Get rid of obesity and sugar addiction! 2. Fresh fruit ice drink instead of bubble milk

"It's so hot!" In the summer, the temperature soars. People standing on the road immediately start sweating profusely and feel as if their bodies are about to be dried out. At this time, many people like to have a cool sugary drink to quench their thirst. However, nutritionists remind us that half a cup of pearl milk tea contains 125 grams of sugar and about 550 calories, which is almost the calories of 2 bowls of rice. Frequent consumption may cause obesity. It is recommended to make homemade low-calorie and naturally sweet fruit smoothies or cold drinks, which can cool down the body in a healthy and less burdensome way.

Use seasonal grapes and pineapples to make low-calorie juice to replace high-calorie sugary drinks, which can reduce the burden on the body. (Photo courtesy of Taipei City Health Bureau)

Drinking is a crisis! Hidden in the base and ingredients

Lin Shuji, a nutritionist at Taiwan Adventist Hospital, said that the key factors affecting the calories in a beverage are the base and the types of ingredients. The calories in pure sugar-free tea are close to zero, but after adding fructose, not only will it fail to quench your thirst, but the calories will also increase proportionally. In order to increase the chewy taste, consumers often choose to add ingredients such as pearls, tapioca pearls, and pudding. As a result, "adding ingredients = heating", which increases the risk of obesity.

Nutritionists estimate that a 700ml cup of half-sugar pearl milk tea contains about 8.5 tablespoons of sugar and 550 calories, which is almost equivalent to 2 bowls of rice. (Photo courtesy of Taipei City Health Bureau)

Take a 700ml cup of half-sugar pearl milk tea as an example. It contains 125g of sugar, which is about 8.5 tablespoons. The calories are as high as 550 calories. If you weigh 60kg, it is equivalent to climbing 2,393 steps to burn them off. A 600ml bottle of Coke has 252 calories, which is equivalent to climbing 1,096 steps. If you are not careful and consume too many calories, your body will gradually "grow stronger" and increase your risk of chronic diseases.

Calories of other beverages: Full sugar oolong milk tea contains 53.8 grams of sugar, about 3.5 tablespoons of sugar, and has 392 calories. Full sugar lemon winter melon juice contains 74.9 grams of sugar, about 5 tablespoons of sugar, and has 301 calories. Drinking one cup is equivalent to eating more than a bowl of rice.

Nutritionist Lin Shuji said that drinks with added fructose cannot really quench thirst, and as more sugar is added, the calories will also increase proportionally. (Photo courtesy of Taipei City Health Bureau)

Boiled water is the healthiest! Low-calorie fruit drinks for a change

The Taipei City Health Bureau stated that boiled water is the best source of water for the human body and recommends developing a habit of drinking boiled water, which can save money, cool down, quench thirst and be healthy. However, commercially available beverages have a high sugar content and drinking them frequently is not good for health and can easily cause the risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease.

If you feel that plain water is bland, nutritionist Lin Shuji recommends that people can sometimes choose unsweetened tea or homemade healthy drinks, such as grape pineapple smoothie with only 201 calories and lemonade with 110 calories. You can also replace tapioca pearls with chewy ingredients that increase satiety, such as low-calorie and delicious konjac, which can be added to fresh milk tea and has only 1/3 to 1/4 of the calories of commercially available pearls.

【Grape and pineapple smoothie】

• Ingredients: 250 grams of grapes, 80 grams of pineapple, 300 milliliters of ice water.

• practice:

  1. Wash the grapes, freeze them in the freezer, take them out and set aside.

  2. Peel the pineapple and take out 80 grams of pulp for later use.

  3. Put the frozen grapes and pineapple into a juicer, then add ice water and blend them together to make grape pineapple smoothie.

• Nutritional analysis: Each serving of smoothie contains 201 calories, 2.5 grams of protein, 0.7 grams of fat, 46.2 grams of sugar (about 3 tablespoons) 3, and 2.6 grams of dietary fiber. The "sugar content" mentioned here refers to carbohydrates.

【Lemon Lots】

• Ingredients: 30 ml lemon juice, 267 g lychee, 300 ml ice water.

• practice:

  1. Peel and seed the lychees and set aside.

  2. Put the lemon juice and lychee into a blender and add ice water and blend them together.

• Nutritional analysis: Each serving of juice contains 110 calories, 1.7 grams of protein, 24.5 grams of sugar (about 1.5 spoons), and 2.3 grams of dietary fiber.