Research reveals how much sugar is in the coffee and cake break
THE coffee break is being blamed for rising obesity rates with shocking new research showing you can exceed your entire daily sugar or saturated fat limits in a single drink.
Some fast food chain drinks and snacks contain half the energy intake allowed for a whole day new research from Cancer Council NSW reveals.
And if you combine a drink with a sweet treat you could almost reach your entire day’s energy limit in a single coffee break.
The study of 564 menu items across five popular chains including Gloria Jeans, The Coffee Club, McCafé, Muffin Break and Michel’s Patisserie, assessed the energy, saturated fat, and sugar content of beverages and snacks, comparing them to the average daily allowance recommended by health authorities.
The worst offenders were the Coffee Club’s iced chocolate which contained 40 per cent of a day’s energy requirement, 163 per cent of the daily fat requirement and 64 per cent of the daily sugar requirement.
Muffin Break’s iced chocolate contains 124 per cent of the daily fat intake, 59 per cent of the daily sugar intake and 32 per cent of the daily energy intake.
Over half the cold drinks including iced coffees and chocolate drinks had more than half of the sugar allowance in one serving with McCafé’s Coffee Kick Frappe containing 19 teaspoons of sugar which is 86 per cent of daily limit.
Cancer Council researcher Clare Hughes, said people are most likely not counting these on-the-go drinks and snacks with high energy, fat and sugar as a meal or as part of their daily allowance.
“Many Australians rely on a take away coffee for their morning kick start but people might be unaware of just how much sugar, saturated fat and kilojoules they are consuming each day if they’re ordering anything more than the standard flat white, cappuccino or latte,” she said.
Some cakes and coffees can contain up to 4000 kilojoules; that’s almost half of the daily energy allowance for an adult, she said.
Ms Hughes warned that even ‘healthier’ snacks reviewed in the study were not so healthy.
“We found McCafé’s banana bread contained 14 teaspoons of sugar and 2570 kilojoules — that’s four times the kilojoules that we should be consuming from a between-meal treat. This is about the same as a McDonald’s Big Mac,” she said.
Muffin Break’s coconut chocolate slice contained 47 per cent of an adult’s daily energy requirement, its sticky date cake had 100 per cent of sugar requirement and some muffins had 90 per cent of a daily sugar limit.
“Combinations of coffee chain menu items, for example, a beverage and a sweet snack, can contribute more than the equivalent of a meal, even in some cases close to the total daily intake for energy,” the study says.
Coffees labelled ‘skim’ or ‘low fat’ do not necessarily mean low in sugar or energy — a large skim Tim Tam iced chocolate from Gloria Jeans will give you a 20 teaspoon sugar hit. And at 2590kJ per serve that’s nearly a third of the average person’s entire daily kilojoule allowance in one drink, Ms Hughes said.
“We have a strong culture of eating on the go and catching up with friends, family and colleagues over a quick coffee and cake. So the foods and drinks we consume away from home make a big contribution to our nutrient intake,” she says.
Cancer Council NSW wants café chains to provide smaller, healthier portion sizes across their drinks and snack ranges so they are falling in line with the guidelines of a discretionary treat (600kJ) for an adult.
“If we can stabilise or decrease obesity levels in Australia, half a million lives could be saved by 2050. That would mean fewer cases of obesity related cancers, such as bowel, endometrial and post-menopausal breast cancer; as well as heart disease and type 2 diabetes,” Ms Hughes said.
Source: News Corp Australia Network, Sue Dunlevy, 13th October 2015
Originally published as: Research reveals how much sugar is in the coffee and cake break
