A study was recently done in the UK, and it showed that high-street coffee chains often put more sugar in their plant-based milk beverages than you’d think.
Action on Sugar, a charity based at Queen Mary University London, wanted to see how much sugar there is in chain coffee shops’ hot chocolates and lattes, and the results they got were even worse than anticipated.
When you’re ordering a vegan version of delicious latte or hot chocolate, there’s no way to know how much sugar there is in the non-dairy milk they use. Due to the lack of labeling, these hot beverages are often so high in calories and sugar that probably nobody would order them if they knew.
The option with the highest amount of sugar and the most calories is Starbucks’ venti Signature Caramel Hot Chocolate with whipped cream, made with oat milk. The drink contains 93.8 grams of sugar and 758 calories, which is basically half of your total daily needs in just one drink that can’t really replace a meal. The amount of sugar in it is way more than what you need in a day!
When it comes to lattes, the highest sugar and calorie content was found in Starbucks venti Gingerbread Latte with oat milk — 523 calories and 14 teaspoons of sugar.
The other chains weren’t much better; pretty much all the beverages tested had a whopping amount of sugar in them, mostly because of the unknown amount of sugar in the dairy-free milks used to make them.
