What Christmas drinks have the most sugar?

What Christmas drinks have the most sugar?

As winter draws closer and temperatures fall, it’s nice to have a hot drink to warm you up. At Christmas time, there’s plenty of hot drinks to choose from. At home, you can make hot chocolate or a Christmas punch. Or if you’re out, you can nip into a cafe and buy a festive drink like an eggnog latte, a spiced cappuccino or a mint mocha.

However, it’s always good to stop and think about how what we eat and drink affects our bodies. Festive drinks, for example, are often very high in sugar. This can be bad for our teeth because sugar can lead to cavities and tooth decay.

In this month’s blog post, we’ll be looking at the amount of sugar in popular Christmas drinks. This way, you can get an idea of how these drinks might potentially affect your teeth.

Starbucks’s Eggnog Latte


Nothing says “I’m American and it’s Christmas” like eggnog. But beware, because this milk-based drink is very high in sugar. If you buy Starbucks’s version, you’ll be ingesting 33.8 of sugar, which is about the same as a can of coke.

Caffe Nero’s Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate


Caffe Nero isn’t entirely innocent either. All of their hot chocolates are high in sugar. Their worst offender is their Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate, which contains 38.9 of sugar (9.3 teaspoons). If you want to look after your teeth, ask the barista of Caffe Nero for a bottle of water instead.

Greggs’s Mint Mocha


Greggs’s is known as the place to get a quick pastry or sausage roll, but when Christmas comes around, they also start selling sugary drinks. This year they’re selling  a Mint Hot Chocolate and a Mint Mocha, both of which have a whopping 46 g of sugar in them (almost 11 teaspoons of sugar). It’s probably best to skip these drinks. Your teeth will thank you.

Pret a Manger’s Mint Hot Chocolate


Just when you thought drinks couldn’t get any more sugary, Pret a Manger comes along and releases their Mint Hot Chocolate. This drink alone contains 47.9 g of sugar (11.4 teaspoons). That’s way over a day’s recommended maximum sugar intake.

Pret a Manger also offers another type of hot chocolate called a Hazelnut Hot Chocolate. But don’t think this one is any healthier though because it also contains 47.9 of sugar. How about a glass of water instead?

Conclusion

Unfortunately, many Christmas drinks sold by high street chains are high in sugar. Whether it’s hot chocolate, eggnog or a mint mocha, there’s usually a lot of sugar in them.

It might seem like there’s no escaping sugar at Christmas. After all, sugar is not only in what we drink, it’s also in what we eat at this time of year: mince pies, Christmas pudding, gingerbread men, candy canes and so on.

But there’s an easy way to cut down the amount of sugar you ingest at Christmas. That way is to drink water. By saying ‘no’ to festive drinks and ‘yes’ to more water, you’ll help ensure that your teeth stay healthy and strong all year round.

Posted in: Dental tips

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