Discussion – Top 10 Tips to Keep Motivated
22nd October 2014
5 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight
2nd December 2014
What will your favourite Christmas coffee do to your waistline? Have you ever realised what’s really in those festive delicious coffees and how going skinny might be even WORSE!
We have found a great article at Mail Online who compared festive specials from Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero. It is very interesting, but also very sad, how much sugar they try to pump in to our body.
Of 20 medium sized drinks just FOUR were under the new recommended daily sugar allowance for women of 25g.
Worst for sugar: Starbucks’ skinny Honey and Almond Hot Chocolate with whip. This one drink had 61g of sugar, the equivalent of 15 teaspoons or two Mars Bars.
Worst for calories: Starbucks’ full fat Honey and Almond Hot Chocolate with whip. This one drink had 524 calories, compared to 508 in a Big Mac.
Lowest sugar: Starbucks’ Pumpkin spiced latte with soya milk with 19.6g of sugar, equal to five teaspoons.
The World Health Organisation recommended additional daily sugar intakes be lowered to 35g (nine teaspoons) for men and 25g (six teaspoons) for women.
Experts warn of the liquid calories lurking in your ‘just a coffee’.
Drinking a festive latte every day until Christmas could lead to half a stone of weight gain, experts warned. But rather than thinking of the delicious nectar as ‘just a coffee’, the hidden calories and high sugar levels lurking in your festive cup mean it should really come with a health warning. Warming and tasty though they are, the majority contain more than a person’s daily recommended sugar intake in one medium-sized portion. And going skinny won’t help either. In many cases, drinks made from skimmed milk contained more sugar than full fat options. Either way, drinking one every day until Christmas could see your weight creep up by half a stone, experts warn.
The WHO has previously recommended men consume no more than 70g and women 50g a day, those guidelines have been slashed to 35g and 25g respectively.
This equates to no more than nine for men and six for women. Diets high in sugar can increase a person’s risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay. And the dangers are not limited to sugar alone.
A Grande Honey and Almond Hot Chocolate from Starbucks – made with full fat milk and topped off with a frothy crown of whipped cream – contains 524 calories.
This is a quarter of a woman’s daily allowance (2,000 calories) and more than the 508 calories nestling inside a McDonald’s Big Mac.
According to a dietician while it is important for people to indulge in a festive treat at this time of year, they should be considered just that – a treat. The danger, she said, is that people popping into their local cafe will choose a tempting festive special and not realise the number of calories it contains. ‘People go into coffee shops thinking, “I’ll just grab a coffee”. Taking in the entire festive period with just seven weeks until Christmas, a festive coffee habit could see a person consume an extra 25,676 calories and add 7lbs – or half a stone -Â to their waistline.
But these drinks are full of what we call negative liquid calories, because they don’t help you feel full or only for a little while. ‘There is much more focus on sugar and the risks associated with consuming lots, including an increased risk of dental problems, diabetes and other health problems.
Liquid calories also promote weight gain as such as alcohol. People need to think about minimising their liquid calorie intake each day.
So how much sugar should we be consuming within healthy boundaries?
Earlier this year, the World Health Organisation published draft guidelines urging adults to eat no more than 12 teaspoons of sugar a day and to aim for six. The number of obese British adults is expected to double from one in four to one in two by 2050 ‘at a cost to the economy of £50billion a year. The WHO said the crisis was being fuelled by hidden sugar in processed food and drink such as yoghurts, muesli, sauces, fizzy drinks, juice and smoothies. However, low-fat foods have also come under fire from experts, after it was revealed they often contain more sugar than the full-fat alternative. In many cases, the skimmed or skinny versions of the drinks contained more sugar than full fat options. And the lowest sugar levels were found in drinks made with soya milk.
At New You Boot Camp we think sugar is very damaging to your health. If you would like something sweet, you can easily make a hot chocolate from organic raw cocoa, with almond milk as a delicious healthy alternative. You can also save a lot of money during the festive period if you make your own hot cocoa drink with freshly organic raw cocoa, grounded nutmeg, almond milk and Xylitol to make it really tasty!
For more healthy recipes, check out: http://newyoubootcamp.com/recipes.php
