much is a dangerous dietary habit.

Note that added sugars are different than naturally occurring sugars found in milk and fruit. The studies on the harmful effects of sugar focus on added sugars.

Intake of sugary beverages has increased by 25% since the 1980s. Soda pop is leading the pack, but the surge of icy beverages, smoothies, and coffee milkshakes has steadily risen too.

Sweetened beverages are a problem not only for what they contain, but for what they push out of the diet. Heavy consumption of sugary drinks is associated with lower intake of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre.

I was curious if all coffee shop-type smoothies and frozen drinks were as sweet as the one I tried. I did some research, and this is what I found:

Calorie and sugar content of select beverages

       

Drink

size

calories

sugar  g (tsp)

McDonald's Freestone Peach Smoothie with yogurt

545 mL

320

70 (18)

McDonald's Freestone Peach Smoothie without yogurt

547 mL

340

77 (19)

Second Cup Strawberry Smoothie

473 mL

380

90 (23)

Starbucks Strawberry Banana Smoothie

473 mL

290

41 (10)

Tim Horton's Frozen Lemonade

532 mL

210

49 (12)

Tim Horton's Mixed Berry Fruit Smoothie with yogurt

532 mL

290

60 (15)

Tim Horton's Mixed Berry Fruit Smoothie without yogurt

532 mL

240

56 (14)

7-11 Berry Blast Slurpee

520 mL

141

38 (9)

Not only are the drinks filled with calories, they are high in sugar too. Surprisingly, the best bet was the 7-11 Slurpee (any flavour). While it is still sugary, it is lower in calories compared with its competitors. The catch? The nutrition information is for a medium sized drink. If you fill that colossal cup that they sell, the calorie and sugar content quickly rises.

What’s in your cup?

Most coffee shop blender drinks are made from ice and fruit-flavoured syrup, and they contain no whole fruit (the exception: Starbucks Strawberry Banana Smoothie contains a banana).

The fruity syrup is a blend of fruit concentrates, sugar and glucose-fructose (known in the US as high fructose corn syrup). And rather than having the natural colour from fruit, these drinks get their vibrant hues from artificial colours, some of which have been linked to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders, asthma and allergic reactions in susceptible people. I’d much rather throw a strawberry or some peaches in a blender.

Here’s how my homemade smoothie stacks up:

       

Homemade Fruit Smoothie

size

calories

sugar  g (tsp)

1% plain yogurt

175 mL

110

12

banana

100 mL

90

12

strawberry

125 mL

29

2

ice

100 mL

0

0

Maple syrup

1 tsp

20

5

TOTAL

500 mL

249

31 (8)

 Reality check

It’s summer. It’s hot. It’s hard to ignore the icy shimmer of Tim Horton’s Frozen Lemonade. So, enjoy an icy beverage for what it is meant to be – dessert. Have one in place of an ice cream sandwich or Jumbo Freezie, because the sugar and calorie content would be roughly the same.  Just don’t think of these drinks as a daily staple to help you stay cool. That’s what water is for.

You can also customize your drink by asking for it to be half-sweet – your server will reduce the added syrup and you’ll find that it’s still a treat.

My favourite summer sip is the Starbucks Passion Iced Tea. It comes unsweetened, and I can add a bit of liquid sweetener if I’m in the mood (but not 23 teaspoons of it!) It has the tart fruitiness that I crave, and is loaded with ice to help me stay cool. So if we are meeting for a walk at Edwards Gardens, please stop at Starbucks first.