Belly Busting Beverages
Glaceau VitaminWater (20 oz bottle)
- 130 calories
- 33 g sugar
Vitamins and water might sound like the ultimate nutritional tag team, but what the label doesn't say is that a bottle of this beverage carries nearly as much sugar and calories as a can of sugary Coke.
Sunkist (12 oz can)
- 190 calories
- 52 g sugar
Sweetened soft drinks account for about 10 percent of the average American's calorie consumption - that's about 200 completely unnecessary calories a day. For someone looking to lose 10 pounds fast, there is no simpler, quicker way to do it than by canning the soda.
Minute Maid Lemonade (20 oz bottle)
- 250 calories
- 68 g sugar
This is little more than glorified sugar water, with only a trace amount of real juice. Lemonade in general is a dubious drink, but if summer without it is a thought you can't handle, try Santa Cruz-brand lemonade. When you bring the bottle home, dump it into a pitcher and add 4 ounces of water for every 8 ounces of lemonade.
SoBe Zen Tea (20 oz bottle)
- 275 calories
- 70 g sugar
Though the name might scream "healthy" to the unsuspecting drinker, there is little to celebrate about this beverage. SoBe can cram their drinks full of healthy-sounding extracts and vitamin supplements, but they can't escape the fact that sweetener outranks tea on the ingredients list.
Lipton Iced Brisk Lemon Iced Tea (20 oz bottle)
- 325 calories
- 81 g sugar
Iced tea is loaded with metabolism-boosting, cancer-fighting compounds called polyphenols, but Lipton does its best to undo any potential healthy benefit you might derive from the tea's antioxidants by drowning them in 20 teaspoons of sugar. Your tea of choice should carry no more than 15 grams of sugar per 20-ounce serving.
Arizona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5 oz can)
- 360 calories
- 84 grams of sugar
These calorie cannons (5 percent juice, 95 percent sugar water) are sold at gas stations and convenience stores across America for the low, low price of 99 cents, making this quite possibly the cheapest source of empty calories in the country.
Nesquik (16 oz bottle)
- 400 calories
- 10 g fat (6 g saturated)
- 60 g sugar
Quik and other chocolate milk manufacturers try to sell parents on the bone-building calcium found in their product, but what they don't talk about is the fact that a single bottle of this stuff contains as much sugar as three Haagen Dazs Vanilla and Almond ice cream bars. Yikes. Make it yourself at home with 2 percent milk and a scoop of real powdered cocoa and you'll save about 150 calories, plus get the antioxidant benefits of cacao.
Caribou Coffee Large Chai Tea Latte
- 420 calories
- 47 g sugar
This is exactly the kind of drink that health-conscious consumers knock down each morning thinking they're doing themselves a favor. Unfortunately, flavored lattes - even ones flavored with seemingly healthy stuff like chai are bad news. Stick to skinny lattes or unsweetened chai.
Baskin-Robbins Pomegranate Banana Fruit Blast Smoothie (32 oz)
- 1,020 calories
- 232 g sugar
One thing is for sure: People ordering this "smoothie" expecting a healthy afternoon snack have something else coming to them. The second ingredient, after water, is sugar. If you must sip on something at Baskin- Robbins, make it a small low-fat Cappuccino Blast, which has just 220 calories and one-fifth of the sugar of this Fruit Blast.
Baskin-Robbins Large York Peppermint Pattie Shake (32 oz)
- 2,210 calories
- 103 g fat (57 g saturated)
- 281 g sugar
The brother of the Heath monster, the York shake earns its title as the most sugar-saturated product in America. To put it in perspective, you'd have to down 15 Twinkies to match the sugar content in this Baskin-Robbins blunder.
Cosi Kid's Hot Chocolate (12 oz)
- 436 calories
- 60 g sugar
While most parents sip their lattes and cappuccinos, most kids sip on hot chocolate. Problem is, few things could be worse for a growing body. There are more calories in this small drink than in Cosi's Gooey Grilled Cheese sandwich, plus enough sugar to send your kids bouncing off the walls.
Cosi Gigante Double OH! Arctic (24 oz)
- 1,033 calories
- 35 g fat
- 177 g carbohydrates
Frozen coffee amalgamations pollute the antioxidant powers of a simple cup of joe with a huge hit of whole milk, sugary syrups, and whipped cream. What you end up with, in worst-case scenarios like this, is half a day's worth of calories, ready to be sipped down in a matter of minutes. Want a cold caffeine kick? Try iced coffee.
Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo'd Power Smoothie (30 oz)
- 1,170 calories
- 169 g sugars
Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milkshake, with more sugar than an entire bag of chocolate chips. 'Nuf said.
